Daily Schmankerl: Manchester City’s Leroy Sane to Bayern Munich for €18 million salary?; The aftermath of Dortmund’s 2-0 DFL Supercup win; Real Madrid may loan out James Rodriguez, skip Manchester United’s Paul Pogba, and get Donny van de Beek; plus MORE!

All Sane, all the time (Sky Sports Germany)

Just a few hours ago. Sky Sports Germany issued a report with an update on Manchester City winger and Germany international Leroy Sané’s potential move to Bayern Munich:

The Sane deal is getting closer. According to Sky Info, the Leroy Sane deal is in the home stretch. The Sane side has basically agreed on a contract with the Bavarians. The national player is to receive a staggering 18 million euros per year, as is now common in the industry. Only an adequate counteroffer from the Citizens could endanger the agreement between Sane and the Bavarians. However, this is not expected in the Sane camp.

The transfer isn’t fixed yet, but it will definitely take place by Thursday. The talks between Bayern Munich and Manchester City will be decisive. According to information from Sky UK, Sane will even be in the starting eleven of Manchester City against Liverpool on Sunday.

Sources are sprouting up everywhere and yesterday Germany’s Express newspaper published a story implying that it had sources saying that a transfer of Manchester City’s Leroy Sane to Bayern Munich has already been agreed upon. The hold up, of course, was Sané’s salary demands:

As Express learned from Sané’s family, the decision has now been made. According to information from the closest relatives, the transfer is near. Manchester City and FC Bayern Munich are said to have agreed on a transfer three months ago, but the transfer was delayed due to salary negotiations. According to our information, the German national player will receive a salary of around 15 million euros per year — and thus two million more than most recently Franck Ribéry (36) and Arjen Robben (35).

As always, stay tuned!

ICYMI: The latest podcast has dropped! (Bavarian Football Works)

It’s been a while, but “We’re back...YOU KNOW IT!” Tom Adams and I broke down the International Champions Cup games against Arsenal, Real Madrid, and AC Milan, while also touching on a few Leroy Sané-less transfer rumors (life comes at you fast!). Give us a listen and go to the post for the podcast to drop in your comments.

Die Folgen: Dortmund’s sound 2-0 victory over Bayern (Bavarian Football Works)

Let’s cut the small talk:

• In my estimation, Bayern Munich was the better team for the majority of the game, but Borussia Dortmund showed just how dangerous and formidable it can be even under circumstances when it was clearly on its heels.
• Thiago Alcantara doesn’t make many mistakes, but be made a true gaffe yesterday that led to a BVB goal.
• Niklas Süle and Jerome Boateng was not an effective pairing against Dortmund. Süle, who admittedly let himself get out of shape — which led some to cal him “fat” — has had a miserable preseason. Once considered the gem of the German back-line, Süle is quickly tarnishing that reputation. He just simply has to be better.
• As for Boateng, he was extremely good in the International Champions Cup, but often was caught flat-footed against Dortmund. Depending on how Lucas Hernandez looks upon his return, this might have been Boateng’s swan song as a starter in red.
• Leon Goretzka did not have a perfect game, but he was pretty damn good and was one of the players who showed tremendous fight throughout the game.
• Having depth is great, but Goretzka and Tolisso (and Sanches for that matter) all seem a bit redundant despite differences in each player’s style. Ultimately, they all project as an “8”, which will likely cause at least some — okay, probably a lot — of griping over the course of this season. With Thiago locked into the lineup as a surefire starter at one of the midfield spots, Kovac is going to have his work cut out in managing that trio.
• By removing Thomas Muller for Alphonso Davies, Niko Kovac showed me he was grasping at straws. It was not the call for Davies that was confusing, but removing Muller instead of Tolisso that was most concerning. Tolisso is a great talent with a phenomenal drive, but yesterday was not his day. Muller was constantly looking to create offense and moving to help give the offense some life. You could feel the wind come out of the offense once he left the pitch. It was a silly move (and this is coming from someone whose been #KovacIn from the outset).
• Speaking of confused, Renato Sanches reverted back to making poor decisions and forcing things.
• It was not a horrid game for Robert Lewandowski, but he was not active enough — mostly because he was always jammed in between 3-4 yellow and black jerseys. When Muller is not playing centrally, no one misses him more than the Polish Hitman. Muller is not a cure to everything that ails Bayern by any means, but different moves or alignments could have been made that could have opened things up for Die Roten.
• Dortmund is going to be a handful. I’ve heard the arguments that Thorgan Hazard is overrated, Julian Brandt will have trouble finding a comfortable spot in the lineup, and that Nico Schulz doesn’t have a true position with BVB...and ALL of that might eventually be true, but damn, there is a lot of dangerous talent there. For now — and despite yesterday’s result — I think Bayern is still a better team overall. The gap between the two clubs, however, is closing.
• Jadon Sancho is a terror.
• Quality effort from Manuel Neuer.

If you missed our Match Awards or Observations, here you go:

Inter pushing for Rebic (Football Italia)

As the last remaining of component of Eintracht Frankfurt’s once vaunted “Big Three”, Ante Rebic represents the last chapter in a book that a reader is about to finish. With Inter Milan seemingly ready to make a move, Rebic’s status as the last man standing in Frankfurt could soon be over:

Inter are pursuing negotiations with Eintracht Frankfurt for €40m-rated forward Ante Rebic, claim Sky Sport Italia. They have failed to secure any reinforcements in attack, despite freezing out Mauro Icardi, as Edin Dzeko and Romelu Lukaku seem to be beyond reach.

Rebic is a very different type of forward to those two, less an out and out striker and more a supporting figure to someone like Lautaro Martinez. The Croatia international turns 26 next month and is under contract with Eintracht Frankfurt until 2022. A former Fiorentina flop, he scored 10 goals with six assists for Eintracht in all competition last season.

Los Blancos putting James back up for sale as move for Van de Beek looms? (Daily Mail)

James Rodriguez might as well be a ping pong ball at this point. Real Madrid cannot seem to decide what it wants to do with the 28-year-old Colombia international. Just days after it looked like Los Blancos were going to keep James, reports are flying that he might head to Napoli on loan:

Real Madrid are willing to send outcast midfielder James Rodriguez to Napoli on loan if they cannot sort a permanent exit by August 15, according to reports. Having spent the last two seasons on loan at Bayern Munich, Real are now keen to see a return on their £63million investment they made five years ago after he impressed at the 2014 World Cup. Both La Repubblica and Corriere dello Sport report that while a €42m (£38m) sale is preferred, an agreement is in place for Napoli to take Rodriguez on loan if no exit has been agreed by mid-August.

This could all be linked to Real Madrid’s potential move to bring Ajax’s Donny van de Beek to Spain per Marca (as captured by ESPN). Similarly, a move for Van de Beek would also likely end Madrid’s pursuit of Manchester United’s Paul Pogba:

The exodus of top stars looks set to continue at Ajax, with Real Madrid close to completing the signing of midfielder Donny van de Beek, according to Marca. Van de Beek, who scored for Ajax in their 1-1 Eredivisie draw with Vitesse Arnhem on Saturday, has already reached an agreement with Los Blancos, according to the report, and all that’s left to do is for Ajax to approve the move to Zinedine Zidane’s side.

It’s thought that an offer between €60 million and €70 million would be enough to persuade the Dutch club to let Van de Beek follow Frenkie de Jong and Matthijs De Ligt out the door for last season’s Champions League semifinalists. The report also suggests the move would decrease the likelihood of Madrid going for Paul Pogba, who Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said will “no doubt” be staying at Old Trafford for the upcoming season.

Lahm continues important work off the field (Abendzeitung)

Bayern Munich legend Philipp Lahm might no longer be active on the pitch, but his work in the community has not ceased.

This year marks the ninth time that the Philipp Lahm Summer Camp takes place. Under the motto “Discover yourself and the world with Philipp Lahm”, at the invitation of the José Carreras Leukemia Foundation, boys and girls between the ages of nine and twelve, who have overcome leukemia, spend a week in Upper Bavaria.

Lahm had this to say about his work and took a little time to bust Thomas Muller’s chops about being better than Lahm in golf these days:

It’s a great feeling to make children so happy. I’m still playing golf with Thomas today. By the way, he’s playing better than me, probably because he has taken more coaching lessons.

Gotze breaks down final season and overall GoT series (Goal)

Borussia Dortmund’s Mario Gotze might not have played yesterday in the DFL Supercup, but he recently gave his thoughts on the controversial final season of Game of Thrones and the series as a whole:

Game of Thrones is my favorite series. The story and the style is sensational in my eyes. The last season is hard to evaluate. In general, I think that it is very well done and narrated, but it could have been more detailed. There were still so many topics that could have been illuminated. At the end, I had expected something else, but in the end, the whole series was still a very rounded and beautiful thing. From the beginning I have been very sympathetic to Jon Snow. His whole story with all the twists was incredibly exciting.