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UPDATE: [6:35PM EST]
Alaba stunned on news and wants to leave if the offer does not improve
According to Sport1 chief reporter Florian Plettenberg, things have, indeed, escalated:
Update #Alaba: #FCBayern has withdrawn his offer for a contract extension. President Hainer has confirmed that already @BR24sport.
— Florian Plettenberg (@Plettigoal) November 1, 2020
According to my information Alaba wants to leave the club if they don’t improve their offer. There are hardened fronts as never before. @SPORT1
But wait...there’s more:
❗️Update #Alaba: His management is totally surprised about Hainers statement (withdrawn of the offer from #FCBayern). They were not aware of that decision. Interesting: Originally Alaba should speak at the press conference tomorrow. Next to Flick. @SPORT1
— Florian Plettenberg (@Plettigoal) November 1, 2020
Herbert Hainer’s remarks on BR24: “There is no offer anymore.”
War es das mit @David_Alaba und dem @FCBayern? Ein Angebot gibt es zumindest seitens der Bayern nicht mehr, sagt Präsident Herbert Hainer. pic.twitter.com/3PfWk73Gb8
— BR24Sport (@BR24sport) November 1, 2020
A new situation emerged over the weekend. A fairly long time ago, we made David Alaba a very good offer, we believe. We negotiated for months. We consider the offer very good, very fair, and competitive, especially in the present time. At our last conversation with David’s agent, we said that we want to have clarity and an answer by the end of October. For such an important position and personnel matter, we also want to have certainty for planning. We owe that to the club and the fans. We had not heard anything by yesterday. Hasan Salihamidzic therefore actively followed up with the agent. The answer was that the offer is still not satisfactory and that we should continue to think it over. Now we have decided to take the offer off the table entirely. That means: there is no offer anymore.
Original Story
In a shocking turn of events, Bayern Munich has reportedly withdrawn its latest offer to David Alaba. Unable to make any progress with the 28-year-old Austria international and his negotiating team, which is led by super-agent Pini Zahavi, the Bavarians have taken their proposal off of the bargaining table.
As captured in a tweet by Abendzeitung’s Patrick Strasser below, Bayern Munich president Herbert Hainer explained why the club is taking action.
“We have decided to take the offer completely off the table — that means there is no more offer,” Hainer reportedly said.
#Alaba 2021 weg! Nach Ultimatum bis Ende November habe die Alaba-Seite das Angebot des #FCBayern "als noch immer unbefriedigend" bezeichnet. Präsident Hainer: "Daraufhin haben wir uns entschlossen, dass Angebot komplett vom Tisch zu nehmen - das heißt, es gibt kein Angebot mehr."
— Patrick Strasser (@AZ_Strasser) November 1, 2020
A report by BR24 Sport was captured by @iMiaSanMia and indicated that the club had a deadline of October 31st for Alaba to accept the latest proposal. When Alaba’s team did not accept, Bayern Munich withdrew its offer:
President Herbert Hainer says the club have withdraw their offer for David Alaba. The deadline set by the club was by the end of October and it passed [@BR24sport]
— Bayern & Germany (@iMiaSanMia) November 1, 2020
It should be noted that Hainer just granted BR24 Sport a lengthy interview last week and was a guest on BR24 Sports show “Focus on Sport” earlier today, which is where these reports are generating from.
BFW Analysis
What does this all mean? Well, Bayern Munich and Alaba’s camp both still have plenty of time to reach an agreement, but things are not going to be easy. With Bayern Munich’s finances severely affected by COVID-19, the club’s purse strings and its patience are being tested.
Sure, this is all part of the negotiating game, but the Bavarians are deep at both center-back and left-back, and certainly are not looking to add even more salary demands to an already strained budget.
It might be time to think that things have officially gotten contentious, but it does not mean anything is necessarily over. The coming weeks should give both parties an opportunity to re-visit and work through at least one more round of talks. The biggest question will be whether or not the proposal Bayern Munich just withdrew was the club’s best-and-final offer for the Austrian.
If Bayern Munich opts to let Alaba walk, Liverpool, Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, and FC Barcelona are just some of the clubs rumored to have interest in the versatile defender.