How will the decision on Tiago Dantas affect the vision and collaboration for future transfers at Bayern Munich?

Whenever we see a Bayern Munich transfer rumor here at Bavarian Football Works, we often include a caveat or two just in case the report is not true.

When the news broke earlier today on Tiago Dantas, the first reaction internally was “big, if true”, but not for the reasons you might think.

Sure, Dantas is an intriguing prospect who has shown some glimpses of his talent with Bayern Munich II, but apparently not enough to warrant Hasan “Brazzo” Salihamidzic pulling the trigger to buy the player for €7.5 million.

In a nutshell, it does not appear to be a major loss to the club if it ultimately passes on Dantas.

Normally, this would not really cause a blip on the radar. After all, Dantas has not yet broken into the senior-team and has reportedly not given anyone on Bayern Munich’s campus enough proof that he will be able to progress through the ranks on Säbener Straße.

Photo by M. Donato/FC Bayern via Getty Images

However, one big reason this decision (if true) is a big deal is because it has been widely reported that Dantas was the only player that Bayern Munich manager Hansi Flick got from his own personal wish list. After settling a roster and winning a treble in 2019/2020, Flick was allegedly not completely onboard with all of the signings made in the summer transfer window as he preferred other players.

It might be fair to ask if Flick’s input and preferences on players will be downplayed internally at Bayern Munich? It is a key question as Flick’s system puts a lot of stress on certain positions and he absolutely has an idea for what kind of talent and attributes are needed for his roster.

Flick has been widely credited with his behind-the-scenes work to at least have played a role in the decisions to shift David Alaba inside to play center-back, trust Alphonso Davies at left-back, insert Leon Goretzka as a permanent midfield fixture, transition Joshua Kimmich to the central midfield from right-back, and to give Thomas Muller his starting spot back on a full-time basis. On some of those moves, Flick was directly responsible, while on others he was a part of the greater process. Regardless, his vision thus far has been pretty spot-on with how he manages his roster.

It could also be strongly argued that Flick’s part in those moves was the primary catalyst in Bayern Munich going from struggling power to beast mode over the course of last season. We covered how Bayern Munich makes the final conclusions on transfer targets here, which was a fascinating look inside how some important decisions were made internally on Bayern Munich personnel.

The process is intensive and collaborative, but also ultimately has clear winners and losers. As we saw with Niko Kovac, not getting players to fit a manager’s preferred system can also create a lot of chaos and produce poor results. The difference between Flick and Kovac, however, is that Flick just came off one of the most incredible treble runs ever, while Kovac was a new manager at a club where he had no voice in the composition of the roster — or even the playing formation.

At most clubs, Flick’s success would afford him more input into personnel decisions moving forward. At Bayern Munich, though, Flick is only a part of that process and surely not the part with the loudest voice in the room. That would be belong to Salihamidzic (even if his latest window might have recorded some misses in the eyes of many fans — that point could clearly be argued as it is still early in the respective Bayern careers for those players to make a final call).

Still, Salihamidzic has some terrific moves on his resume including the acquisitions of Alphonso Davies, Jamal Musiala, and last year’s loan agreement for Ivan Perisic just to name a few.

Bayern Munich will certainly have an interesting transfer window ahead of it for the summer. With David Alaba, Javi Martinez, Jerome Boateng, Angelo Stiller, Douglas Costa, Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting, and Dantas all likely leaving Bayern Munich — and Corentin Tolisso also considered to be on the fence — the Bavarians have some heavy decisions to be made. Bayern Munich has, however, already been linked to some very talented players, so getting the “transfer board” aligned will be of major importance.

Was €7.5 million too big a price to pay for the manager’s piece of mind? In this case, Bayern Munich certainly thinks so.

You know, if true and all of that.