Hoffenheim wants Chris Richards on loan, but Bayern Munich would prefer to sell him permanently

Per Florian Plettenberg’s “Meine Bayern Woche” podcast, TSG Hoffenheim is keen on bringing Chris Richards back to Sinsheim on another loan spell. On the contrary, Bayern Munich would rather sell Richards on a permanent basis, which is something Hoffenheim cannot financially swing.

Ideally, Bayern would want to sell Richards for roughly €10 million, but they might be hard pressed to find a proper suitor in the Bundesliga with the current financial landscape of the league. Because of that, they’re internally hoping that they could possibly find a suitor somewhere in England, where the financial climate is a little bit better off than it is in the DFL and DFB.

For Bayern, this could prove to be a potentially troublesome situation. On one hand, they might struggle to find a suitor in England for Richards, and they would face the same prospect to try to find a permanent sale within the Bundesliga. After a solid loan with Hoffenheim for the Rückrunde last season, it’s no surprise that Sebastian Hoeneß is keen on having Richards back for another loan spell. If he was to go on loan once again and continued to perform well, his market value could increase and Bayern could explore the market thoroughly at that point, but there’s no guarantee that would be the case and is thus a bit of a financial risk.

Additionally, Bayern is currently running a bit scarce in defensive depth. Alphonso Davies has just recovered from an ankle injury, Lucas Hernandez is still sidelined, new signing Omar Richards is sidelined with an injury, and Benjamin Pavard picked up an injury in training this week. Julian Nagelsmann will need all the added depth in defense he can get, and keeping Chris Richards, at least until the winter transfer window, is something Bayern’s new manager really has to consider. Tactically, Richards can play either right back or center-back, as he showed during his loan spell at Hoffenheim last season, so he can be very useful for Nagelsmann this season if a sale solution is found in the near future.