A Broken Market: Manchester City gear up to spend £200m on Kane and Grealish while Bayern Munich struggle

In case you’re exclusively a Bayern Munich or Bundesliga fan and don’t follow what’s happening in the Premier League, here’s a quick run down. Today, it was confirmed that Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane skipped the first day of preseason training to force a move to Manchester City this summer. The England captain has been angling for a move since well before the completion of last season, where he sat down for an interview with Gary Neville announcing his decision to leave the club.

Why should you care about this? Well, it’s being reported that City are targeting Jack Grealish this summer, and were preparing a £100m bid for Aston Villa to accept. Now, journalists are making it clear that it’s not a case of Grealish OR Kane this summer — City are ready to sign both. Just look at this ...

Meanwhile, as Bayern Munich fans, we’re being told that this is a summer where the club has had to tighten its belt. With the losses brought on by the pandemic, Bayern are unable to make the signings we want. As a stopgap measure, the bosses have given Julian Nagelsmann the task of bringing up youth players — but how is that ever going to work? When a team like City can spend Neymar money in one summer DURING A PANDEMIC, after while spending hundreds of millions every summer for a decade, where does it leave a traditionally run club like Bayern?

You know it’s bad when one of the most deluded Manchester United fans on Twitter (which is saying something!) has the right take on this:

City were already in the Champions League final this year. Now they’re spending hundreds of millions on their attack, which was already world class to begin with. Bayern are trying to slowly bring in Jamal Musiala as the successor to Kai Havertz, while Pep can just go out and buy Jack Grealish and stick him next to Kevin De Bruyne. How is this going to work?

In the end, you just have to admit that the market is leaving all the bigger traditionally clubs behind. Teams like Real Madrid and Barcelona have arguably only themselves to blame, but even a well-run club like Bayern can’t keep up. If there’s no “right way” to keep up with City/PSG/Chelsea, then what’s left for everyone else? It’s not just a Bayern problem. If Borussia Dortmund could’ve kept Sancho for a year, they legitimately could’ve made a title push. Instead, they’re once again saddled with another key departure, and expect to lose Haaland the year after.

Is this how it’s going to be from now on? Will every club become a feeder to the oil behemoths? Or is the Super League solution the only answer?