Report: Liverpool “insulted” by Bayern Munich’s offer for Sadio Mane (Update: New bid + Asking price dropped?)

Whenever Bayern Munich negotiate for a player from the Premier League, the clubs involved seem to take it personally. Manchester City threw a fit in the media when the Bavarians made an approach for Leroy Sane, and now it looks like Liverpool will do the same for Sadio Mane (hey, that rhymed!).

In what was totally not a coordinated leak, leading Liverpool journalists like James Pearce and David Maddock have come out and said that the Reds find Bayern Munich’s offer of €30m + €4.5m in add-ons “laughable” and will not negotiate for anything less than €46.6m (around £40m).

It seems that the add-ons offered by Bayern included clauses for Sadio Mane winning the Ballon d’Or, plus Bayern securing a hat-trick of Bundesliga and European titles, in order to take effect. For that to be considered insulting, it looks like the Reds were hoping for another Coutinho situation, where Barcelona paid them €5m for each time the Brazilian sneezed. Well, not all FCBs are created equal. Now, Liverpool will apparently play hardball and hold out for their original valuation.

Honestly, the tone of these reports is so juvenile that they seem to be written by someone on the Liverpool board itself — someone who feels personally aggrieved by Bayern’s negotiating strategy. The only difference between this and the salty Twitter stan accounts is the fact that these reports came from the club itself. The notion of Liverpool as an institution fuming like a teenager over €30m seems difficult to comprehend, but here we are.

Photo by Michael Regan - UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images

We should recall that when Thiago Alcantara wanted to leave Bayern Munich for Liverpool in the summer of 2020, the club did not stand in his way. They allowed negotiations to be done in secret, without media wars, and Liverpool got away with paying less than €30m for a player who was the best midfielder in the world at the time.

Looks like that was a mistake — Bayern should learn that Premier League teams have too much money to care about inter-club relationships. All they want is for their valuations to be met.

According to reports, Bayern sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic was on his way to England to finalize the transfer. Will the LFC board feel insulted if he gets off that plane? What if he forgets to take of his shoes before entering the temple of football that is Anfield? I’m sure the brilliant journalists covering Liverpool football club will let us know.

Meanwhile, on the Bayern side of things, we have this:

Buckle up boys, this is gonna be a looooooooooooooooong summer.

Update

New info from Bild (so take it with a grain of salt) indicates that Liverpool have dropped their asking price from €50m to €45m after a second bid from Bayern Munich offering €27.5m in guaranteed fees plus €7.5m in add-ons. Hasan Salihamidzic and Oliver Kahn will still make the journey to England in the next few days.

Speaking of Mane, curious to know how he’d fit in at Bayern? Or what formations Julian Nagelsmann could use if he showed up? Well we’ve got you covered. On last week’s episode of our podcast, we covered the full implications of Mane’s transfer to Bayern Munich. Listen to it below or at this link.

If you like what you hear, check out our most recent episode where we reviewed Germany vs Italy, and spoke about Serge Gnabry’s contract stalemate at Bayern Munich.