Report: Bayern Munich will wait to decide whether to loan out Mathys Tel

After signing both Konrad Laimer and Raphael Guerreiro, and with SSC Napoli’s Kim Min-jae slated to be the club’s next signing, Bayern Munich is still in the hunt to sign a striker during this summer’s transfer window. Interest and discussions with Tottenham Hotspur’s Harry Kane have intensified in recent days, but at this juncture, it remains unclear whether or not they’ll be able to sign the England skipper. And potential backup plans, such as Napoli’s Victor Osimhen, might prove similarly out of reach.

For now, Bayern’s only natural strikers in the squad are the veteran Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting and teenage wunderkind Mathys Tel. A bevy of other forwards like Serge Gnabry, Thomas Muller, and Sadio Mane have been used as Bayern’s most advanced central attacking player at different times, but none slot into that role as naturally as Choupo-Moting has proven to be able to.

For Tel, who spent much of his first season on the wings, it’s also a projection.

The club has pondered the idea of loaning out Tel this summer as they do not feel it’s fair to the player for too much expectation to be put on him at such a young age. Bayern is still only one season removed from losing Robert Lewandowski to FC Barcelona; those are some very big shoes to fill. A loan away from Bayern could be very valuable for the 18-year old, but comes at the cost of time spent integrating in Munich.

Per Sport Bild’s Christian Falk on the “Bayern Insider” podcast (via @iMiaSanMia), Bayern’s bosses want to wait and see what develops with their pursuit of a striker in the transfer window. They also want to assess him in the preseason — and get a sense of how “Tel presents himself in preparation” for the 2023/24 campaign.

So it may be until the end of the transfer window before a final decision is made. Do Bayern send Tel off to develop elsewhere, or will they need to count on him for attacking depth?