How did Bayern Munich keep the Christoph Freund news under wraps for so long?

Bayern Munich are back to their silent assassin ways on the transfer market. This time, though, it’s not a player but the staff member who will oversee the team’s transfer activity for the foreseeable future: new sporting director Christoph Freund.

For much of the opening salvo of the summer transfer window, the Bavarians operated without a sporting director named. It’s led to some speculation over who was filling what role and what the future of technical director Marco Neppe would be.

But just as the Bavarians haven’t been without a plan on the player front — targeting and moving on the likes of Tottenham striker Harry Kane and defender Kim Min-jae from Napoli — they had their new sporting director, RB Salzburg’s Christoph Freund, in mind from the jump. That’s according to a new report from Salzburger Nachrichten, captured via @iMiaSanMia:

Those responsible at RB Salzburg have known for several weeks that Christoph Freund is going to Bayern. The sporting director is said to have signed his contract with FC Bayern Munich about a month ago. [ @sn_aktuell ]

Freund arrives from the Austrian club with a strong and recent pedigree of identifying — and developing — young talent. He’ll hope to do the same in Bavaria, just on a much bigger stage.

How did this stay quiet for so long? Well, it looks like there aren’t as many moles at the Salzburg outfit — and maybe not at Bayern anymore, either, if Freund has really been under contract for a month. Either way, the bosses have played this close to the vest up to the sudden announcement. And for once, the information got out on their terms.

Looking for the latest transfer talk? Check out our latest Weekend Warm-up Podcast has you covered on Spotify or below. In the July 21 edition of the show, we look at all the weird news of the week: Uli Hoeneß going scorched earth on Tottenham, a look back at Sadio Mané’s Bayern tenure, rumors around ALL of Bayern’s midfielders, and more!

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