Where will the story take us next?
There have been a whirlwind of reports in recent days that Thomas Müller will be departing Bayern Munich in the summer. Multiple outlets, notably Bild and kicker, have claimed that Müller will not be offered a new contract. However, a late report from Spiegel has offered some new insight into the drama.
Spiegel, captured by Tz, is saying that Müller’s departure is not a done deal. Rather, talks with Müller and his advisors are still ongoing, and a final decision is pending. Whether this means that there is a chance that Müller might end up staying at Bayern after all remains to be seen, but it certainly lacks the finality that the likes of Bild and kicker have reported.
There is more drama surrounding the saga, however, and this goes beyond Müller himself. As of the time of writing, the club’s officials, including Jan-Christian Dreesen, Max Eberl, and Christoph Freund, have all said the same thing, that they are still in talks with Müller. However, they were not expecting kicker’s bombshell right after the Bundesliga match against St. Pauli last weekend. The news reportedly not only surprised the higher-ups, but also caused internal resentment.
According to Spiegel, the information that kicker used was reportedly leaked not by Müller, but the supervisory board. This has caused quite a stir within the club’s management, and has shone a light on the discrepancies between the supervisory board with Uli Hoeneß and the executive board with Eberl.
Eberl had initially wanted to let Müller decide his own future. He publicly said as recently as January that the negotiations with Müller would be the quickest and cleanest of all, which heavily implies that he was willing to offer the one-year extension that Müller apparently wanted. Everything seemed to be going swimmingly in that direction — until Hoeneß and the supervisory board intervened. At the premiere of Müller’s documentary, Hoeneß directly came out and said that Müller should retire after this season rather than be a substitute player, subtly initiating his departure.
Hoeneß and the supervisory board are reportedly the ones who want to remove Müller from the payroll. After the rather hefty renewals of Jamal Musiala, Alphonso Davies, and Joshua Kimmich, there was an urgent need to reduce the salary bill, and Müller’s high wages do not currently fit the increasingly few minutes he is getting under coach Vincent Kompany.
BFW Analysis
If the report is to be believed, there seems to be a level of distrust, or at least a lack of communication, if not straight-up animosity, between the supervisory board and the executive board. A barrier that prevents them from being on the same page and making decisions together, if you will. The recent rumors about Bayern getting even more people involved in staff roles, such as Mario Gomez or Ralf Rangnick, have only added fuel to the fire. It could be that Müller is not just a byproduct of personal disrespect for him, but a victim of a possible power struggle between the supervisory and executive boards, spearheaded by Hoeneß and Eberl. It remains to be seen how this conflict progresses, and how it ends up affecting not just Müller, but the club as a whole.
Going back to Müller, as aforementioned, talks are still ongoing to this day. Tz’s Manuel Bonke and Philipp Kessler, as captured by @iMiaSanMia, claim that while the final result is up in the air, the most likely scenario remains Müller leaving the club in the summer after the Club World Cup. Whether that means he will move to another club, most likely in the USA, or hang his boots up entirely is still unclear.
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