A pinch of “told ya so.”
Hasan “Brazzo” Salihamidžić has taken a lot of heat in the past couple of years.
Since getting fired at the end of the 2022/23 season, the former Bayern Munich sporting director has caught more than a few strays in ongoing discussions and reports about Bayern’s new transfer and contract directives — some of which have been eager to lay the blame of any current ills at the feet of the past regime.
One area of popular resentment toward Brazzo? Salaries — with the club now on a very public mission to rein in the wage bill.
But one can’t help but notice Brazzo’s ultimate successor — board member for sport Max Eberl — handed out wages that were not exactly small in this year’s run of successful contract extensions, for Alphonso Davies, Joshua Kimmich, and Jamal Musiala in particular.
“That confirms my belief that the prices are set by the market,” Brazzo said in a recent interview for Sport Bild (as captured by @iMiaSanMia). “The club and the sporting director have limited influence over that. If these players have offers from top European clubs on the table, you have to bid or be able to afford to let them go. Regarding the extensions for Jamal, Alphonso, and Jo, I’m glad they’re staying at FC Bayern. That was our plan back then, too. All three are faces of FC Bayern. Our plan at the time to make them key players has been a complete success.
“We were already close to extending Musiala and Davies in the spring of 2023. Then my dismissal intervened.”
Interesting, eh? Hopefully this current generation of contracts will not come to be viewed as albatrosses in the future. Right now, for that trio, it is hard to imagine.
