Bayern ready to splash out over $100 million on transfers

Berlin, May 22: After a disappointing football season with only one title, Bayern Munich have announced they are considering to invest a record over $100 million into new footballers.

Uli Hoeness, President of the German champions, announced that the club will overhaul its investment policy. More than 100 million euro ($112 million) will be made available to reinforce the current squad in order to attack Europe’s top dogs in football such as Real Madrid, Juventus and FC Barcelo.

Hoeness made it clear that a single trophy is not enough to satisfy the club’s ambitions. The 65-year-old is well aware that the club will have to go beyond its previous outlay, saying, “to make our squad better, we will have to buy some of the top players in world football”, reports Xinhua news agency.

After the retirement of team captain Philipp Lahm, who will be succeeded by keeper Manuel Neuer and Spanish veteran midfielder Xabi Alonso, it will be hard for Bayern to keep the same level of quality.

Having been elimited in the Champions League as early as in the quarter-fils by Real Madrid and in the German Cup in the semi-fil by Borussia Dortmund, Hoeness said the club will be forced to pay sums that it had so far never considered but that are normal on the current transfer market.

The main task will be to find the right mixture of experienced and youth on a top level, Hoeness emphasised.

In addition to Niklas Suele and Sebastian Rudy (TSG Hoffenheim), rumours abound that intertiol stars such as Alexis Sanchez (Arsel) and Marco Verratti (Paris Saint-Germain) and FC Schalke’s young midfielder Leon Goretzka are Bayern targets. “If Bayern wants a player, we’ll definitely invest what is needed,” Hoeness said.

Additiol investments will increase expectations when it comes to head coach Carlo Ancelotti. The 57-year-old Italian star coach’s second season is considered to be his last chance to satisfy the demands of the Bavarian club.

For now, the club’s top magement of Hoeness and CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge are willing to overlook the coach’s lenient working style and his preference for experienced players over budding stars like Joshua Kimmich or Reto Sanches.

Insiders are saying that Ancelotti will be required to find a proper assistant to fill the gap left by Paul Clement’s departure and that he will have to search for more youngsters.

A lack of game time, combined with the coach’s standard training methods that do not help to develop talented young players tactically and technically have resulted in a lost year for the German intertiol Kimmich, as well as for Sanches and Kingsley Coman. Bayern’s leading officials want to prevent Kimmich and others from going through another year like the last one.

It is an open secret that Bayern are keeping a close eye on Julian gelsmann, the 29-year-old coach of TSG Hoffenheim, who finished a remarkable season as fourth in the table. Rumours seem to suggest that Bayern’s magement expect Ancelotti to stay with the club for one more year and then depart if he is not willing to accept the demanded changes.

The club also recently opened its youth academy. A sum of 70 million euro ($78.5 million) have been invested and Hoeness expects results within the next few years.

Since David Alaba, none of the club’s youth players have progressed to become a first team regular, said Hoeness. The club will have to catch up and improve, in the future. “The board’s demands will increase,” he warned. IANS