In the past few months, FC Bayern has restructured its squad in several positions. The club patron is satisfied with most of the transfers, but in retrospect he admits one omission.
“On the whole, we have eliminated the weaknesses in the squad. We knew we needed a number nine. We knew we wanted to buy a good new defender. That’s what we did,” began the long-time manager and current supervisory board of the German record champions Statements in an interview with the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”.
In the same breath, Hoeneß admitted: “We just didn’t work well when it came to the right-back. That has to be made clear. However, in the end we didn’t want to force Benjamin Pavard to stay. We didn’t want to until August 31st “It should be done, but it shouldn’t happen again.”
The Frenchman moved to Inter Milan for around 30 million euros shortly before Deadline Day last summer, but the subsequent search for a replacement was unsuccessful.
It was only in January that Sacha Boey was signed as a new option for coach Thomas Tuchel. The 23-year-old was released by Galatasaray.
FC Bayern: Hoeneß not convinced by Rice and Caicedo
Another squad construction site – at least according to coach Tuchel – was the defensive midfield. Declan Rice was considered Munich’s preferred candidate last summer, but the Englishman chose Arsenal. Cost: approx. 117 million euros.
“Last Sunday I watched Arsenal’s game against Liverpool. With Rice. I consciously watched him. He’s a very good player, but with all due respect: I wouldn’t spend 120 million euros on him today either,” Hoeneß clarified.
He also took a closer look at Chelsea’s Moisés Caicedo. “I thought to myself: Spend 127 million euros on him? Others are welcome to do that. But FC Bayern will certainly never do that because it’s just too much money for us – regardless of the qualities of this player,” said Hoeneß.