According to a report by Florian Plettenberg, the price tag set by Napoli means that Victor Osimhen is “not affordable” for Bayern Munich at the moment. Despite all the grand statements about a new striker coming next summer, Bayern seem no closer to replacing Robert Lewandowski than they did a year ago. Thanks to the price tag, Randal Kolo Muani is considered the preferred candidate to be signed next summer.
This is frustrating, to say the least. A striker is the kind of guy that elevates a club to the next level. It is the most important position on the pitch. Bayern got extremely lucky by signing Lewandowski for free almost a decade ago, but deals like that never happen twice. Now that it’s time to replace him, the board seem reluctant to open the purse strings.
News #Osimhen: The contact with #FCBayern has cooled down because of his price tag. At this stage a transfer is not affordable for Bayern. The club won’t pay more than €100m for a new striker and Neapel is still demanding up to €150m. Bayern is aware of it. Therefore no… pic.twitter.com/sxa2sLKAfb
— Florian Plettenberg (@Plettigoal) May 3, 2023
In the meantime, clubs like Manchester United, Paris Saint-Germain, and Chelsea FC all leapfrog Bayern in the race to sign a new striker.
Now, this does not mean that Kolo Muani couldn’t do the job at Bayern — he certainly could, notwithstanding the reported doubts about his quality. The problem is how the whole thing is being approached. If Bayern are already ruling out a €150m+ spend at this stage of the season, despite planning to report club record profits, what does that say about the board’s ambition?
At that point, you may as well keep Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting as the starter.
