Thomas Tuchel has made it abundantly clear that he does want to make a handful of additions to Bayern Munich’s squad during the winter transfer window, but it might not be all up to him. He wants to bring in a defensive midfielder and there is now also urgency to try to find another defender given the number of injuries there have already been this season in that area of the pitch. Matthijs de Ligt, Dayot Upamecano, Kim Min-jae, and Noussair Mazraoui have all had different injury problems at different times thus far.
For Tuchel, he has the positions he wants to fill clearly identified and he also has a list of potential targets he would like to pursue. It is not always as cut and dry as just making a strong push for who he wants to sign, as there are a lot of moving parts with any given prospective transfer, but a lot can also happen between now and January, when the winter window opens.
Club president Herbert Hainer was recently asked about Bayern’s winter transfer plans, but he was reluctant to give a concrete ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ as he does not know exactly what things will look like when the winter window finally rolls around.
“We have a very, very good squad. Depending on injuries and the overall situation, we’ll see whether and what we’ll do. We have the capacities to do it. With a smaller squad, you have fewer unhappy players who rarely play. That can also be an advantage,” he diplomatically explained, as per Az’s Maximilian Koch (via @iMiaSanMia).
For the most part, especially after things have calmed down between Tuchel and Bayern’s hierarchy after his very public demands for adding more players to the squad, the front office is backing his position and player desires. That does not necessarily mean it will be smooth sailing in terms of getting the players he wants in January, but former club president Uli Hoeneß, for one, is really the only member of Bayern’s hierarchy that does not agree with Tuchel in feeling the club needs to sign a No. 6.
