The Bayern Munich Sporting Director, Max Eberl explained why the club decided to sell the Dutch defender, Matthijs de Ligt. But in the process, the 50-year-old also took a dig at Chelsea for dealing with inflated squads.
Speaking ahead of the club’s Bundesliga opener against Wolfsburg tomorrow, the Eberl emphasised the point of managing the squad and also maintaining their philosophy of playing younger players as well.
“When you plan a squad, you want to have a squad free of injuries. Inflating a squad is not good. We have a good squad size and we want to give our young players the opportunity to show what they can do at the top. Vini works very well with them, they can train at the top. Of course, it’s not nice that two newcomers or returnees, Stani and Hiroki Ito, have been injured. At the moment it doesn’t feel like we’re reacting well,” the official said, as quoted by Goal.
Chelsea has not been at their best ever since the transfer of ownership to the American businessman, Todd Boehly. With a squad of over 40 players, many experts remain confused as to what the plan is from the top management of the London-based club. After finishing sixth in the domestic league, the Blues will hope they can qualify for the Europa Conference League.
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“As a club, you also have to bring in money somewhere. You can go through the season like Chelsea with 44 players, but that becomes difficult for the coach to manage. Then you have to steal jersey numbers, but we don’t do that at FC Bayern,” he added.
After finishing second in the Bundesliga last season, Bayern ended their 11-year league-winning streak to Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen. Now the Bavarians, under the management of Vincent Kompany will be expected to get back on top.
As part of the transfers, Bayern decided to let go of de Ligt and bring in Hiroki Ito from Stuttgart. Eberl explains the reason behind the decision which is primarily the side needing a left-footed defender for Kompany’s style of play.
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He said, “We have to make decisions where we feel we can have the greatest possible success. We made decisions together with Vincent Kompany. Matthijs de Ligt has delivered very consistent performances. We wanted an additional left-footer, which is why we brought in Hiroki Ito. That’s squad planning, then we spend money, then you as a club have to earn money too. We spoke to the players very transparently and then made decisions and that’s how we got the squad we have now.”
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