Bayern Munich board member for sport Max Eberl had a very tough task ahead of him at the start of the summer — make the team better and to also cut costs.
Those two things do not always typically go together hand-in-hand.
As of now, it appears that Eberl succeeded with his improvement plan, but could not finish the job when it comes to cutting costs as all of his sales were for minimal amounts of money (all things considered) per Sport1 journalist Stefan Kumberger:
Given that the supervisory board had already made it clear to sporting director Max Eberl in the spring that they would only accept a maximum deficit of €50 million in the transfer balance, it was clear early on that significantly more activity was needed on the sales side than on the acquisition side. However, this is precisely where a problem persists.
Selling established professionals like Joao Palhinha, Bryan Zaragoza, or Sacha Boey is proving surprisingly difficult for Bayern Munich. Have they forgotten how? Of this trio, the club’s management has only been able to permanently offload Palhinha – and even then, for a relatively small fee. With Boey, there’s still hope of a move to a country with a longer transfer window.
This made the campus all the more important this summer.
The fact of the matter is that Eberl was not the acting boss when decisions were made to bring in Palhinha, Zaragoza, and Boey. Unfortunately, they all became his cross to bear in a market that showed little-to-no interest in any of them.
Knowing the club would take losses, there was a new focus to help offset the financial hit that Bayern Munich would take in those cases — sell the youth:
The youth academy no longer just produces talent, but increasingly also hard cash. The fact that homegrown players like Jonah Kusi-Asare, Wisdom Mike, Arijon Ibrahimovic , and others disappeared from Munich, sometimes surprisingly quickly, surprised some fans – but internally it follows a clear logic.
According to SPORT1, FC Bayern is still under pressure to cut costs – despite record revenue, a roughly €100 million renovation at Säbener Straße, and generally excellent financial conditions. The fact that another five percent of the company is to be sold to investor Viessmann soon fits this picture. Money needs to be brought in – especially since the additional millions from a lucrative Club World Cup are also missing this summer.
Bayern Munich’s finances are going to be a subject moving forward (especially if the DFL and DFB cannot manage to get effective television deals).
Luckily, Bayern Munich did not need to make a massive overhaul this summer, so the necessary improvements were not too costly to make anyone unravel. However, if the Bavarians start to miss on transfers or ink bad contracts with players, it could quickly turn and become an issue that does have a material impact on results — the wins and losses, not the financial kind.
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