B. Dortmund
Paris SG
Manuel Neuer’s skiing-related injury after Germany’s World Cup really threw a spanner in the works for Bayern Munich and they had to scramble in the winter transfer window to find a viable replacement keeper. It was well known from the get-go that Borussia Monchengladbach’s Yann Sommer was their primary target, but there were a lot of moving parts involved in getting all parties to agree on a deal.
Bayern had also even touted the idea of trying to recall Alexander Nubel from his loan spell with AS Monaco, but the keeper was not interested in doing so because he knew full well that Neuer would reclaim the number one keeper spot once he returns fully fit.
In the end, Bayern was able to land Sommer for roughly 8-million euros plus add-ons, which are all related to title wins, and Bayern is now only left running for the Bundesliga title having been knocked out of both the DFB-Pokal and Champions League.
Since joining from Gladbach, Sommer has featured 20 times for Bayern and he’s registered a total of 5 clean sheets across all competitions. It’s not to say that the Swiss international has done anything inherently wrong standing in for Neuer, but it is understood that Thomas Tuchel will be relying on the latter once he fully recovers from his injury and is back to action. Sommer understood this would likely be the case when he agreed to join from Gladbach, whether is was still Julian Nagelsmann in charge, or someone else, as it now is. However, per information from Sky Sports’ Florian Plettenberg, it’s now likely that Sommer could leave Bayern this summer during the transfer window.
Sport Bild’s Christian Falk and Tobi Altschaffl also had a similar report, which indicates that Sommer’s future is uncertain:
While Sommer had been open to staying beyond this summer and fighting with Neuer for the number one spot, it doesn’t look like that’s the case anymore. With Tuchel making it clear that he will rely on Neuer as his number one, Sommer likely doesn’t want to subscribe to the idea of being only the number two option. Not to mention, in addition to switching from Nagelsmann to Tuchel, just a brief period into his Bayern tenure, Sommer had to switch goalkeeping coaches when the club made the decision to let Toni Tapalovic go.
