It’s not exactly Bayern Munich’s best kept secret that Uli Hoeneß still has a decent amount of say in some of the club’s decision-making processes. It’s also well known that Bayern’s honorary president is a big fan of Thomas Tuchel and was a part of the reason the club’s front office and board chose the former Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain, Borussia Dortmund and Mainz manager to replace Julian Nagelsmann.
The timing of the decision was a huge point of speculation with Bayern falling out of both the DFB-Pokal and Champions League shortly after Tuchel’s appointment, but the manager has the right backing at the club now, especially now that both Oliver Kahn and Hasan Salihamidzic are gone and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge is back on the supervisory board. Jan-Christian Dreesen is the club’s new CEO, too.
Per Sport1’s Kerry Hau, Hoeneß feels that Tuchel is, in fact, a long-term solution at Bayern and thinks that the manager can be a huge beneficiary of Rummenigge being back at the club. He has the right network of connections when it comes to the transfer market and will now be able to work closely with him to bring in the players he wants to, perhaps more easily than he would’ve been able to with Brazzo still acting as the club’s sporting director.
The Tuchel-Rummenigge relationship could lead to success in the transfer market with Bayern, but it can also help when it comes to handling the contracts of current players in the squad. There’s already been developments with the contracts of Alphonso Davies, Lucas Hernandez, and Leon Goretzka in the wake of both Kahn and Brazzo being sacked. Davies’ contract extension talks have been temporarily halted, Hernandez now looks set to be accepting a deal from PSG, and Goretzka’s future at the club is now in question as the club’s current board and front office doesn’t see him as a long-term outfit in the midfield.
West Ham United’s Declan Rice and Juventus’ Dušan Vlahović have emerged as Bayern’s hottest transfer prospects at the moment and Rummenigge, in concert with Tuchel, could help get those over the line. He could also help Tuchel bring in some other players he might want that he’s been less vocal to the press about. We could yet see some curveballs this summer in the transfer window.