The departures of Luca Toni, Alexander Baumjohann, Andreas Ottl and Breno represent the sum total of changes to the Bayern squad in the mid-season break, according to Christian Nerlinger. “I don’t think anything else is going to happen,” the director of sport said when asked if any further players might be leaving the club. New arrivals were “100 percent ruled out,” the 36-year-old added.
Nerlinger is highly satisfied with the composition of the 21-strong squad available to head coach Louis van Gaal for the second half of the campaign. “We now have a very balanced and very good squad,” the official commented. Furthermore, reserve starlets David Alaba, Mehmet Ekici and Diego Contento are strong contenders to make the leap into the professional ranks. “They’ll train with the senior squad for the whole of the second half of the season,” said Nerlinger. The three up-and-coming youngsters are currently with the first-team squad at the winter training camp in Dubai.
Contract talks in spring
The entire FCB party is exclusively focusing on training during their stay in the Gulf emirate. “The players should concentrate on their football,” advised the director of sport, who said he was “deliberately” avoiding contract-related talks at this time. “If the restart goes well, it’ll be easier for both sides to talk,” he explained, indicating a round of contract discussions in the spring.
A number of players will be knocking on Nerlinger’s door once the time is right. Mark van Bommel, Daniel van Buyten, Jörg Butt, Hamit Altintop, Michael Rensing and Andreas Görlitz are all out of contract at the end of the season. Furthermore, the club is keen on “a clean solution” in the case of Franck Ribéry, Nerlinger stated. The France star is contracted to Munich until mid-2011 and has been linked with a number of leading clubs, but said himself only yesterday that he could well imagine extending his stay with the Bavarian giants.
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