Van Bommel: Much still to achieve here

Wednesday morning’s headline story on www.fcbayern.de hardly came as a surprise. “Bayern and Mark van Bommel agree contract extension,” we reported. All the signs of late indicated that the club captain was likely to remain a Bayern player beyond 30 June, the date his current deal was to expire.

Van Bommel is “a fantastic captain”, chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said in early February, declaring himself “optimistic” of finding a solution acceptable to both parties. “If he keeps playing like this, the question doesn’t arise,” coach Louis van Gaal replied when asked about the captain’s future at the club. Van Bommel himself frequently hinted at his desire to remain in Munich for a while longer. “It's all ended up happening fairly fast. If it hadn’t been today, it would have been in three weeks’ time,” he revealed after Wednesday training.