Sebastian Rode Is an Astute, Risk-Free Purchase for Bayern Munich

Bayern Munich have announced, via their official website, that they've agreed to sign Eintracht Frankfurt central midfielder Sebastian Rode on a free transfer this summer.

The German midfielder has penned a four-year deal up until the summer of 2018, making the move all of football knew would occur when contact was first made back in 2013.

To the lay football fan, signing a Frankfurt midfielder for free doesn't make for the most appealing deal on paper. It's hardly going to change the fortunes of a club such as Bayern and could well go unheralded when this summer's business is tallied up.

But the deal is an astute one from Pep Guardiola and his front office, who've mulled the deal over carefully for 10 months and finally decided to pull the trigger.

In 2013, the transfer seemed somewhat pointless, with Luiz Gustavo, Javi Martinez, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Emre Can all vying for spots in Bayern's formation. Anatoliy Tymoshchuk was a lingering presence too.

But much has changed, with Can joining Bayer Leverkusen—albeit with a buy-back clause in his contract—and Gustavo departing for Wolfsburg ahead of the World Cup.

Philipp Lahm and Schweinsteiger are now the first-choice midfielders in Pep's 4-3-3 variants, with Thiago Alcantara a nearly indispensable cog and Toni Kroos a blessed son too. But Lahm timeshares at right-back as well as playing centrally, and Schweinsteiger continues to rack up the injuries.

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In signing Rode, Pep has secured an above-average midfielder who can provide depth to a packed squad. You can't keep 22 world-class players happy, so why try? Rode is a happy medium, and that he's German and joining on a free is a serious bonus.

The 23-year-old has excelled for Frankfurt over the past two years, providing an exciting box-to-box presence in die Adler's midfield. He's at home in a double pivot of a 4-2-3-1 or freed up a little more in a 4-3-3, giving him the versatility to play in Pep's ever-changing system.

His passing has always been a little rogue for Pep's standards—he averages an 84.3 percent completion rate, whereas Bayern's lowest tally is Javi Martinez at 89.8—but he can offer drive and directness from deep in midfield.

Harald Tittel

He's not a prolific scoring threat, but he doesn't need to be, and his riskier passes can be cut out during preseason this summer.

He's not a complete tactical fit, but he's close enough, and in a footballing community in which Bayern are lambasted for spending lavish sums and stealing rivals' players to weaken them, no one should actively search for reasons to hound Guardiola for identifying young home-grown talent and acquiring it cheaply.

Rode can launch a career at Bayern even as a backup, and if it doesn't work out, the club can sell for a profit.

It's a win-win situation for both sides and a lesson to Frankfurt about contract management. Rode has left for free, and Sebastian Jung was sitting on a mere €2.5 million release clause until his very recent renewal.