Keys to a Successful January Transfer Window for Bayern Munich
The first half of the 2015-16 season has come to an end for Bayern Munich, and the Bavarian giants are now in the midst of enjoying their traditional midseason break. For now, they have a few days off; on January 4, following a two-week break, they will report to the Sabener Strasse training ground ahead of their trip to camp in Doha two days later.
As they prepare for the second half of the campaign, Bayern have one of the most coveted squads in the world and are well positioned to contend for a treble. They're alive and well in both the DFB-Pokal and Champions League and seem to already have the Bundesliga wrapped up, holding an eight-point lead over Borussia Dortmund in second.
However, every team could use some improvements and tweaks, and Bayern are no exception. The January transfer window allows teams a chance to correct for mistakes made over the summer and make up for unexpected consequences of the first half of the season. Click "Begin Slideshow" to see B/R's top picks for what Bayern ought to do this January in order to maximize their chances of success.
1) Tie Down Robert Lewandowski
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Part of being successful in the transfer market is making sure your key players stick around for the long term, and to that end, Bayern's most important situation is that of Robert Lewandowski. The Poland international has a contract valid until 2019, and after recently extending the deals of Thomas Muller, Jerome Boateng, Javi Martinez and Xabi Alonso, Bayern look generally set for the next few years.
Still, there have been persistent rumors regarding Lewandowski, and the player may be angling for a transfer to another one of Europe's biggest clubs.
Lewandowski's agent, Cezary Kucharski, recently told Marca (h/t ESPN FC Stephan Uersfeld) that Real Madrid are keen to sign the player. This followed an attempt the Spanish giants allegedly made to hijack the player's move to Bayern in 2014. And according to the same ESPN report, another of Lewandowski's agents, Maik Barthel, claimed interest from the Premier League. SportBild (h/t AS) also claimed Paris Saint-Germain are prepared to offer Lewandowski a €15 million annual wage if he is released from his Bayern contract.
Bayern have long had players who have garnered interest from big clubs, but often they have been able to fend off competition for their players. The Lewandowski rumors have been persistent, though, and the Bavarians will want to make the player happy and end any talk of him being signed by a European rival. They could attempt do that by offering him a bit more money and a year or two more on his contract.
2) Sell Sebastian Rode
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This will be a controversial topic, but it's becoming an increasingly prudent thing to do: Bayern should sell Sebastian Rode. It's abundantly clear the player doesn't fit into Pep Guardiola's plans unless as a Plan D (or maybe Plan M or Q); despite injuries to many of his teammates, he's played just 259 minutes in all competitions, according to Transfermarkt, with the trainer preferring to use either fewer central midfielders or youngster Joshua Kimmich ahead of the former Eintracht Frankfurt man.
It's a shame because Rode has been quite excellent when he has played. Some may say he lacks a bit of skill relative to some of his more illustrious teammates, but he puts in a phenomenal effort, has a great attitude and is very effective in the rare instances when he does play.
Rode was man of the match against Darmstadt in September, his only start of the Bundesliga campaign. In his only other start, against Dinamo Zagreb earlier in December, he was decisively better than Kimmich and Xabi Alonso and gave a brilliant assist to Robert Lewandowski for Bayern's second goal.
He's a talented player with a great attitude, who, at 25 years of age, should be playing. He's also past the age at which young talents go out on loan. So if Bayern don't need him, they should let the man go and play somewhere else. He deserves it, and letting him go would do well for Bayern's reputation.
3) Find a New Club for Pierre Hojbjerg
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Bayern Munich rarely make blunders in the transfer market, but one of the few they've committed is loaning Pierre Hojbjerg to Schalke.
Clubs that benefit from young loaned players are usually ones with established players who just aren't up to par. In that regard, Augsburg was a perfect place for the Denmark international to ply his trade in the spring.
But when Bayern loaned Hojbjerg to Schalke in August instead of back to Augsburg or a similar club, it was a move that would primarily benefit the Gelsenkirchen outfit while doing little for the player or Bayern. Schalke's academy is one of the very best in the world, and their squad is full of young talents. Just like Bayern, they have a 20-year-old rising star of their own in Leon Goretzka, a capped Germany international who had been a leader in Germany's youth teams from the time he captained the under-17s at the 2012 European Championship.
Sure enough, Schalke have regularly started their own player, Goretzka, ahead of the loanee they will only have on their books until season's end. Per Transfermarkt, Hojbjerg has played just 817 minutes in all competitions compared to Goretzka's 1,802, with the Dane starting just three Bundesliga matches.
He's a nice option for Schalke to have on the bench, but Bayern will want him playing more if he is to achieve his potential. That won't happen as long as he's riding the bench anywhere, so finding a way to recall him and loan him elsewhere would be their best bet.
4) Loan Holger Badstuber
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A few years ago, Holger Badstuber was one of Europe's finest young center-backs. Now, he's 26 years old, battered and with his career in serious question. True, he may have a phenomenal attitude to have come back from injury after injury, and he is a wonderful role model.
At the same time, there is a limit for every player and every club. Badstuber has, according to Transfermarkt, missed 172 games since tearing his anterior cruciate ligament for the first time in late 2012. It seems every time he returns to action, a new and severe injury isn't far away. And when he has played, he hasn't been at the level Bayern need—his sending off against Olympiakos being a prime example.
As difficult as it is to say, Badstuber is not the kind of player a club with Bayern Munich's aspirations can and should rely upon.
That does not mean Badstuber can never be a reliable player. He still relatively young, especially for a defender. But if he is to make a comeback and play at the highest level, he'll have to take it in steps. A good first step would be to play in a lower-pressure environment in a setting in which he'll play no more than once per week and perhaps at a lower intensity.
The 2. Bundesliga even may be a good option for a half-year loan. After that, Bayern can reassess where Badstuber is at in terms of his recovery and either loan him to a club that will offer a bit more of a challenge or simply keep him and bring him back into the first team if he's ready. But for now, it seems rather silly to think Badstuber will all of a sudden make a full recovery and replicate his previous form.
5) Sign a New Center-Back
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If Badstuber were to leave on loan, Bayern would need a defender to replace him. In fact, even if the oft-injured center-back stays, Bayern will still need a player more reliable to be fit who could fill his role. Their current options, Jerome Boateng aside, are simply too injury prone to rely on; Mehdi Benatia and Javi Martinez have all spent plenty of time on the sidelines in the last few years, and the fittest of them, Martinez, may be needed more in midfield than defense.
Bayern had to play with David Alaba and even Xabi Alonso at center-back earlier in the campaign. It was effective enough against more lowly opposition in the Bundesliga, but the Bavarians will need fit, qualified center-backs to face their toughest opponents in the Champions League this spring.
As yet, there haven't been serious links in the press regarding a Bayern move for a central defender. That, many Bayern fans must hope, ought to change in the coming weeks if their side is to contend for titles on three fronts. Leaving it to chance that they will have fit and healthy defenders would be risky.
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