With Bayern Munich’s emphatic 6-0 win over RB Leipzig to open up the 2025/26 Bundesliga season, they did not look like a side that is in desperate need of some more signings before the summer transfer window ends, but there has still been some frustrations. The club missed out on their heavily anticipated main target of Florian Wirtz, who chose to join Liverpool instead and the difficulties with the Nick Woltemade move from VfB Stuttgart have been a massive headache for the club’s front office with the Swabians’
heavy reluctance to let their want-away striker go. To add to that, there have been a bevvy of attacking names linked with a potential move to Bayern, predominantly from the long list of Wirtz contingency plans the club already had prior to missing out on Wirtz.
Now, as things stand, board member for sport Max Eberl, former club president Uli Hoeneß, and members of Bayern’s front office have revealed that trying to get loan deals done is the main focus of the remainder of the transfer window, which closes on September 1st. The club has already brought in Tom Bischof, Jonathan Tah and Luis Diaz, but they have lost Leroy Sané, Thomas Müller, Kingsley Coman, Paul Wanner, and Jamal Musiala is currently in the midst of a long spell on the sidelines recovering from a fractured fibula suffered during the FIFA Club World Cup. Case in point, Bayern’s attack has lost more than they’ve gained this summer, which has been justifiable cause for concern, even with the dominant display against Leipzig.
Prior to the season opener against Die Roten Bullen kicking off, Bayern president Herbert Hainer doubled down on the club’s loan strategy for the remainder of the transfer window, expressing his confidence that it’s the right way to approach things with where the club is at right now. “We’re cautious buyers. FC Bayern is known for its financial stability. We have a strong team and think we can cover that with a loan player,” he explained when he was asked about the strategy in a panel discussion before the match (Abenzeitung’s Maximilian Koch via @iMiaSanMia).
BFW Analysis
The club’s front office and supervisory board all seem to be on the same page with the new loan strategy, but there is a bit of a sense that the script was sort of flipped after the club was unable to secure a move for Woltemade. In the thick of negotiation attempts with Stuttgart, there was no talk about loan moves, even though the club was essentially in the same financial situation they are now, perhaps even slightly worse off without already having the revenue generated from Coman’s move to Al-Nassr in the Saudi Pro League.
There is certainly the case for the argument that time running out in the transfer window has been the main catalyst for this new emphasis on the loan strategy and that the club’s hierarchy have just all agreed that is the best version of optics damage control at this point while being able to also save a substantial deal of money at the same time.
