Leroy Sane and Bayern: Tapping Up?

Leroy Sane is an excellent young player with huge talent and potential, but he can also be the cause of great frustration too. Right now the pursuit of Sane by Bayern Munich is causing us Manchester City fans some frustration.

Manchester City fans have loved the speedy excellence of Leroy Sane as he has torn apart defences and secured vital points for us. However, we would also probably admit he has caused us to shake our heads at times, as his failure to tackle or track back has caused us to concede a goal or two.

Or when he shakes his head at a misplaced pass from a team mate and slowly ambles back inside.

We love him anyway and put it down to his youth, but in the cold hard light of day we would probably have to wonder if the best coach in the world- Pep Guardiola – has actually improved Sane that much?

For sometimes, Sane looks like the same teenager we signed.

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City have stood by him too, especially when he was left out of the German national squad at the World Cup. Even that now is beginning to look like a carefully orchestrated attempt to get Sane to sign for a German club.

In Germany there is no bigger team than Bayern Munich. They are used to being allowed to sign any player they want. But the Bundesliga is not a premier competition because of this dominance.

Sane has refused to sign the City contract offer which has been on the table for 18 months. He believes he should be paid in the same bracket as our very top earners, City believe he has not yet earned that distinction.

His mother acts as his agent and the public contract stand off with City has seen an encouragement of other suitors. This of course could be part of an elaborate bluff and double bluff to empower Sane in the wages discussion.

In the space around the discussion, Bayern Munich have entered the debate. But they have seemingly done this publicly and engaged in what seems to be old fashioned “tapping up”.

Public courting of an opposing player is frowned upon in Premier League transfer rules, especially when consent has not been obtained by the owning club. This famously got Liverpool into trouble with their pursuit of Virgil Van Dijk from Southampton.

Yet the FIFA rules which govern international transfers are somewhat murkier. No consent is required and instead the buying club just has to inform the selling club in writing they are negotiating with a player. So basically tapping up is allowed by FIFA.

So right now what is happening is that Bayern are wheeling out every trick in the book to try and make the transfer inevitable. Various Bayern officials have publicly said they want Sane and he should go there.

More concerning are the comments of the German National Manager who of course dropped Sane for their disastrous World Cup campaign but is now suggesting his chances of selection would improve if he moved to Germany.

Even the defeated Borussia Dortmund Chief Exceutive has waded in by saying he thought Sane should sign for Bayern, in what appears to be the biggest example of a smaller team rolling over to have its belly tickled.

So the pressure is ramping up to make Sane think he has only one good option. What tends to happen next is that once they feel they have hooked the player Bayern will try to lower the asking price by pointing out how unsettled the player is. Maybe Leroy will be asked fo force his own transfer.

Of course City hold all the cards, at least for another couple of seasons. City could just simply keep him. However unhappy and unsettled he is. They have the financial clout to do exactly that.

Or they could cash in now and seek a replacement. If Sane wants to go to the Bundesliga then let him is my opinion. No player is bigger than our Club.

Yet, I would be asking an extra £10 million for every single comment placed in the media by Bayern in their tapping up campaign. And I would make that comment very publicly, perhaps Khaldoon may make those comments in the second part of his interview tonight!