Joao Palhinha’s move from Fulham to Bayern Munich this summer is now being openly questioned, with the player not a key part of Vincent Kompany’s side.
Fussball News cover comments from Didier Hamann today, with him questioning why Bayern decided to spend big on the Portuguese midfielder.
He finally made the move to Bayern for €51m after the drama of the previous summer in which Fulham cancelled a transfer last minute as they couldn’t find a replacement.
The belief had been that he would be a key player under Kompany this season but that has been far from the case, with just three appearances and 35% of the minutes played in the Bundesliga so far.
Questions have been raised but Bayern have moved to fend them off, with Palhinha coming out and insisting he is happy with his situation.
That was then followed by comments from Bayern Munich’s sporting director, who was determined to insist there was no negatives and everything was going to plan.
Hamann appears to be having none of that, though, and has questioned why the midfielder was signed from Fulham given the role he is playing.
“You don’t really change the central defenders and the central midfielders,” he said.
“(Kompany will) let his best team play again, and I don’t think Palhinha will be there. You can’t normally take Pavlović out at the moment, and Kimmich is vice-captain, now captain of the German national team. If Kimmich doesn’t do anything wrong, he’ll play.
“(There will) certainly be games where he is needed. The question is whether that’s enough. Because if you bring in a man for €50m, then I assume that he’ll play 45, 50 games a year.
“After three or four games, no one will complain that he is not playing. But if you are not there against Leverkusen, not against Aston Villa, then the first voices will probably be raised. And how he, the coach, deals with that, we will see.”
