David Alaba’s agent, Pini Zahavi, is ‘always flirting’ with Manchester City as contract negotiations with Bayern Munich remain at a standstill.
Alaba’s contract in Bavaria expires next summer and, despite months of negotiations, they are yet to reach an agreement.
That has led to suggestions he could be sold, with Manchester City, who are in desperate need of a new left-back, linked on several occasions.
BILD explain what is happening today and where the links to City are coming from at this moment in time.
And you’ll be unsurprised to discover it is courtesy of his agent, Pini Zahavi.
They say he is ‘always flirting’ with Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain, likely to try and force Bayern’s hand in the current negotiations.
That is despite Alaba having made it clear he would only accept a move to Real Madrid or Barcelona, which isn’t going to happen as both clubs have ‘waved off’ big transfers this summer to ‘economise’ after the Coronavirus outbreak.
So, what is the situation at Bayern? BILD explain that the current divide between the player and the club is to do with his wages demands.
At a meeting between the player and Hasan Salihamidzic at the end of June Alaba demanded €20m a year, which caused the Bayern chief to ‘burst his collar’.
As far as he and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge are concerned that price is a ‘no-go’ given it would make him the club’s highest earner, ahead of Manuel Neuer and Robert Lewandowski.
Alaba’s ‘wild-card’ is that his deal expires next summer, so he could make a free transfer and earn himself a significant pay rise given the buying club wouldn’t be paying a big transfer fee.
Bayern are obviously keen to avoid that, and while the negotiations are on ice at the moment, they will be resumed after the Champions League tournament.
They are keen to ensure something is sorted by the start of the next Bundesliga season as they don’t want to start a new campaign with a leading player on an expiring contract.
For that to happen, though, someone will have to ‘take the next step’; either Bayern make a new offer or Alaba reduces his demands.
BILD believe an agreement will be reached at some point, as both Neuer and Lewandowski ended up agreeing after similar ‘tricky negotiations’.
Until that happens, though, it’s likely there’ll be plenty of more links to Manchester City.
