Spain’s El Confidencial have a rather long article on Thursday about Pep Guardiola wanting to sign Thiago Alcantara from Bayern Munich. The idea is that Manchester City’s midfield isn’t fit for Guardiola’s purpose and so the teacher wants to bring in his pet.
However, it’s not quite as easy as that.
El Confidencial have largely ignored the role Bayern Munich would play in all of this. Thiago is their player and there’s supposed to be some kind of goodwill which would prevent Guardiola from going back to Munich to do his shopping.
Guardiola trying to snatch away a Bayern Munich player is unlikely to go down well with fans of the German club.
If Bayern Munich don’t want to sell Thiago then he simply won’t be leaving, whatever amount of money Manchester City would be prepared to throw. Bayern don’t work like that.
The only way Thiago leaves is if Bayern are happy for that to happen. The midfielder was very much a Guardiola signing and that may place some doubt on his continued importance, especially given his injury issues in Germany.
The purchase of Renato Sanches provides more competition for an attacking midfield role and, in theory, there could come a scenario which sees Bayern Munich quite happy to exchange Thiago for a big chunk of money.
Thiago’s agent Pere Guardiola is presented as an important ally for Manchester City, given that his brother is manager of the club.
