Tottenham Hotspur summer signing Xavi Simons was wanted by Bayern Munich this summer. But their financial concerns led them to sign Nicolas Jackson from Chelsea instead.
That’s according to WA.de, who report that Max Eberl and Vincent Kompany wanted to sign Simons before he went to Tottenham.
They report, via information from the BILD podcast Bayern Insider, that Simons was Bayern’s ‘dream player’ this summer.
The German giants had targeted the Dutchman as a replacement for Kingsley Coman after his departure. This was hinted at in an interview by Eberl this week, in which he admitted that they “had an idea” for a player after Coman went.
Bayern Insider now reveal that the “idea” was Simons. This was naturally before he left RB Leipzig to join Tottenham for €65m. According to BILD’s chief reporter Tobi Altschäffl, Bayern’s chiefs were already well into talks.
“Eberl, Freund, and Kompany absolutely wanted Simons,” he said.
“The contracts were essentially finalized, and all the details had been discussed. But the supervisory board decided that no further permanent transfer should take place.”
The deal, according to the podcast, was ‘clearly vetoed’ by Bayern’s honorary president Uli Hoeneß. He made it clear that the plan was for loans only. Thus, the deal for Simons was abandoned, leaving him free to join Tottenham.
Those in charge in Munich then had to improvise to strengthen their options. That led to the deal to sign Jackson from Chelsea as a ‘stopgap measure’. That came with it’s own problems as Chelsea initially blocked the deal in one of the big dramas of the summer transfer window.
The decision to target a loan was primarily made due to ‘economic prudence’ after an expensive summer for the Germans. And that ended up being Tottenham’s gain as they were given a free run to sign Simons.
