On deadline day last summer, Bayern Munich were ready to present Fulham FC’s Joao Palhinha as a new Bayern Munich player. The contract was signed, photos were taken and the player was in Munich with a big smile on his face.
However, Bayern Munich had waited until the last moment to try and make the transfer work, which led to Fulham failing to find a replacement. Without a replacement and seeking survival in the Premier League, they pulled the plug on the transfer and Palhinha went back to Fulham dejected.
Ergo, it must be good news that Fulham could be looking for a replacement now. According to Peter Rutzler and Adam Leventhal, as captured by @iMiaSanMia, Fulham have restarted talks with Fluminese for midfielder Andre Trindade. More importantly for Bayern, it reported that the reason for the interest is that “the west London club are looking for a defensive midfielder after Bayern Munich renewed their pursuit of João Palhinha.” In the case that Andre would be set to replace Palhinha, it could well mean the Portuguese would be free to join new head coach Vincent Kompany at Bayern in the coming weeks.
But caution is advised. Fulham were also heavily interested in Andre long before Bayern’s pursuit for Palhinha was restarted and were heavily linked with signing the defensive midfield in January, though they were unable to seal the deal. Did they back out because they did not have to replace Palhinha? Were they going to sign Andre regardless of Palhinha’s future, thus rendering Andre an imperfect replacement for the Bayern target? Bayern will be hoping the former scenario is the motivation behind the collapsed deal.
So…what should Bayern Munich fans think about this? Well, per Fabrizio Romano (via @iMiaSanMia), Bayern Munich could be making strides with Fulham on getting a deal done:
Negotiations between Bayern and Fulham for João Palhinha are advancing despite the initial gap in valuation.
However, Sport Bild’s Christian Falk and Tobi Altshaffl (via @iMiaSanMia) are reporting that Bayern Munich is getting annoyed with Fulham’s reluctance to do a deal:
Bayern’s second bid for João Palhinha, which was rejected by Fulham, was worth €42m. Bayern are said to no longer have much patience: They want to improve the offer once more, but the maximum they’re willing to pay is around €45m fixed plus add-ons.
Hmmm, interesting…