Bayern Munich have officially begun their preseason preparations for the 2024/25 season and their training camp in Tegernsee is right around the corner before they embark upon a brief journey to South Korea for the Audi Summer Tour. On said tour, they will taken on Tottenham Hotspur in a friendly in Seoul. Prior to that, they will also have friendlies against FC Rottach-Egern and FC Duren and their competitive fixtures list begins on August 16th for the first round DFB-Pokal clash at SSV Ulm.
Vincent Kompany still does not have all of his players from the Bayern squad that were involved with international matches for their nations in international tournaments this summer, and he also does not have new signing Michael Olise, who is competing with France in the Paris summer Olympics. Other than that, most of the healthy players have already reported for duty at Sabener Straße, including new signing Hiroki Ito.
Ito was Bayern’s first official summer signing, having acquired the Japanese international from VfB Stuttgart for a fee of around €24 million in efforts to revamp the club’s backline. He can play both center back and left back, as was on display during his tenure at Stuttgart, but information from journalists Vinzent Tschirpke, Hanna Raif, and Philipp Kessler (via @iMiaSanMia), Bayern is planning on mostly using Ito at left back.
It is understood that Bayern very much appreciates Ito’s passing ability and how it will mesh well with Kompany’s possession-based style of play. He has been likened to Manchester City defender Nathan Aké, who is also a hybrid center-back / left-back. The Dutch international was also a player that was once on Bayern’s list of transfer targets.
With Ito, there will, of course, be competition with Alphonso Davies, assuming the Canadian international does not leave Bayern this summer. It is no secret that Real Madrid want to sign him, but they did not want to spend more than around €30-40 million to sign him, so they are ready to wait until next summer to get him as a free agent. Davies’ contract at Bayern is set to expire in June of 2025. If Davies does leave this summer before the window closes at the end of August, Ito could very well be pushing for a starting role at left-back.
Looking for more thoughts and analysis on Bayern Munich’s roller coaster ride of a transfer window, plus some chatter on Harry Kane’s health and a listener Q&A? Good, then we have you covered with the Bavarian Podcast Works — Weekend Warm-up Show, where we hit on all of that and more! You can get the podcast on Patreon, Spotify, or below: