For good reason, Manuel Neuer is Bayern Munich’s captain.
At a time when the locker room that is on edge, Neuer was inevitably asked about the respective futures of two key players on the team — Matthijs de Ligt and Leon Goretzka.
Clearly, the club wants to part ways with both players and while fans are torn (most want De Ligt to stay and some want Goretzka to go), Neuer made his feelings on the matter very clear.
“I wish (Goretzka) all the best and of course I want him to be on the pitch with us. He’s helped us a lot and is a really great player with physical presence and good impact. But in the end I don’t make these decisions,” Neuer said (as captured by Sky Sport journalist Kerry Hau via @iMiaSanMia).
As for De Ligt, Neuer also backed his center-back.
“I’ve always been very happy with (De Ligt) at my side, he’s a real defender who throws himself into duels and is always there. But of course, the club makes the decisions,” Neuer remarked (as captured by Abendzeitung’s Maximilian Koch via @iMiaSanMia).
Therein lies the rub.
The club has already made several decisions on players (if you believe certain reports) and the roster bloodbath could include other players, too — like Kingsley Coman, Serge Gnabry, Alphonso Davies, and Joshua Kimmich.
There is no point in denying it, if the front office has its way over the next few weeks, the team will look vastly different. Of course, not all of them will go, but this squad will have a different feel to it.
Ready or not, the page has turned to a new era…but will it be a better one?
Bavarian Podcast Works — Weekend Warm-up Show Season 4, Episode 2
Bayern Munich took off for its jaunt in Asia where it will continue its preparation for the 2024/25 campaign. Competition on the squad will be fierce, moves will still be made (transfers in and out), and fan excitement/anxiety will likely start to skyrocket.
What better time to gauge how we are all feeling? Let’s get to it. This is what we have on tap for this episode of the Bavarian Podcast Works — Weekend Warm-up Show:
- How about a heat check on where fans stand at this point of the transfer window?
- Joshua Kimmich is reportedly going to play out his contract — what does that mean for him and why it could be bad news for Bayern Munich.
- Noussair Mazraoui is just about gone, will Matthijs de Light follow him to Manchester United?
- The Entertainment Rundown featuring takes on House of the Dragon and…BlackBerry (!?).
Song of the Week: “Photograph” by Def Leppard
You know what? F it….let’s do some 80s rock!
Released in 1983 on the Pyromania album, this song was on HEAVY rotation in Philadelphia and still gets a decent run on the radio here. Admittedly, I woke up and Def Leppard chose me today. Enjoy:
Entertainment Rundown
House of the Dragon — Season 2, Episode 7
Well, this was better than previous weeks, but still not great. Let’s dig into what we liked — and what we didn’t:
- HotD is still wasting its best characters. While we did get a decent amount of Aemond doing some somewhat bad ass things, Daemon is still having Harrenhal-induced hallucinations and Criston Cole was basically non-existent. The show is really wasting those three characters, who seem to draw the most emotion from the audience.
- The dragon-riding bastards is an interesting subplot that I am sure was derived from the source material. That should be a good thing. It also provides some additional weapons of mass destruction into the mix, but I don’t wholly love the idea of bastards being able to ride dragons. The conflict it created between Rhaenyra and Jacaerys Strong…err, Velaryon was fun to watch, though.
- There is a lot not always a lot to like with this show and every week, I find myself dropping in here and venting about what it could be or should be — instead, I try to keep my expectations low and also try my hardest to enjoy it despite having some tough criticisms.
- Overall, I did enjoy the episode, but there is just simply too much filler from week-to-week. If the material cannot be flushed out properly over eight episodes (it seems like that is more of a writing problem than a source material problem) then just shorten the seasons. This season could have probably been five quality episodes or eight iffy episodes. Quality and over quantity and all that. Anyway, I was entertained and that it all I can ask for at this point. The show can go out winning with an inevitable and epic dragon battle in the season finale…but did HBO have the stomach to pay for it? We’ll soon find out.
Rating 7.00/10.00
BlackBerry
I finally got around to watching this and found it to be pretty awesome. Something about the start-up tech genre fascinates me (The Social Network was tremendous) and BlackBerry hit on a lot of very fascinating aspects of the meteoric rise and subsequent fall of the one-time mobile phone giant. Here are some quick hitters:
- I loved my BlackBerry back in 2007 — it was the best business phone I ever had. While it didn’t have all the frills of an iPhone, it was really efficient. Also, it did have a few games on it — while I didn’t partake, my boss at the time would disappear into bathroom for about an hour playing something called “Surviving High School”…or at least that is what he told me he was doing. Anyway, let’s move along.
- The casting was on-point. Jay Baruchel as Mike Lazaridis, Glenn Howerton as Jim Balsillie, and Matt Johnson as Doug Fregin were just awesome choice. Howerton deserved some award recognition for how he played that part.
- The whole story was fascinating and how quickly things rose — and then fell — was really told well and was also very time-efficient.
- Overall, I just thought this was really well done and fun. Well, as a fun as telling the story of a mighty fall can be.
Rating: 9.00/10.00