Weekend Warm-up: Bayern Munich needs at least a €115 million lump sum payment for Harry Kane…let’s do this; Throwing it back to Blur; Bayern needs to figure out its youth development problems; Bayern still eyeing Florian Wirtz; and MORE!

If Bayern Munich wants to get a deal done for Tottenham Hotspur Harry Kane, it will have to pay the English club €115 million in one lump sum.

Times journalist Gary Jacob issued a reporting stating that Harry Kane was not going to ink a new deal with Tottenham Hotspur (at least for now) and also that Bayern Munich would have to pay Daniel Levy that massive amount of money in just one installment.

Knowing that…are you in?

At this point, how could Bayern Munich not be in?

The Bavarians are engaging in something resembling a late night eBay bidding war. Simply put, Bayern Munich has come too far to let its prize slip away. €115 million? €120 million? There is no stopping this Kane Train (if I hashtag that, it is doomed to derail).

Tottenham Hotspur clearly does not want to sell its poster boy, but getting nine figures now is likely far better than getting jack squat in 12 months.

While there has been a multitude of reasons to doubt that this can all get done, things have progressed to the point where it all just makes too much sense to not happen.

Bayern Munich seems like it is poised to actually get its man…now it is just time to stop the confusion…to stop the delay…and just close the deal.

As we all know, coffee is for closers, so Uli Hoeneß, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge…grab your mugs and get the deal done.

Bavarian Podcast Works — Weekend Warm-up Podcast: Season 3, Episode 2

Another week, another crazy period for Bayern Munich news.

While there were no major breaks in the club’s pursuit of Tottenham Hotspur star Harry Kane, there was still plenty of moving and shaking going on. We had a lot of weird news break…some true, some not, some probably falling somewhere in between.

Let’s taking a look at which topics we’ll dive into for this edition of the Weekend Warm-up Podcast:

• A brief look at where things stand with Kane after Uli Hoeneß went scorched Earth on Tottenham.
• Ahead of a potential move to Al Nassr, a look back at Sadio Mané’s tumultuous tenure at Bayern Munich.
• Assessing the rumors regarding Joshua Kimmich, Leon Goretzka, and Marcel Sabitzer.

Song of the Week: “Song 2” by Blur

1997 was a good year for several reasons (I turned 21, was an intern for the Philadelphia Flyers, was playing college ball, and just overall having a blast), but man…”Song 2” from Blur was just one of a lot of good things going on.

When I first heard it, I was hooked…and 26 years later, I still am all-in. If you need a little extra jolt as you drink your coffee, this should help. Enjoy:

Wirtz still on the agenda for Bayern

As Bayer Leverkusen star Florian Wirtz continues to work his way fully back to 100% from a devastating ACL injury, interest in the phenom will continue to grow — especially from Bayern Munich.

According to Sport Bild journalists Christian Falk and Tobi Altschäffl (as captured by @iMiaSanMia), Bayern Munich has not given up hope on the Germany international. In fact, the timetable for Wirtz to move could be as soon as after the Euros next summer:

Bayern have always worked intensively on Florian Wirtz and will have an important role to play in the race to sign him next summer. The player is determined to stay in Leverkusen until Euro 2024.

Wirtz talled four goals and eight assists in 25 games in all competitions last season, but still did not look fully like himself. Given the nature of ACL injuries, we could start to get a glimpse of Wirtz (hopefully) back at full strength during this campaign.

One note of concern would be how Wirtz performed for Germany during international competitions (not that anyone was good). Wirtz often could not impact games under Hansi Flick, but we should get a better glimpse into his developmental progress during this campaign as he continues to gain confidence in his knee.

Is the next generation floundering at Bayern?

It was not a banner week for some of Bayern Munich’s best young prospects — Paul Wanner, Gabriel Vidovic, and Arijon Ibrahimovic.

Vidovic and Ibrahimovic were omitted from the training camp roster and Wanner, the gem of the campus, drew the ire of Tuchel.

In what can only be described as a bizarre move, too, Thomas Tuchel eventually called Vidovic and Ibrahimovic to camp for one day (!?) then shipped them right have to Sabener Strasse.

Why would Tuchel do that? because of the injuries to Thomas Muller and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, Tuchel was two players short his 6v6 tournament. Enter the two youngsters…well, at least briefly.

Tuchel is not exactly known for his ability to work with young players (something that his predecessor, Julian Nagelsmann, was touted to be a savant with) and those three players are just a few of the top talents available from the campus pool.

No one is writing off the players at the moment (except maybe Vidovic, who Bayern Munich could literally be written off with a transfer), but the pathway to playing time for each player is a difficult one to navigate, especially because Wanner has been bounced to several spots and Ibrahimovic is in the weird spot of playing a largely undefined role on the pitch.

Tarek Buchmann is another player who is highly-regarded and while he is expected to be on the first team this season, he will be at the tail end of the center-back depth chart behind Matthijs de Ligt, Dayot Upamecano, Kim Min-jae, and maybe even Josip Stanisic.

Does the issue lie with talent identification or talent development? This is a fair question to ask.

it is not as if many players actually leave Sabener Strasse and exceed expectations elsewhere. In fact, most flounder. Fiete Arp, Franck Evina, Lars Lukas Mai, Christian Fruchtl, Ron-Thorben Hoffmann, Jamie Lawrence, Bright Arrey-Mbi, Lucas Copado, Michael Cuisance, Timothy Tillman, Christopher Scott, Adrien Fein, Remy Vita, Joshua Zirkzee, Leon Dajaku, Sarpreet Singh, Kwasi Wreidt, Renato Sanches, Paul Will, Ryan Johansson, and Armindo Sieb are just a few of the names that were touted to have vast potential upon being identified by Bayern Munich. Most are gone, some are out on loan, others are still working to find their way, but none of them did not reach the heights any had envisioned —at least as of yet. Some still do have a chance to make “the leap.”

Hopefully that Boulevard of Broken Dreams did not bring back too many bad memories (RIP #ArpTrain). Most were true campus players, while a few others came to the club for the final stage of their youth development. Clearly, something needs to improve.

Niklas Dorsch has done well for himself, Angelo Stiller has been…okay since moving on from Bayern Munich. There are definitely other names you could dig deeper into from the past as well.

Still, identification…or development? The question reigns supreme — and Bayern Munich will have to get it sorted out soon if it truly wants to see its beautiful campus reach its potential.

A silver lining to this story could be the arrival of Christoph Freund, who was excellent at identifying talent and helping it get developed at Red Bull Salzburg. Freund will inherit a supremely talented roster and it will be his job to see that it evolves into a “next gen” version of Bavarians.

With a squad full of veterans and a vault full of cash, perhaps an initial focus on re-stocking the youth academy would be a great place to focus once he gets started.