Toni Kroos has had the full Bayern Munich treatment. Matthias Sammer spoke several times recently about how much the club want to keep him, and how its up to Kroos. To Sueddeutsche Zeitung last week he admitted Bayerns chances were no more than half Our intention is to extend the relationship because we believe Toni is a great player and we want him to be one of the linchpins of the team of the future, we currently have a 50% chance to renew and not 20% as I read elsewhere. We would love to see a pair formed by him and Thiago because we think they are two phenomenal players and complementary. Bayern friendly Bild have had a take on the situation almost daily and Kroos has been painted as a player wanting huge wages, making him sound greedy. Its been all over the German sport media as they try to find trouble in paradise at FC Hollywood. Pep Guardiola made his own comments, saying before the match against Stuttgart He is an important player. But it can go fast in football. Here today, there tomorrow. Kroos started that game but was brought off after 59 minutes, the third game in four that hed failed to last an hour. He threw his gloves toward the bench and was clearly unhappy, but thats to be expected of any player brought off the pitch. The speculation continued and Manchester United were increasingly brought into it. As far as the German media were concerned, it was all about money and the pressure on the midfielder was building. Comments from people at Bayern had encouraged the story surrounding him, and therefore the pressure, to intensify. It sounded like Bayern Munich were wanting to make it clear to their supporters that if Kroos left it was because he wanted too much money. Kroos appears to not be someone who is going to be bullied by the Bayern machine and took to Facebook a few days later to say Much has been written, especially in the last few days, about my sporting future. The fact is I am very happy to play for Bayern and my position in the team is very good. The fact is also that we couldnt agree a new contract. Since it runs until 2015 this is not a big problem, and we will see what the future brings. My focus is on the sport side of things and we will do everything possible to complete the season as successfully as last season. The day before Kroos made his statement hed been an unused substitute in a 5-0 victory against Frankfurt, the first time hed spent a whole game on the bench since March. Yet three days after his statement he was an unused substitute again. To put that into some sort of perspective, the last time 24 year old Kroos sat watching from the bench for two consecutive games was in December. Thats December 2008. Naturally after the second game, which Bayern Munich won 2-0 against Nurnberg, Pep Guardiola was asked about the situation. The former Barcelona boss didnt want to talk about Kroos, he refused to and was quoted by Bild as saying I am only talking about players who have played. It may have been more normal for Guardiola to offer some encouragement or support to Kroos but he clearly wasnt in the mood to do so. Bayern have a wealth of midfielders and since the arrival of Mario Gotze and Thiago Alcantara in the summer, its been even harder to get a place in the team. Not to mention the reinvention of Philipp Lahm or the imminent return of Bastian Schweinsteiger. Bild made it clear they thought Manchester United would break the bank for Kroos and with him being out of favour with Guardiola, and pressured over his contract, it could be a welcome offer. Follow us on Twitter @Sport_Witness
Posted on: Tue, 11 Feb 2014 18:29:01 +0000
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