Stop buying kids, Bayern boss warns RB Leipzig
BERLIN: Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness has told rivals RB Leipzig to ‘stop buying kids! ’ if they want to run the champions closer next season, with Germany’s top clubs to clash on Saturday.
Second-placed Leipzig capped their first year in Germany’s top flight by qualifying directly for next season’s Champions League while Saturday’s visitors Bayern are already confirmed as German champions.
RB briefly kept Bayern off the top of the Bundesliga for three weeks last November with a transfer policy of signing raw, young talent – all five signings in the last year are 21 or younger.
But Hoeness says RB need more experience to make a sustained challenge to Bayern’s domination of the Bundesliga.
“I can’t imagine that you can manage it by playing three times a week with just young people,” Hoeness told Sport1.
“I am quite sure that Leipzig won’t be able to continue on their path if they play like that in the Champions League.”
Hoeness says he has already per sona l ly told L eipzig’s billionaire backer, Red Bull’s co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz, that RB can only break Bayern’s monopoly of the Bundesliga with more experience in their ranks.
“I told him: ‘dear Mr Mateschitz, when you sign older players, you will be a very serious opponent for us’.”
Second-placed RB host 2016/17 Bundesliga winners Bayern at Leipzig’s Red Bull Arena with the champions 10 points clear.
Carlo Ancelot t i’s Bayern
I can’t imagine that you can manage it by playing three times a week with just young people. Uli Hoeness, Bayern Munich president
thumped Leipzig 3- 0 in Munich when the teams met in the Bundesliga last December.
However, the Bundesliga’s only club from former East Germany says they will not stop signing youngsters with Ajax’s German winger Amin Younes, 23, the latest starlet tipped to join them for next season.
“We won’t be buying known, expensive stars, instead we will be sticking with our policy of taking young, gifted players," said RB’s sports director Ralf Rangnick, who expects to sign around five new players for 2017/18. “We’ll keep developing as we have developed the current team.”
Leipzig’s challenge now will be holding onto young stars like Guinea midfielder Naby Keita and Germany striker Timo Werner, who have attracted the
FIXTURES
Saturday (all times 1330 GMT) Bayer Leverkusen v Cologne Schalke v Hamburg Mainz v E Frankfurt Wolfsburg v Borussia M’gladbach Augsburg v Borussia Dortmund Werder Bremen v Hoffenheim Darmstadt v Hertha Berlin Freiburg v Ingolstadt RB Leipzig v Bayern Munich interest of top clubs with their performances.
Leipzig coach Ralph Hasenhuettl says his team have nothing to lose at home against Bayern’s stars.
“It’s a dream game for us and we have nothing to lose. We could have a really cracking game,” he added. — AFP