Being a direct neighbour of Germany, it is strange that Dutch players have struggled to stay at Bayern Munich. Daley Blind, Ryan Gravenberch and Joshua Zirkzee each played a handful of games for Bayern Munich but were quickly benched, loaned out or transferred.

Matthijs de Ligt, who joined from Juventus for €67 million in 2022, is the latest victim. He was constantly in the firing line under Julian Nagelsmann and Thomas Tuchel, but always performed relatively well when he found his way onto the pitch.

Did de Ligt simply want to reestablish contact with his former Ajax coach Erik ten Hag, who is now in charge at Manchester United?

In an interview with Sky (recorded by @iMiaSanMia), Bayern sporting director Christoph Freund stuck to his guns and said: “We wanted to make changes to the squad. That includes sales. Matthijs is a really good player and played a lot last season. But we are very confident that we are well positioned defensively.”

That doesn’t sound like it was De Ligt’s decision at all. Hopefully he got a better explanation for his sale privately because that’s a load of rubbish (excuse the harsh language).

Bayern officials have stressed the importance of communication all season, but these kinds of statements keep coming up. Either they have sealed the leaks and are in complete agreement, or everyone is trying not to be the mouthpiece of the blabbermouths, a role clearly dominated by Uli Hoeneß.