8 months ago
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Big news for Bayern Munich yesterday as it was confirmed that Mathys Tel has signed a new contract with the club after positive talks over his future in their project. Tel feels really good at Bayern and wants to stay and become a club legend. Despite transfer rumours, there was never any truth to links with Manchester United.
Bayern were keen to keep Tel happy with this new deal, but, despite what some fans are asking me, it is entirely separate from the Joshua Zirkzee transfer situation and Bayern’s buy-back clause.
Bayern have the option to re-sign Zirkzee, but for now my understanding is that they will decide on Zirkzee as soon as they will have new manager. Discussions will take place later this year, but of course first they need to sort out their replacement for Thomas Tuchel when he leaves the job at the end of the season.
Real Madrid keep working, not only on Kylian Mbappe, but also on the Alphonso Davies deal. And the message coming from Real Madrid is that they will not pay crazy money for Davies – the price should be fair as his contract with Bayern at the moment is due to expire in summer 2025.
If Davies doesn’t extend his contract, Real Madrid want to pay a normal transfer fee this summer, not something crazy. They know that Davies wants to join them after very positive conversations between the club and the player’s representatives.
As for Bayern, the situation is clear – he needs to extend his contract soon, otherwise by June/July he could be sold. Real Madrid know that the player could be available on the market, but they don’t want to pay something like €70m as we’ve heard reported by some sources.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer gave an interesting interview yesterday about how close Manchester United came to signing Jude Bellingham and Erling Haaland when he was manager, and I think he raised some important points about both players.
Solskjaer noted that Bellingham in particular, when he was still only 17, was the most mature player he’d seen at that age, and I think this has always been true for him and Haaland. I think they have this in common; they are superstars now but they picked all their clubs and strategies always in a calm, smart way, not caring (only) about money.
Jude Bellingham transfer planning praised by Fabrizio RomanoBellingham can look back and feel he made the right career moves for him – he got the playing time he wanted at Borussia Dortmund, he did excellent there and then got his big move to Real Madrid this season, where he’s continued to get better and better. As for his future plans, he doesn’t have any for now, as his full focus is only on Real Madrid.
I’m aware there have been transfer stories about Paulo Dybala offering himself to Barcelona, but I don’t really have any concrete updates on his future at the moment as it seems he’s enjoying his football at Roma, and has a great relationship with the fans there, and with manager Daniele De Rossi.
It’s quiet for the moment, but as I previously reported, he will have a release clause again in this summer’s transfer window. The €12m clause was there in January but no one triggered it, let’s see if that will be different in the summer as he could be a fantastic option for many clubs.
It’s important to note that Italian clubs can trigger Dybala’s clause, but in this case Roma would have the final say on the transfer, whereas if it’s triggered by clubs from the Premier League, La Liga, and so on, then Dybala would have the final decision.

Nico Williams – Nico Williams is on Chelsea list of players being monitored, he has €50m release clause, so Chelsea know all the conditions. At the moment nothing is 100% decided yet and there are also other clubs keen, but Nico is on Chelsea list since last summer.
Mika Biereth – This young Arsenal striker is doing very well on loan this season, but it’s still early to say if he can feature in Mikel Arteta’s first-team plans. I still believe he needs some regular game time to develop and grow; Arsenal will take these kinds of decisions in June, not now.
Marco Reus – Available on a free transfer this summer, Marco Reus still hasn’t decided anything despite links with West Ham, and clubs in Turkey and MLS. Reus will take his time, nothing will be decided now as he wants to think well about his future and now also the Champions League with Dortmund is his main focus.
