It was by pointing out the contrasting styles of functioning of Manchester's two famous football institutions that Bayern Munich's sporting director Christian Nerlinger sought to put forward his club's philosophy. And he pulled no punches while doing it.
"I think Sir Alex Ferguson has done a fantastic job at Manchester United. He has established the club as a brand by building a worldclass team. We would like continuity as well. We haven't been able to do that with a coach recently but otherwise for the past 30-40 years, we have been moving in one direction," said Nerlinger, a former Germany and Bayern midfielder.
Before that comment and while speaking about the need to strengthen the squad in the year of the European championships, Nerlinger said: "We don't want to follow the Manchester City model. We don't want 22 worldclass players. When you have players who don't play a role, it often leads to a bad feeling in the dressing room. We look to groom players instead, grow them," he said, naming the homegrown Bastian Schweinsteiger, Philipp Lahm, Thomas Mueller and Diego Contento to elucidate his point.
Yes, Bayern are looking to add depth to their squad this summer because they have often struggled after a season that ends with a national team competition — the club has eight players in the German national team alone — and yes, they want to be No. 1 in Europe and continue being the engine that drives football in Germany but Nerlinger said they would never do it by spending "50 million euros on one player."
{{/usCountry}}Yes, Bayern are looking to add depth to their squad this summer because they have often struggled after a season that ends with a national team competition — the club has eight players in the German national team alone — and yes, they want to be No. 1 in Europe and continue being the engine that drives football in Germany but Nerlinger said they would never do it by spending "50 million euros on one player."
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