It has now been eight weeks since Jonathan Tah informed Bayer Leverkusen of his desire to join Bayern, and the Germany international was hoping the transfer would be sorted by the time he returned from his holiday. However, a move is now reportedly in jeopardy that Bayern Munich will be unable to complete the deal, according to BILD.
Tah is anticipated to return to Leverkusen this Sunday for preseason training, despite the tabloid’s assertion that the two clubs are “far from an agreement”.
Tah is reportedly something that Leverkusen will not part with for less than 40 million euros. With just a year left on his contract, I believe the majority of Bayern supporters would agree that the team will not be spending that much money on a player. Thus, this trade is pretty much dead in the water unless the Bundesliga champions lower their asking price.
Moreover, Leverkusen is said to be trying everything to hold onto Tah and risk losing him for free next summer if Piero Hincapie departs, as clubs from England and Spain are reportedly interested.
Bayern Munich hoping to sell Matthijs De Ligt before signing Jonathan Tah
You would imagine the talk of Matthijs De Ligt to Manchester United dying down will play a part in this too. It always felt unlikely that Bayern would sign Tah before any potential sale of De Ligt, and with United seemingly cooling interest after the signing of Lenny Yoro, it seems like as of right now that the Dutch defender could stay.
Of course, De Ligt isn’t the only central defender that could leave Bayern [and potentially open the door to Tah coming in], but there has been little to no transfer speculation at all regarding Eric Dier, Dayot Upamecano and Kim Min-Jae.
It would be risky for Bayern to spend more than 20 million euros on Tah, so it would be preferable to put the story on hold for the summer and, if need be, consider signing him for free the following year.
