Bayern Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said Tuesday he is “cautiously optimistic” of keeping David Alaba but is braced to lose Liverpool target Thiago Alcantara once the Champions League finishes in Lisbon.
Having routed
Chelsea 7-1 on aggregate in the last 16 following Saturday’s 4-1 win in Munich
in the return leg, Bayern face Barcelona in the quarter-finals on Friday in a
clash of European heavyweights.
With a year left on
their contracts, both defender Alaba and central midfielder Alcantara are stalling
over extensions.
Alcantara, 29, who
has been heavily linked to Liverpool, has long since signalled to the club that
he wants to leave.
So far, the
Spaniard, who has won the Bundesliga title in each of his seven seasons in
Munich, has rejected all of Bayern’s efforts to keep him.
“It is known that
he wants to do something new. If a club comes to us and offers a fair sum, we
will deal with it,” Rummenigge said with an air of resignation at a media event
in Munich on Tuesday.
However, he is “cautiously
optimistic” about keeping Alaba, because “we are working on a solution”.
Austrian star
Alaba, 28, refused to talk about his future after Saturday’s victory over
Chelsea.
He said he is
focused solely on the Champions League as Bayern bid for the treble, having
already claimed an eighth straight Bundesliga title and lifted the German Cup.
Rummenigge has also
ruled out extending the one-year loan deal of Philippe Coutinho, who will
return to Barcelona next season.
Rummenigge said
that because of the coronavirus pandemic Bayern Munich “cannot make any further
investments of this magnitude in these difficult economic times, which are also
difficult for us.”
