Unfortunately, Uli Hoeneß no longer sits on such podiums, he would have enjoyed this moment very much. The silly internet lies! Yes, he had already noticed, said Omar Richards with a smile on Tuesday, this entry was completely wrong. He is not 1.85 m tall, as a famous search engine claims. Another search engine, on the other hand, shows 1.74 m, which is rather “going in the right direction”. On the other relevant data, however, the providers are somewhat in agreement: Richards is 23 years old and has been a licensed player with FC Bayern, which is known to all search engines, since July 1st. He played four years for the English second division club Reading FC, scored two goals in 92 second division games and is a left-back.
The Englishman, who tends to be 1.74 m tall, has had a rather small career so far, but at the moment the chances are not bad that the young man will soon grow towards 1.85 m. He could make it unexpectedly big at FC Bayern unexpectedly quickly, due to the circumstances.
“Of course it’s not a happy situation at the moment,” said sports director Hasan Salihamidzic on Tuesday, and “of course, it’s not happy for the coach that a couple of regular players have just dropped out.” But “Dayot and Omar” are “here now”.
In addition to the rather unknown Richards, the Bavarians have also presented the much better-known Dayot Upamecano, 22, whose acquisition from Leipzig cost the Munich based around 42.5 million euros, according to consistent reports on the Internet – a number that Uli Hoeneß despite the dubious Source would hardly disagree. As with all these presentations, a lot was welcomed (by the club), a lot of joy was shown (by the new players) and a lot of praise (by the sports directorate), but due to the current occasion the topic of the event got a bit broader.
Despite the failures, FC Bayern no longer wants to be active on the transfer market
Upamecano knows “that he is in demand from the start with his leadership qualities,” said Salihamidzic, and that was not simply said as a welcome praise. Salihamidzic was serious about this sentence, probably more serious than originally planned. Bayern have not only permanently lost their defenders David Alaba (Real Madrid), Jérome Boateng (looking for a club) and Javi Martinez (Qatar SC), they also have to process a few short-term loss reports. The French Lucas Hernandez (tear of the medial meniscus in the left knee) and the Canadian Alphonso Davies (torn ligament in the left ankle) have returned from their national teams with injuries. Salihamidzic estimates the downtime at “four to six weeks”. They are too short to go back to the transfer market, “that’s not what we want,” says Salihamidzic. The situation on the market is currently “not easy when you see how some clubs can invest. There is nothing that can be done about some financial strength at the moment”. The injuries of Hernandez and Davies are “manageable”, one will try to “bridge the time”.
The two young men on the podium are now part of the personal bridging loan that FC Bayern has to take in different roles. Upamecano’s search engines are now allowed to mark “zero days” in the “acclimatization time” section, and the young Frenchman will have to give the defense chief immediately. Salihamidzic says he should “give his commands loudly from behind,” “we need that, and he knows that too”. Yes, he will “try to go ahead,” said Upamecano politely, he should at least benefit from the fact that he already knows the coach Julian Nagelsmann from Leipzig.
Nagelsmann would like to turn Hansi Flick’s eternal back four into a more flexible structure
At a higher level, he shares the fate of Omar Richards. Even with the left-back, it remains to be seen whether he will benefit from the current injury situation – or whether the risks are ultimately greater than the opportunities. For a few weeks now, Richards is a monopoly in his role, which involves a certain amount of fall. Yes, it could impose itself and make an excellent substitute for full-time left-back Davies and part-time left-back Hernandez; but he also has to.
It is part of the house policy that the squad is not particularly large at FC Bayern, the squad in Munich measures more than 1.74 m than 1.85 m. For the new coach, this means that he will be at the most demanding location in the republic under difficult conditions starts. A new team is usually built from behind, first the defensive foundation, then everything else. In any case, Nagelsmann has big plans with the defense, he would like to turn Hansi Flick’s eternal back four into a more flexible structure, but he has to do that with reduced staff first. Niklas Süle and Benjamin Pavard are still on vacation at the European Championships and have already had average months anyway, so Nagelsmann may first have to establish a chain of defense consisting of Bouna Sarr, Dayot Upamecano, Tanguy Nianzou and Omar Richards. In addition, Chris Richards, who has returned from Hoffenheim, is available, who should not be confused with Omar Richards. The search engines on the Internet know more details about this player.