January signing Serdar Tasci was meant to face the press on Wednesday, but Matthias Sammer instead took the opportunity to deny a number of rumours surrounding the club
The media room at Bayern Munich was full on Wednesday as reporters gathered for a press conference to unveil January deadline day signing Serdar Tasci.
But, after suffering a head injury in training, Tasci did not appear. Instead, Bayern sporting director Matthias Sammer and club spokesman Markus Hoerwik entered the room. "Here he is!" Sammer joked, nodding towards his colleague.
Tasci was revealed to have suffered nothing more than a mild concussion and will be out for two to three days. What followed after was a bizarre press conference in which Sammer addressed a number of rumours in the media; Arturo Vidal, Medhi Benatia and Pep Guardiola chief among them.
Regarding the rumour that only an injury to Jerome Boateng prevented Benatia moving back to Roma, Sammer responded sarcastically: "And the transfer of Kevin De Bruyne was denied by Pep, since he wanted him at Manchester City. At this point I am reading many things which make me wonder."
Sammer also responded to a Sport Bild report which suggested Vidal had been drinking alcohol during the club's winter training camp in Doha.
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"Arturo is in very, very good form and I was surprised about what I read," he said. "It's not true, that much is clear. We have a very good, close relationship with Arturo and he himself has said there is no truth in it at all."
Finally, Sammer leapt to the defence of Guardiola. Manchester City confirmed on deadline day that the head coach would take over at the Etihad Stadium in the summer against a backdrop of reports of player unrest in the Bayern camp.
"What is happening here is not right," Sammer said of the various media reports. "Our coach gets blamed for everything. I urge you to show a little more respect towards Pep Guardiola because he did great things for Bayern and football in Germany.
"Every measure is taken to make the Bundesliga more balanced. But you will achieve the complete opposite. This leads to us being even more united."
He added: "Not everything is super with us. I am not going to lie about that. But do you sit every day in your office thinking 'Wow, this is a great day'? In that case I am jealous. These things are not dramatic."**
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- Goal**