Newcastle ‘idiots’ for Woltemade, Wirtz snubbed ‘perfect’ move for Liverpool as Bayern bitterness clear
Those associated with Bayern Munich remain bitter over Nick Woltemade and Florian Wirtz, with Newcastle United labelled “idiots” by a former chairman.
Bayern Munich have made a great start to the 2025/26 campaign, winning all five of their Bundesliga games and their Champions League opener.
However, the German giants had difficulties in the summer transfer market as they missed out on Woltemade and Wirtz.
There was a time when Bayern Munich would be the only club for the best players in Germany, but this is no longer the case, and those associated with the Bundesliga giants are not handling this development too well and their bitterness is clear to see.
In the summer, one of Bayern Munich’s priorities was to sign a new striker to compete with Harry Kane and they looked at Woltemade, though they refused to meet VfB Stuttgart’s asking price.
This left the door open for rival clubs to move for the young striker, and Newcastle arguably overpaid to sign Woltemade for £65m in the final few days of the summer transfer window as their desperation to replace Alexander Isak took over.
The 23-year-old joined Newcastle after one good season in the Bundesliga, but he has made a strong start in the Premier League with two goals in his first three games.
Still, this has not stopped former Bayern Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge from having a dig at “idiots” Newcastle over Woltemade.
“I can only congratulate them in Stuttgart for finding, so to speak, an idiot who would pay that much money, because we certainly wouldn’t have done that,” Rummenigge said in an interview with Blickpunkt Sport.
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“I said: We’re coming in on a scale that I no longer find acceptable. We shouldn’t meet all of their demands.”
He added: “The players and their agents must also be careful not to trap themselves. The money has to come from somewhere, and that comes from expanding competitions or creating new ones.”
Rummenigge has also been on one about Wirtz, who decided to reject Bayern Munich and join Liverpool from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer for around £116m.
Wirtz is obviously a very talented footballer, but he is taking time to settle at Liverpool as they are yet to see the best of the attacking midfielder.
So, Rummenigge feels “sorry” for Wirtz, because obviously he’d have “been a perfect fit” for Bayern Munich.
On Wirtz, Rummenigge said: “We’re actually a little sorry about Florian because he’s a great player and I think he would have been a perfect fit for us.”
