German National Team Coach Löw "Not Interested" In Götze Transfer Decision

On the eve of Germany's penultimate international friendly before the Euro 2016 tournament, national coach Joachim Löw was grappling with some new headaches, including a rapidly growing injury list.  Potential mailing address changes for some of his squad members would understandably be near the bottom of Löw's list of priorities.  Still, his reaction to continued questions from the press about Mario Götze's future was strong enough to suggest the coach is attempting to insulate a key player from a very real and potentially growing distraction.

As previously noted, Liverpool's long-rumored pursuit of Götze took some interesting turns in recent days when the player emphatically expressed an intent to remain at Bayern, only for his club's chief executive officer to respond with a much more noncommittal statement.  Löw himself may have contributed to the saga when his remarks about Götze's relationship with Bayern were seized upon by desperate transfer tea leaf readers.  Now, however, with a somewhat important tournament just around the corner, the German national coach would like everyone to please, please, please stop asking him about Mario Götze's transfer.

"I have said everything there is to say about Mario Götze and Bayern Munich," summarized Löw at a press conference prior to Germany's friendly with Slovakia. "I'm fundamentally not interested in whether a player, after this tournament, perhaps goes on holiday or perhaps changes clubs.  I'm not interested in who said what, the only thing that interests me right now is what [the German national squad] does."  And in case you didn't get the message the first time, Löw added that "[he] doesn't want to be confronted anymore about this and doesn't want to talk anymore about this."

There is, quite clearly, a bit of not-so-subliminal messaging going on between Götze's camp and the upper management at Bayern Munich. For Liverpool supporters hopeful of seeing the club capture the German midfielder, the present state of affairs should offer some modest hope that an extended stay at Bayern for Götze is not as certain as it recently appeared.  Those responsible for the German national team would like that uncertainty to be set aside for now.  Echoing Löw's exhortation, Oliver Bierhoff, the German national team manager (a more public relations-focused role than the title implies), added that: "I understand the club's position, but during the tournament there should not be any further disruption coming from Bayern."

The only thing that can be stated with certainty is that it may not be a great idea to ask Löw about Götze at the next press conference.