Rumour Mongering: Bayern Munich Prepare Third Under-Value Mané Bid

With Bayern Munich 33-year-old star striker Robert Lewandowski pushing to exit the club this summer, the Bavarian giants have targeted Liverpool’s Sadio Mané as his replacement and so far made two bids for the player.

To say they have been received poorly by Liverpool would be an understatement—and that despite the English club being willing to do a deal. Liverpool have set a price tag of around £40M (€46M) for Mané, similar to the fee Bayern want for Lewandowski.

Bayern’s first bid, though, was for around half that amount. Their second then tried to make up some of the difference through add-ons that would only be triggered if Mané won the Ballon d’Or three years in a row.

Liverpool’s reaction to the second bid was as strong a public showing of displeasure as the club have had surrounding an approach for one of their players as they’ve had back to the days when Arsenal lodged a £40M plus one offer for Luis Suarez.

Now, sources in Germany say a third bid is being prepared—and if the rumours are accurate, it’s a third bid that still won’t meet Liverpool’s valuation of the player or Bayern’s valuation of the player he’s meant to be replacing.

Bild are claiming a third bid of €35M plus €5M in add-ons will be on its was shortly. Even assuming the add-ons are in this case more realistic, converted to Pounds it’s a total fee that falls about £5M short of valuation.

There’s a chance, of course, that reports on one side or another are getting the currency wrong. Or it’s possible that this third offer will at least be considered serious enough for Liverpool to engage in negotiations with Bayern.

On the surface, though, if the Bild information is accurate Bayern’s third bid look more like the starting point to actually getting Mané’s transfer across the line than the ending point many would have expected at this stage of the story.