There’s nothing left this season for Manchester United to do but speculate over the identity of their next manager and dream about the players they might be signing in order to pull the team out of the depths it has sunk to this season. Unsettled Bayern Munich players seem to be a prime target, and the best of the bunch is Thomas Muller.
The Bild isn’t always the most reliable of sources, but there seems to be some change happening at Bayern. Toni Kroos has been linked with Manchester United all season, and now the same goes for Muller, who might feel a little under-appreciated by Pep Guardiola in comparison to both Jupp Heynckes and Louis van Gaal, who was the manager who first gave him the opportunity in the starting lineup.
And Van Gaal, at the moment, seems like the top contender for the Manchester United job. He is tied to the Dutch national team until after the World Cup, but he himself has publicly stated he’d love to become the manager at the club. Now it’s up to the Glazers to make up their minds about the man who replaces the man who replaced the heir to Alex Ferguson, something Van Gaal was linked to about a decade ago.
Muller had a very good season with 13 league goals and 25 in all competition: That’s a career high for him, so it might be safer to slow down on all the speculations about his own wishes to leave the club. He has a contract until 2017, and it’s hard seeing Bayern letting him go for anything less than £3o-35 million. It’s something Manchester United will be spending (some say it’s going to be 200 million, no matter the currency), but the identity of the manager will also help determine who attractive playing for them will be.
Muller has been with Bayern all his life, born 50 kilometers away from the city, and joining the youth club at the age of 11. He has 98 goals in 254 appearances for the senior club since being promoted in 2008, becoming a full time starter in Van Gaal’s first season (2009-2010). He also has 47 caps for the national team, scoring 16 goals, taking part in the 2010 World Cup and the 2012 Euro.