Hoeneß dismisses Robben, Riquelme rumours

FCBayernNews · News fetcher Joined: 31 Aug 2006 Posts: 1328 votes: 2

13.01.2007

Uli Hoeneß has frequently been deprived of his normal eight hours' sleep in Dubai. "We were up again talking until the small hours yesterday evening," he revealed shortly before the end of Bayern's winter training camp. The Cigar Lounge at the Jumeirah Emirates Towers Hotel had been the scene for discussion aplenty: "It's been great up here on the 10th floor," the board director grinned.

For the last time before the Munich party returns home, the general manager took up station in the Lounge for a news conference, addressing a crop of transfer rumours reported in the press over the last few days. fcbayern.de rounds up Hoeneß's most important statements.

Uli Hoeneß on...

...Ali Karimi's future at the club:
"We're continuing to hold informal discussions with [Dubai club] Al-Ahly. They'd definitely like him to stay here, and they'd rather he didn't fly back to Germany with us. If we received a firm offer, guaranteeing they'd be prepared to pay a fee for him, we might well leave Ali here. If Ali leaves us, the coach would ideally like us to enter the transfer market. But we'll wait and see what happens, and we don't think we're under extreme pressure. Even if Ali leaves, and we don't find a suitable replacement, it wouldn't cause us too many major problems."

...reports of a swap deal exchanging Owen Hargreaves for Chelsea's Arjen Robben:
"There's nothing in this. People piece together this kind of story often enough. But these are the facts: There's nothing to this kind of thing at the moment. It's just groping around in the dark with no basis in fact. If Robben was on the market, or Klose and all the rest of them, we'd get involved. But the fact is we haven't been involved, and we've had no contact with Robben's agent or his club."

...reports of Bayern tabling an €18 million offer for Villarreal playmaker Juan Roman Riquelme:
"We're not mad. How could anyone suggest we might buy a player like Riquelme for €18 million? We haven't made an offer, and we're not going to make an offer."

...transfer target Franck Ribéry of Olympique Marseille:
"I've had no contact with him, but I've sat down with the [Olympique Marseille] President at a number of receptions. The situation is the same as it always was. If they're prepared to release him, we'll be one of the first to know. That's how we left it. Marseille need to give a signal that they're prepared to talk. Then we would need to talk about whether that's what we want to do."

...Bayern's reported interest in Miroslav Klose:
"There's nothing new to report, only what we've been saying for the last few weeks and months. If he indicates he'd be prepared to make a switch within Germany, we'd be in the running. If that's not the case, we won't get involved."

...transfer plans for next season:
"We're doing what we can to bring in a big name or two, but we'll have to wait and see if it works out. It's not exactly easy, but I'm confident we'll have an attractive team next season, as we do now. It's fundamentally difficult attracting international players too Germany. On the one hand, that's down to the status of the Bundesliga, and second, it's about tax. Foreigners only pay 25 percent tax in England and Spain, and salary structures in Spain, Italy and England remain completely different from our own. Furthermore, if we're talking about transfer fees for players who would really make us stronger, we're up against the likes of Chelsea, Milan, Real Madrid and Barcelona, so it's not exactly easy."

...contract talks with Claudio Pizarro:
"The situation with regard to Pizarro hasn't changed. We've held talks, and we can imagine continuing the talks with his agent once we get back. But the agent doesn't exactly live on our doorstep. He's in Peru, although I'm sure he'll call in and see us pretty soon."

...contract talks with Andreas Görlitz:
"We'll have to wait and see. We need to strike a gentleman's agreement, because he's not played for more than two years. He'd like to stay, and we'd like to keep him."

...contract talks with Hasan Salihamidzic:
"We're talking to his agent. Hasan is a special friend of this football club. We'll take our time, weigh up the arguments for and against on both sides, and then we'll take a decision in his and our own best interests."

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