Marc Roca is living the dream at Bayern Munich. His words, not ours.
But while Dwight Schrute’s wildest fantasy involved co-running a bed and breakfast with Satan himself, you’d imagine that this highly-rated midfielder had something a little more ambitious in mind when he arrived at the space-age Sabener Strasse training centre a few weeks ago.
It was always going to take time for Roca to establish himself as a starring member of FC Hollywood’s all-star cast. Right now, however, Roca is more like an extra, going about his business in the background, completely overshadowed by the A-listers he is forced to share a stage with.
Since joining in a £15 million deal after Espanyol were relegated from La Liga, the deep-lying midfielder has not made a single Bundesliga appearance.
He was left twiddling his thumbs on the sidelines too during the Champions League victories over Atletico Madrid and Lokomotiv Moscow.
Even when the excellent Corentin Tolisso was suspended for last weekend’s 5-0 thrashing of Frankfurt, Hansi Flick preferred Leon Goretzka and Joshua Kimmich in a double-pivot.
The treble-winning Bayern coach is preaching patience of course. Roca is a 23-year-old arriving from a new country and he was never likely to immediately dislodge the talismanic Kimmich, the rejuvenated Tolisso or the ever-improving Goretzka.
Furthermore, with Bayern competing on numerous fronts in a packed fixture schedule, rotation will be the order of the day this term.
But when Roca had so many other options, including Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal (Razon), Aston Villa (MD), Sheffield United and Burnley (La Grada), you have to wonder whether Bayern is a classic case of ‘too much, too soon’.
“You need a bit of time to get to know the processes. He is very hard-working, has a very good professional attitude, that’s very positive,” Flick tells Kicker of a man who’s only action thus far came in a DFB Pokal clash with fifth-tier FC Duren.
“The chance to incorporate him (in the starting XI) just hasn’t arrived. We haven’t had too many training sessions with the full squad.”
Of course, Bayern represents a massive step up from Villa, Sheffield United, Burnley and even an Arsenal side who haven’t played Champions League football since 2016/17.
But, as the likes of Renato Sanches, Sebastian Rode and Mickael Cuisance will tell you, being the fourth or fifth-choice midfielder at a bonafide European superclub is not much fun.
It’s telling that all three of those players all left within three years of arriving at the Allianz Arena, growing tired with life as an afterthought. It is early days, of course, and Roca has plenty of time to prove that he doesn’t belong alongside Sanchez and co in the pantheon of expensive Bayern flops.
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