Sadio Mane’s miserable time at Bayern Munich shows no signs of abating with the former Liverpool and Premier League ace fighting playing for his future at the Bundesliga champions already.
With the Senegal international looking like a pale imitation of his once irrepressible self on the pitch, it was his actions off it which made headlines for all the wrong reasons in midweek.
Bayern confirmed following that 3-0 Champions League hammering at Manchester City that Mane had been suspended for the upcoming Bundesliga clash with Hoffenheim. The reason, Sky Sports say, was an unseemly and ill-timed post-match bust-up with team-mate Leroy Sane.
With his most recent Bayern goal coming over 160 days ago – all the way back in October – this is starting to feel like one of those transfers which just isn’t going to work out to any extent, for any party.
Liverpool look like a team crying out for a peak-Mane’s intensity and thrust. Bayern, meanwhile, are yet to stumble upon a tactic capable of coaxing the magical best out of a man who finished second in the 2022 Ballon D’Or awards behind Karim Benzema.
Sadio Mane flopping at Bayern Munich after Liverpool exit
“When are we getting to the point where we admit that Sadio Mane was what the Germans call ein Fehlkauf? ‘A wrong transaction’. A ‘wrong purchase’. We are getting to that point now,” reporter Manuel Veth tells the Gegenpressing Bundesliga podcast.
“He looked so lost in that Freiburg game (last week).”
Mane, Veth adds, is starting to feel eerily reminiscent of Timo Werner in Chelsea blue. All misstimed runs and missplaced finishes.
“Do you know what he reminds me of? He is like the Premier League, reverse-Timo Werner,” Veth adds, arguing that we may already be approaching a ‘make or break’ period in Mane’s still-embryonic Allianz Arena career.
“I think he was offside a couple of times against Freiburg, his runs always seem to be off. His chance conversation is terrible.
“If this doesn’t work out – he’s going to turn 32 next year – what is his future going to look like?”
Liverpool sold Mane for a fee of £35 million last summer. The former Southampton talisman is also under contract until 2025.
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