Mané not seen as a replacement for Gnabry or Lewandowski

Sadio Mané hasn’t been signed as a replacement for Serge Gnabry and/or Robert Lewandowski, insists Hasan Salihamidzic.

Bayern München board member for sport Hasan Salihamidzic has insisted Sadio Mané hasn’t been signed from Liverpool because he expects Serge Gnabry and/or Robert Lewandowski to leave the club.

“We signed Sadio to increase the competition in our team. We weren’t happy with our Champions League exit against Villarreal. We want to strengthen the fight for spots in our team,” Salihamidzic told Sport Bild.

“The signing of Mané will reshuffle the cards for every attacking player. We never thought about having to let a player go when we signed Sadio.”

Gnabry and Lewandowski – both under contract until 2023 – are being linked with moves away from the club, but Salihamidzic want to hold on to the duo.

“The Mané transfer has nothing to do with Serge Gnabry at all. We definitely want to sit down with Serge again to see if he is willing to extend his contract during this transfer period,” said Salihamidzic, who is still awaiting a decision from Gnabry on whether he sees his long-term future with Bayern.

“We don’t really want to go into the final year of his contract without hearing from him that he wants to stay. There should be no pressure built up at all. However, it’s clear is that it would only be fair from the club’s point of view, if a player doesn’t want to extend, for us to talk about how we can resolve this situation satisfactorily for everyone involved,” added the Bayern chief.

Unlike Gnabry, Lewandowski has made it very clear that he wants to leave the club. Nevertheless, Bayern fully expect their star striker to stay.

“Our position is clear: Robert has a contract until the summer of 2023,” emphasized Salihamidzic.

When asked about reports that Barcelona could increase their opening bid of €32 million for Lewandowski to €50 million, the Bayern boss responded:

“I’m not thinking about that. I’m expecting to see Robert in training at Säbener Straße on July 12.”

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