Matthijs de Ligt moved from Bayern Munich to Manchester United this summer (Picture: Getty)
Bayern Munich couldn’t resist a not-so-subtle dig at Chelsea when explaining their decision to let Matthijs de Ligt join Manchester United.
De Ligt arrived at Old Trafford along with Bayern teammate Noussair Mazraoui in a double deal worth £60 million.
The Dutch defender came through the ranks at Ajax before spending time at Juventus prior to his spell with the Bundesliga giants.
The 25-year-old spent two seasons at Bayern but sporting director Max Eberl has now revealed the decision to let him leave was based on a desire to bring in a different profile of defender.
‘We have to make decisions where we feel we can have the greatest possible success. We made decisions together with Vincent Kompany,’ Eberl told reporters.
‘Matthijs de Ligt has delivered very consistent performances. We wanted an additional left-footer, which is why we brought in Hiroki Ito.
‘That’s squad planning, then we spend money, then you as a club have to earn money too. We spoke to the players very transparently and then made decisions and that’s how we got the squad we have now.’
Enzo Maresca has a giant first-team squad at present (Picture: Getty)
However, expanding on the club’s squad-building strategy, Eberl didn’t waste an opportunity to take a swipe at Chelsea who are still trying to ship several players out of the squad after another hectic summer of incomings.
‘When you plan a squad, you obviously want to have a squad free of injuries. Inflating a squad is not good,’ he said.
‘We have a good squad size and we want to give our young players the opportunity to show what they can do at the top. Vini works very well with them, they can train at the top.
‘Of course, it’s not nice that two newcomers or returnees, Stani [Josip Stanisic] and Hiroki Ito, have been injured. At the moment it doesn’t feel like we’re reacting well.
‘As a club, you also have to bring in money somewhere. You can go through the season like Chelsea with 44 players, but that becomes difficult for the coach to manage. Then you have to steal jersey numbers, but we don’t do that at FC Bayern.’
Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca, though, has refuted suggestions that his current situation is a mess and said many players are training away from the first team in a group now known as the ‘bomb squad’.
‘I am working with 21 players. Today’s (training) session was with 20 players, yesterday was 21. The other 15-20 are training apart. I don’t see them. It is not a mess that it looks from the outside,’ the Italian told reporters earlier in the week.
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