Bayern Munich boss Hansi Flick has conceded that he wanted to sign Timo Werner, Kai Havertz and Callum Hudson-Odoi but missed out on them, with all three players now playing for Chelsea.
Hudson-Odoi has been linked with a move to Bayern over the past two years, while the German club were also believed to be interested in Werner and Havertz last summer.
Chelsea signed Werner from RB Leipzig and Havertz from Leverkusen, leaving Bayern Munich failing to secure a host of transfer targets.
Flick is happy to admit that he wanted those players, as well as Sergino Dest, who Barcelona signed last year, but claims the club signed the player they wanted most – Leroy Sane.
There had been talk of a disagreement between Flick and the Bayern sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic, but he says they were always on the same page with regards to signings.
‘It is always said that Hudson-Odoi and Dest were my desired players, but they were our desired players,’ Flick said, via Tz.
‘We decided that we wanted to add players for the wide areas and that is what we did.
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‘Havertz, Werner and Sane were mentioned, I would have loved to have all three, but we all decided on Sane. He’s a player who makes a difference.’
Sane signed for Bayern Munich from Manchester City in July last year and has already played 33 games for the German team, scoring eight goals.
Sane started for Bayern alongside Thomas Muller, Serge Gnabry and Lewandowski as they saw off Lazio in the last 16 of the Champions League on Wednesday, beating the club 2-1 and 6-2 on aggregate.