Hasan Salihamidzic has suggested that Bayern Munich thought Sadio Mane was a striker when signing him from Liverpool.
Mane was brought in for £35m as a nominal replacement for the legendary Robert Lewandowski when leaving Anfield last summer. But in quotes to Sport1 via Fabrizio Romano on Twitter, Salihamidzic has indicated that Bayern haven’t got what they expected from the 31-year-old.
“With Mane, we signed a player who can also play as striker. In retrospect, you can play it smart and say: that’s not the case,” he said. “Gnabry, Coman, Sane, Sadio, Tel, Choupo, Muller, Jamal – all top players.”
Not the Mane Bayern expected
One of the worries for Mane heading to Bayern last year was that he was attempting to replace Lewandowski. After eight years and 344 goals, no player was going to be able to match that.
But without a natural top-class replacement within their squad, the German champions clearly thought Sadio could step up and be that man.
In reality, that was never going to happen. The only time Mane ever played as a centre-forward for Liverpool was during his final six months at the club. In that time he was relatively prolific, but he’s absolutely nothing like Lewandowski. As a result, Salihamidzic and Bayern were setting themselves up for disappointment from the start.
Right now, it looks as though Mane’s stay in Bavaria is due to be a short one. Following an incident with Leroy Sane last week, it seems like the Senegal legend has marked himself to be sold in the summer.
Quite where he could now go is anybody’s guess. Already comfortably the wrong side of thirty, Mane is on enormous wages in Munich. Not many clubs will be up for matching that right now.
Of course, if they can look beyond the disciplinary issue then there’s still a chance Sadio can turn things around at Bayern. From what we saw over the last two years at Liverpool though, this disappointing form is not a temporary thing. Sadly, it now looks like Mane will soon no longer have a seat at the top table of European football.