Bayern Munich: Why Thiago Alcantara can profit from moving to the club

On 14th July, Bayern Munich shocked the football cosmos by announcing the signing of Thiago Alcantara from Barcelona for a reported 25 million. The vast majority of onlookers wanted to see him in the Premier League, and believed that he would be much more likely to fit in at Manchester United than Barcelona. It cannot be denied that this was partially because of their personal mercurial envisaging of him playing in the Premier League, after his remarkable scintillating displays at the European U-21 Championships, but they would also gain some merit for suggesting that he would have a more likely crack at getting into the starting XI at Manchester, as opposed to Bayern Munich, or even Barcelona. In truth, however, he is most likely good enough to play anywhere. He has the natural skill-set that you would want of a modern player, he can play at any tempo you like, his vision is first class and he can score goals. Along with that, he can play in multiple positions, in fact, almost every midfield position, and perform in all of them. For these reasons, it is a little unrealistic to suggest that he will not get playing time at Bayern Munich. This does not, however, justify why he chose to join Bayern Munich above every other option available to him. I cannot possible argue against the overwhelming conception that he would be more guaranteed of an instant starting place at Manchester United. But that is not the only factor a youngster needs to consider when they wish to progress. He has a fantastic relationship with the manager, Pep Guardiola; Bayern have a fantastic record of bringing young players through the ranks and this switch will be a wholly new experience for him, which should build him with a stronger character, more than anything. He got an offer from Pep Guardiolas Bayern Munich,

Barcelona accepted and everything was in place for him to succeed at his new club. Why would he refuse? Even looking at it in the previous perspective, with regards to playing time, anything can happen in football. At Barcelona, he has two deep-lying playmakers ahead of him, Xavi and Cesc Fabregas, now he has Bastian Schweinsteiger and Toni Kroos, no less of a chance. As for Manchester United, they could easily buy further players capable of playing in his position, such as the aforementioned Cesc Fabregas or Marouane Fellaini. Thiago has since denied claims that Manchester United were interested in him and has stated that his former club, Barcelona did not make enough of an effort to keep him. Thiago's father and agent, Mazinho, suggested his son had been "very close" to joining the Premier League champions, but the Spain Under-21 international appeared to contradict this claim. He said: The truth is that in no moment did United come to us and talk to us. It came from the press; it was always a lie. He was able to leave Barcelona for a reduced price after a lack of first-team appearances activated a clause in his contract and Alcantara felt his former club did not make enough effort to keep him. He said: "It's unfair to say I wasn't patient. The club knew my situation. I waited for them, especially before the European Championship, but they never contacted me. He continued: I didn't feel valued. I wanted to compete. The club knew that I wanted to leave and they didn't do much to change that. Everyone looks out for their interests, I wanted to feel valued and I wanted to compete so I decided to leave the club and join Bayern. I was waiting and waiting all summer, there was a point when I had to decide. All a footballer wants is to play football and I wanted to play, they [Barcelona] didn't do much for me to stay, so here I am." In reflection, the Barcelona management did make a massive blunder in negotiating a comical buyout clause in his contract of 18. This secondary buy-out clause could have been activated by any team until 1st August as a result of him not playing over 30 minutes in 60% of Barcelonas games. There are a lot of rumours of Thiago fixing this buy-out clause, which may be true, but for Barcelona to go through with this shows how little they prioritised having Thiago as part of their future. The fault lies wholly with the Barcelona management and this may eventually turn out to Thiagos benefit. Im not suggesting that hes shown the same perseverance that Xavi and Andres Iniesta have shown in the last decade, Im just breaking down the reasons why that is, and why that is justifiable. Pep Guardiola has shown more faith in him than Barcelona ever have.