Weekend Warm-up: How badly does Bayern Munich want Florian Wirtz next summer?; Throwing it back to Don Henley; Torching House of the Dragon; & MORE!

According to a report from Sky Sport journalist Florian Plettenberg (as captured by @iMiaSanMia), Bayern Munich has Bayer Leverkusen star Florian Wirtz atop its wish list for 2025, but if the Bavarians should fail to land the Germany international, the club would then pursue Paris Saint-Germain loanee Xavi Simons, who is back at RB Leipzig for 2024/25.

Take a deep breath...got all that? Okay, here is the lowdown from Plettenberg:

Bayern’s number #1 target for the attacking midfield position next summer is Florian Wirtz. But if a deal for Wirtz proved to be impossible, then Xavi Simons remains a candidate for Bayern next year. A deal for the Dutchman would be more simple next summer as PSV will no longer be involved and Simons would only have two years left on his PSG contract. Max Eberl and Xavi Simons still have a good relationship.

We covered that story in depth here, but it did get the wheels turning as to just serious Bayern Munich might be about emptying its bank account (ok, at least putting a little dent into it) for the Bayer Leverkusen man — and also how serious the team might be about using Simons as an option should things with Wirtz fall apart.

Bayern Munich could, indeed, have Simons as part of its contingency plan should a pursuit of Wirtz fail, but the Dutchman is — allegedly — planning on a move to England next summer. A lot can happen between now and then, but the Bavarians appear to be ahead of the game when it comes to prepping for the summer of 2025.

So...what does this tell us about the long-term plan for Bayern Munich’s front office? Let’s dig into that. Here are a couple of things this tells us:

• Bayern Munich is a little worried about what happens with Jamal Musiala: Musiala is already drawing interest from Spain (FC Barcelona, Real Madrid) and England (Manchester City, Liverpool FC) and will need to be shown a plan on what the future looks like in Bavaria for both himself and the team. Right now, it is not a certainty that Musiala extends his deal with Bayern Munich, which could push more focus on a pursuit of Wirtz.
• Florian Wirtz is a “must get” for the Bavarians: It does seems as if Bayern Munich views Wirtz as a player that it absolutely needs to have, no matter what the cost.
• Xavi Simons might already be plotting to use Bayern as leverage: For Simons, it is all a win-win. The Dutchman does not want to play for his parent club, Paris Saint-Germain, and should use this season to conjure up interest from any Premier League side that he wants to go to. Even with that, it appears he will have a good fallback option in Bavaria.
• Bayern Munich seems willing to take a chance that Wirtz and Musiala can coexist: There is the possibility that Musiala re-ups with Bayern and Wirtz is signed. Then what? Well, it seems as if the club is confident it can find a way to use two of the top, young No. 10s in the world without a conflict.

So, what do you think? Is Wirtz a “must have” player for Bayern Munich in 2025?

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Bavarian Podcast Works — Weekend Warm-up Show Season 4, Episode 4

Given the subject matter, there is not much need for a preamble when it comes to Bayern Munich — this offseason has been filled with peaks and valleys. Let’s discuss those and a lot more on this edition of the Bavarian Podcast Works — Weekend Warm-up Show. This is what we have on tap:

• Bayern Munich is reportedly going to pass on a transfer of Bayer Leverkusen center-back Jonathan Tah — even if it sells Matthijs de Ligt to Manchester United.
• What Vincent Kompany’s plan to use Joshua Kimmich in the central midfield means for João Palhinha, Leon Goretzka, Konrad Laimer — and the biggest loser, Aleksandar Pavlović. Plus, how this affects the right-back candidates, Josip Stanišić and Sacha Boey.
• What do we need to look for during Bayern Munich’s friendly vs. Tottenham Hotspur this weekend.
• Finally, we are taking some dragon fire straight to that House of the Dragon season finale...yup, it was terrible and confirmed that this season was all about treading water — a mortal sin for a show.

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Song of the Week: “Boys of Summer” by Don Henley

This song always hits me a little weird and not just because The Dude hates The Eagles (NSFW link due to language). Don Henley’s solo career did produce some good music and “Boys of Summer” was his biggest hit.

While I always like the song, it always felt a little eerie and dark. Maybe it is just me who felt that way about it, but it certainly never felt like a happy song to me. Regardless, it is a still a classic from the 80s.

Released in 1984, this was a massive hit for Henley. Enjoy:

In this space, I sometimes I highlight a cover of the Song of the Week and this 2003 version by The Ataris out a pop punk-type spin on the song, which still is in the rotation for many radio stations. I always liked it, though I know some people do not feel as strongly about it as I do:

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Entertainment Rundown

House of the Dragon

Talk about a whiff...

House of the Dragon meandered through its second season and annoyed viewers with its slow pacing, wasted scenes and a lack of direction. Basically, the showrunners and writers wasted the time of viewers and offered no big payoff in the season finale. It was a lot of nothing centered around one cool moment where Daemon finally saw the vision of “A Song of Fire and Ice.”

Anyway, let’s get to it...here are some quick hitters where we take some dragon fire to the show:

• There was no point in having Aemond eviscerate a town if you were not going to show it. From the beginning, the episode went off the rails with “misses.”
• If you really wanted to make Aemond the big villain, you need to actually show him torching a village and not just give the audience the fly-by of his destructive ways.
• After seeing this season, it is clear, all Targaryens are fatally flawed in one way or another. Maybe Westeros should have went into stealth mode and just taken them all out.
• Okay, I wrote that tongue-in-cheek, as they are necessary to eventually to get to Jon Snow (The Prince that was Promised, despite some folks thinking it is Daenerys Targaryen), but they are the most flawed family and that is saying a lot.
• Ser Criston Cole was — again — a minor part of the episode after evolving into a key figure last season. I’ll say it again, the most fascinating characters have been the least featured during this season. Cole, Aemond, and Daemon spinning wheels in favor of the constant whining and brooding of Jacaerys Velaryon (his father was supposed to be a great warrior and he just...whines) and Rhaenyra taking ruling and strategic advice from the local prostitute (Mysaria). That whole angle of the plot was just a massive miss for me.
• I want to be clear — we did not need a full season of Daemon having hallucinations at Harrenhal for viewers to think it was viable that he would have the “Song of Ice and Fire” vision/prophecy if he touched the local Weirwood. What a waste of a dynamic character for an entire season.
• The prophecy itself was done well as it channeled somehow to both Daemon and Helaena (apparently), but why is no one talking about the Green Man walking right by the Weirwood as Daemon and the Witch were walking toward it?
• Some lauded the scene between Rhaenyra and Alicent, but it felt forced and awkward. I don’t think it added much of anything to an already flawed portrayal of the story.
• If there is a positive, it does seem as if the show is setting up a good redemption arc for Aemon as he was whisked out of King’s Landing by Larys Strong.
• Helaena Targaryen is starting to emerge as the best of the Targaryen clans and maybe the only redeemable non-child character.
• Overall, this was a bad episode (minus the Weirwood scene) and the season wasted the time of viewers. Reading into it, HBO is back to its cost-cutting ways with shows and there was some internal strife in the back office team with producers and what not. Make no mistake, next season is “make or break” for the show. It is a shame that HBO, the showrunners, and writers are wasting such good material and unable to make it translate well to the screen. It is hard to think that — aside of the paycheck — George RR Martin really thinks this has been good. With so many other Game of Thrones shows in development (Martin really crafted a terrific, deep, and unique universe), HBO can ill-afford many more misses before the viewers stage their version of “Robert’s Rebellion.”