Newcastle United transfer negotiators accused of inexperience as jealous director launches Premier League assault

Nick Woltemade, Germany, September 2025.

Bayern Munich endured a tough summer transfer window.

They faced a very public rejection from Florian Wirtz, and were turned down twice by VfB Stuttgart as they attempted to move for Nick Woltemade, with various other attackers also rejecting a move to the club. They almost faced the ultimate embarrassment with Nicolas Jackson's loan from Chelsea all but collapsing after the player arrived in Munich, only for the transfer to eventually be completed after much back-and-forth between the two clubs.

Both of their primary targets Wirtz and Woltemade ended up in the Premier League for a combined fee of over €200 million prompting a frustrated response from those at the German giants.

Newcastle United are playing 'monopoly' in the transfer market - Hoeness

Florian Wirtz of Liverpool during the Premier League match between Liverpool and Bournemouth at Anfield on August 15, 2025 in Liverpool, England. (Image credit: Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images)

Current Bayern Munich manager Vincent Kompany suggested the 34-time Bundesliga champions could not compete financially with the Premier League anymore.

Uli Hoeness, one of Bayern Munich's football executives, claimed teams in the Premier League were playing 'monopoly,' as he complained about the financial muscle the league possesses.

Nick Woltemade of U21 Germany celebrates after scoring his side's first goal during the UEFA European Under-21 Championship 2025 Quarter-Final match between Germany and Italy at DAC Arena on June 22, 2025 in Dunajska Streda, Slovakia. (Image credit: Christian Hofer/Getty Images)

Speaking to SPORT1-Doppelpass via Bavarian Football Works Hoeness spoke of the interest in Wirtz and Woltemade, claiming despite missing out on both targets, Bayern Munich still 'won' the transfer window.

"We have a strong team and didn’t need to strengthen it much," he said. "Of course, we would have liked to have Florian Wirtz, but we’d never have bought him for €150m (£130m).

"We offered €55m (£47.7m) for Nick Woltemade, while Stuttgart wanted €75m (£65m). In the end, he went to [Newcastle] for €90m (£78m)."

He was then quizzed on the prediction that former Bayern Munich player and Ballon d'Or winner Lothar Matthaus made on Woltemade. He suggested that the 23-year-old German international would end up costing between €80m-100m, with his eventual fee being €95m.

Uli Hoeness looks on prior to the Bundesliga match between FC Bayern München and Bayer 04 Leverkusen in 2023 (Image credit: Getty Images)

He said: “(Matthäus) was just lucky. He (Woltemade) isn’t worth the 90 million. That only happened because of the money flowing from Saudi Arabia."

Hoeness has never been one to hold back, but he has really left nothing to be desired in his assessment of Newcastle and Liverpool's summer spending.

Bayern Munich return to action against Hamburg, before facing Club World Cup champions Chelsea in their Champions League curtain-raiser.