Hoeneß on Neuer's future and convincing Kompany to put trust in youth talents

In a recent interview with podcast ‘Auf eine weiß-blaue Tasse’ Uli Hoeneß has revealed he would like Manuel Neuer to stay at Bayern Munich next season. 

“Well, personally, if it were up to me, we would try to keep him [Neuer] for another year," the member of Bayern's supervisory board explained.

"We would ask him to be a mentor for Urbig. That includes being willing to sit out some games [for Urbig to get game time].

"We think very highly of Urbig. We truly believe he can be the successor and he can only achieve that if he plays regularly.

“Both get along very, very well. So we hope that Manuel will stay for another year and prepare for the future in this position,” he added. 

On a side note, Hoeneß also revealed that he persuaded Vincent Kompany to trust academy players rather than sign Xavi Simons before the current season started.

“Vincent Kompany was at Tegernsee [training camp last summer], he drove out there with Christoph Freund, and said: ‘Uli, we need Xavi  Simons’.

"I had put an apple pie on the table for the meeting and replied: 'Vincent, you can have another piece of the apple pie, but you're not getting Xavi.

“We want you to play the young players' - And he did exactly that,” Hoeneß said, regarding the Bavarians' head coach.

“There were some really big disputes because some of our people in charge wanted to spend €100-150m more for some serious signings. 

"But the older heads prevailed, mainly because we said: If you want to give the youngsters a chance, then you have to make space for them. 

“If we buy players for €100-150m, it's obvious that the coach would have to play them,” Hoeneß explained.

What a piece of fortune and good business that has turned out to be, with the likes of Lennart Karl uncovered by the Belgian gaffer.