
Newcastle United
Premier League • England
Kieran Trippier: Bayern turn screw with better bid to Newcastle as Bundesliga giants push after agreeing terms

Kieran Trippier is still being pursued despite Eddie Howe hoping he stays
Newcastle United have received a new and improved bid from Bayern Munich for Kieran Trippier, according to German football authority Florian Plettenberg.
Trippier is one of Bayern’s main targets this month as they aim to bolster the right-back department. TEAMtalk revealed earlier in January that the Bundesliga champions were seriously considering an approach for the Newcastle man.
Over the weekend, Trippier reached a verbal agreement with Bayern about personal terms, leaving it up to the two clubs to find an agreement.
Now, on Tuesday, Sky Sports Deutschland expert Plettenberg has revealed that there have been new discussions between Bayern and Newcastle for Trippier.
Bayern are said to be ‘pushing for Trippier’ and have ‘submitted an improved offer’ for Newcastle to consider.
While the initial expectation was that Bayern would want Trippier on loan, talks have been angled towards a permanent deal more recently.
Even a loan with an obligation to buy is ruled out; if a transfer is to happen, it would be permanent straight away this month.
Now, it seems the size of Bayern’s bid has increased, but according to the BBC, their £12.8m (€15m) proposal has been rebuffed by the Magpies.
Bayern focus on Trippier over alternative
Interestingly, Plettenberg now indicates that Trippier may have overtaken Paris Saint-Germain’s Nordi Mukiele in Bayern’s list of preferences.
Initially, Mukiele was believed to be their main target, but Plettenberg says Bayern have been ‘focused on Trippier today’.
The Mukiele option isn’t excluded entirely, but Bayern are working towards Trippier as things stand.
They could offer him his second experience of playing abroad after he represented Atletico Madrid in La Liga in between his spells with Tottenham and Newcastle.
At the age of 33, it would be a fairly unexpected swansong in Trippier’s career, but Bayern’s need for a reliable right-back has made him a strong candidate.
That said, their interest in Trippier has not been universally well received in Munich.
Germany legend Lothar Matthaus has questioned whether Trippier is the type of signing his former club should be making.
“Bayern need more depth and reinforcements, but are these players reinforcements? Eric Dier wasn’t necessarily a key player at Tottenham recently,” Matthaus has said.
“I remember Uli Hoeness (Bayern’s honorary president) once saying that, ‘We won’t be bringing in any more players who are sitting on the bench at other clubs’. The latest transfer looks different.
“Kieran Trippier would be a similar case. That’s not Bayern Munich for me.
“Bayern should focus on reinforcements or on the young players. Aleksander Pavlovic sat out against Bremen and wasn’t substituted. When he did play, he was always outstanding.
“Bayern Munich have very good youth players and Christoph Freund (Bayern’s sporting director) is responsible for that. He has a good network.
“In the summer it was said, ‘We can let (Benjamin) Pavard and (Josip) Stanisic go and get someone else instead’, and then they didn’t get anyone else. As a result, they’ve got problems at right-back and in the centre.
“They thought, ‘We’ll manage that’. No, they reacted too late. The team can’t find itself.”