Bayern Munich chief Uli Hoeness accused Newcastle United of spending ‘Monopoly money’ following their signing of German international Nick Woltemade.
Woltemade joined Newcastle from Stuttgart for a club-record fee of £69million in a move that ultimately paved the way for Alexander Isak to join Liverpool on deadline day.
The tall German scored 12 goals in his only league campaign for Stuttgart and further impressed at the Under-21 Euros over the summer.
Woltemade had been in talks to sign for Bayern Munich earlier in the summer window, with reports suggesting that the 23-year-old had reached a verbal agreement to join the Bundesliga champions.
However, Bayern fell considerably short of Stuttgart’s valuation of the striker and were only willing to offer around €55 million (£47.7m).
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And Bayern’s honorary club president Hoeness has now aimed a dig at Newcastle’s Saudi owners, who he believes paid well over the odds to complete a deal for Woltemade.
‘Woltemade isn’t worth the €90m fee. That only happened because of the money flowing from Saudi Arabia,’ he told Sport1 Dopa.
Speaking more generally about the inflated prices paid by Premier League clubs, he added: ‘Of course, we would have liked to have Florian Wirtz, but we would never have bought him for 150 million.
‘We would have liked to have Nick Woltemade. We offered 55 million, Stuttgart wanted 75. Now they’ve apparently sold him to Newcastle for almost 90 million euros.
‘But what Newcastle is doing has nothing to do with football.
‘It’s like Monopoly – advance to Schlossallee (the name for the most expensive property in the German edition of the board game), then some sheikh will come along, and then you can buy.’
Newcastle boss, Eddie Howe, meanwhile, has urged caution from the club’s fanbase and said their new record signing will need time to adapt to the rigours of the English top flight.
‘There will be a period of adjustment so we all have to be very understanding of that. It is difficult for players to just to come in,’ Howe recently said.
‘He has not had a pre-season with us and I love every player to experience that because your learning is a lot quicker.
‘But I think he has qualities that translate across anyway, he is very good technically. He is very good around the box, he scores goals and I think that will translate.’
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