Bayern Munich legend Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has labelled Newcastle ‘idiots’ for coughing up £65million to sign Nick Woltemade in the summer transfer window.
Woltemade, 23, attracted the attentions of a host of Europe’s top clubs after racking up 17 goals across an impressive debut season for Stuttgart last term.
A string of eye-catching performances at the European Under-21 Championship, where Woltemade finished as top scorer, did little to dampen speculation that the striker’s days at Stuttgart were numbered, with Bayern, Newcastle and Atletico Madrid all linked.
As the transfer deadline came into view, Stuttgart grew increasingly resigned to losing Woltemade and Bayern held advanced discussions with their Bundesliga rivals before launching two separate bids for the forward.
And while Bayern were in desperate need of attacking reinforcements following a serious injury to Jamal Musiala, the German champions decided to drop their pursuit after a second offer of €55m (£48m) was turned down.
Get personalised football updates every day
Sign up to our daily football newsletter and choose your team to get the latest news, rumours and more about your favourite team.
This prompted Newcastle to try their luck with a late swoop and the Magpies went on to wrap up a club-record deal for the Germany international, who has scored two goals in his first three Premier League games.
After finding the net against Arsenal, Woltemade will no doubt be desperate to increase his tally for the Toon when Eddie Howe’s side return to Champions League action at Union St Gilloise on Tuesday evening.
But despite his strong start for Newcastle, Woltemade is yet to convince Rummenigge that he has the quality or potential to justify such a hefty price tag.
The former Bayern forward-turned-CEO told Bayernisch Rundfunk: ‘I’ll be honest: When this story with Woltemade and then the demands of Stuttgart came up, I, as well as Uli Hoeness, Herbert Hainer, Jan Dreesen, and Max Eberl, said: “Guys, we’re reaching figures that I no longer find acceptable!”
‘We shouldn’t meet every demand to make someone happy, especially the financiers at Stuttgart.
‘I can only congratulate the people at Stuttgart for finding – let me use quotation marks here – “an idiot” who paid that much money, because we certainly wouldn’t have done that at Munich.’
Rummenigge has grown disillusioned by soaring transfer fees in modern football and believes the game must ‘find a solution’ in order to ‘operate seriously’ as a global attraction.
‘We can’t keep going higher, further, and faster every year,’ the two-time Bundesliga winner added.
‘Salaries and transfer fees have been rising rapidly in recent years. We can’t continue to operate seriously in this way.
‘In England, they now have billionaires, or sometimes even states that own clubs, like Saudi Arabia, Qatar – or Paris Saint-Germain. And then you have to play against them in the European Cup and keep up.
‘Then, in the meantime, you are expected to win this competition.’
Woltemade was quickly won over fans in his early showings for Newcastle this season and was roundly applauded as he was replaced by William Osula before Arsenal’s late comeback at St James’ Park.
Facing the media at his post-match press conference, Newcastle head coach singled out Woltemade for special praise, saying there were ‘really good signs’ in the German’s display.
‘It was a great finish from Nick. It was a big moment in the game, and we were hopeful of kicking on from there and get our A-game going,’ Howe told reporters.
‘That didn’t really happen. He was starved of service a bit, and we didn’t put many crosses in the box for him.
‘But the couple that we did, he was on the end of. There were really good signs for him.’
For more stories like this, check our sport page.
Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.