"That did not please us": Bayern patron Uli Hoeneß explains the turnaround regarding Max Eberl

Club patron Uli Hoeneß has praised the development of sporting director Max Eberl at Bayern Munich. The 52-year-old extended his contract early at the end of August until 2029.

"I think Max has opened up more within the club over the past six months. All of us - Karl-Heinz and I, and of course Herbert Hainer as well - have been kept much better informed by him about everything than was previously the case," Hoeneß said on Monday evening at a gala marking the 80th anniversary of FC Bayern's basketball department. Like president Herbert Hainer and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Hoeneß sits on the powerful supervisory board at the Munich club.

Before those positive developments in recent months, Hoeneß said Eberl had led "a bit of a loner's existence" at Bayern Munich. "We didn't like that. But he has changed that fundamentally. In that respect, he has done a superb job."

Just before the DFB Cup final against VfB Stuttgart at the end of May, Hoeneß had still been critical of Eberl. There were "doubts" about his work and his chances of a new contract were only "60 to 40", he said at the time in an interview with Spiegel. By the end of July at the training camp at Tegernsee, though, Hoeneß was already stressing that Eberl's chances of an extension had risen to "100 per cent".

Uli Hoeneß praises Max Eberl for Bayern Munich's summer transfers

Hoeneß has now revealed that he got "enough trouble" internally for that statement: "But if I had said 80 per cent that day, there would have been even more trouble. So that was an answer between plague and cholera."

He put Eberl's rapid rise in standing down not only to what he sees as better communication, but also to the summer transfers wrapped up early. "He implemented our proposal 100 per cent, to sign the players as early as possible because they could be more expensive after the World Cup," Hoeneß said. Nathaniel Brown and Ismael Saibari moved to Munich for 50 million each at the beginning of July.

"The budget we had set - we only wanted to invest up to around 50 million - has also come in under that. I think we only invested 30 million because almost 70 million came in through sales. So good work has been done there," Hoeneß concluded.