What exactly do Bayern plan to do with Lewandowski and Werner?

Bayern Munich are currently focused on winning another Bundesliga title, but their future plans at the striker position are also worth monitoring closely.

This week, Sport Bild reported that Bayern Munich have an agreement in place with RB Leipzig star Timo Werner, who turned 23 on March 6 and is already one of the Bundesliga’s most prolific scorers. Per Bild, Werner will either arrive in Bayern in 2020 on a free transfer when his contract expires — it’s Bayern’s M.O. to sign Germany’s promising players to free contracts, as they did with Serge Gnabry and Leon Goretzka — or Bayern will shell out upwards of 40 million Euros for one of the world’s most promising players.

Werner, of course, is more than just “promising.” He already started at striker for the German national team at the 2018 World Cup, and the man known for scoring braces is seventh in the Bundesliga this season with 11 goals for the third-place Bulls.

The Werner situation is already messy, given the shots thrown by executives at both clubs and Leipzig’s desire to avoid Bayern signing one of their star players for free. Leipzig have designs on becoming a BuLi powerhouse of their own, so getting out-maneuvered by Bayern would be a huge blow to them, especially if it involves missing out on fair compensation for Werner.

But this situation may have been complicated even more by Bayern’s reported interest in extending Robert Lewandowski’s contract. According to Bild‘s Christian Falk, Bayern would like to offer Lewandowski a contract that expires in 2023 and negotiations are set to begin shortly.

It’s a bit of a turn-around for Bayern, considering Lewandowski was heavily linked with a move last summer. With only Sandro Wagner behind Lewandowski on the roster, Bayern wisely chose not to sell their best goalscorer to, say, Real Madrid last summer. But extending Lewandowski through his age-34 season is not only risky because it assumes he’ll maintain his current production levels into his mid-30s. It would also make it more difficult for them to convince someone like Werner to sign. That’s especially true if they want to get Werner to put pen to paper on a free contract.

Werner can also on the left, as he has done six times this season, according to WhoScored.com’s data. However, the site also shows that Werner has played centrally as a striker 21 times, his natural position as a primary goalscoring threat. For Germany at the World Cup, Werner started at striker but often drifted to the left, supporting the midfielders behind him, but this hard work often went unrewarded and wasn’t truly the best usage of the pacy, eagle-eyed attacker’s skill set.

Though Werner is just 23, he’s already playing at a level that demands him starting on a weekly basis. Bayern may be one of the biggest clubs in the world, but if signing with Die Roten means losing valuable minutes to Lewandowski, Werner may not see a move as a wise decision. As a free transfer, Werner would hold all the cards, which is why Bayern have to be cautious with these two negotiations. “Caution” and “Bayern” go hand-in-hand — they’re a powerhouse on a global scale for a reason — but the seemingly sudden interest in locking up Lewandowski long-term could harm their ability to invest as little as financially possible in signing Werner.

Lewandowski’s credentials are, of course, well-known. He’s remained an absolute menace this season, and he’s always been one of the absolute best forwards in the world. His finishing, technical ability, and link-up play are all fabulous, and he’s shown no signs of slowing down. Bayern have two 35-year-old wingers on the roster in club legends Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben, who have both remained effective this season when healthy, so there’s plenty of precedent to them extending an attacker until they’re 34. Ribery and Robben haven’t declined precipitously, and while they’re exceptions to the rule, Lewandowski, a striker whose game is based on technique, would seem even less likely to suffer a decline into his early 30s.

Still, Bayern have shown that they know how important it is to invest in their future. Joshua Kimmich, Serge Gnabry, Leon Goretzka, Kingsley Coman, Niklas Sule and Corentin Tolisso are among the world’s best young players; Werner would immediately join that list if acquired by Bayern either this summer (for a lot of money) or next (for free).

That difference in price will be predicated on a variety of factors, including Leipzig’s strategy and Werner’s interest in joining the club. It’s understandable that Bayern want to extend the contract of a world-class striker like Lewandowski, and it’s conceivable that he and Werner could rotate minutes or start together.

However, Werner may not want to cede any playing time, nor would he want to potentially switch positions to the left in order to play with an established striker. Both men could easily co-exist on the same pitch in a two-striker system, hearkening to the days of Roy Makaay and Claudio Pizarro, but that change could involve displacing other prominent players in Bayern’s attack; it’s yet another potential tradeoff that Bayern must weigh when pursuing a future with both Lewandowski and Werner.

Predicting Werner’s motivations is risky business, especially since so many young players have moved to Bayern without the guarantee of starting every game or playing in their preferred position every game in a rotational set-up — but that risk is also held by Bayern.

While Bayern may not want to risk losing a sure-fire star in Lewandowski, there’s no guarantee they sign Werner either. Every other top club in Europe should be interested in the 23-year-old, so although Bayern would figure to be the favorites as Germany’s dominant club, any loss of leverage could damage their ability to sign a player regarded as the country’s most dominant young striker. That’s the only position where Bayern lack a standout under the age of 25, so signing Werner would be critical. There are other options, such as Hertha Berlin’s criminally underrated Davie Selke, but Werner seems to be Bayern’s top target.

The problem is that Werner is so good already that he’s more than just a backup, and if he’s worried Bayern are diminishing his worth by extending Lewandowski aggressively, then that just might cost Die Roten several million dollars – or signing Werner at any price.