Football teams are rarely too transparent about which players are on their radar for a future transfer but Bayern Munich have revealed they are willing and able to match the release clause for one of their summer targets.
Whether it's respect for the team they're currently playing for or fear of letting their rivals know who they want to sign, and the chance of the deal being scuppered, but clubs rarely talk about who they want to sign.
Instead football fans are left to hope and rely on the sources that journalists report on getting things right, which isn't always possible, to work out who their club will be signing.
We know, thanks to the reports, that back in January Bayern Munich really wanted to sign Callum Hudson-Odoi and had several offers for the Chelsea youngster turned down by the Blues.
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The Bundesliga champions aren't favourites to retain their title this season and are expecting a big overhaul in the summer, the lower the average age of the squad.
As well as Hudson-Odoi they've also been linked with Marco Asensio but their biggest target might be Atletico Madrid centre back Lucas Hernandez. Speaking, via Marca, about the defender club president Uli Hoeness said:
"We definitely have to do something at centre-back.
"I imagine if given the chance, we'd pay the release clause. We've saved up; we're well prepared for the summer.
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"Our sporting director has everything under control."
In December the same paper claimed that the player had already agreed a deal with the German club which made the La Liga side put out a statement saying, "Following the story published by the Marca newspaper on an alleged deal between Bayern Munich and our player Lucas Hernandez, according to which the German club is to trigger the Frenchman's buyout clause in the January window, Atlético de Madrid wishes to state that, in conversation with our club, Lucas Hernandez has denied any deal with Bayern Munich and also any intention to exit our club.
"Additionally, the excellent relationship between Atlético de Madrid and the German club has led Bayern Munich to deny said operation during a conversation between officials of both clubs."
It's a very bold move by Hoeness to come out and basically say they're going to trigger his release clause so you figure he's got to be quite confident they'll get the deal done.
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Bayern will be having a very expensive, fortunately they've been saving up for it.
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