Barely more than “a buttered pretzel”: VfB chief takes a swipe at Bayern

Alexander Wehrle

At VfB Stuttgart’s annual general meeting, their chairman Alexander Wehrle took a small swipe at Bayern Munich.

During the 51-year-old's speech, the transfer saga involving Nick Woltemade also came up after his move to Premier League club Newcastle United.

Last summer, the German record champions were also desperate to sign the Stuttgart forward. There were even reports that the player and the Munich club had already reached a verbal agreement.

VfB, however, would not accept Bayern's offer of a maximum of €60 million and instead stuck to their demand for at least €75 million for the 24-year-old. The Magpies eventually agreed to pay that fee and reached an agreement with the Swabians over Woltemade's transfer.

Speaking at the general meeting, Wehrle insisted they had never set out to annoy FCB with their negotiating stance, but said the financial gap mattered far more. The offer was simply not good enough. Bayern had offered little more than "a butter pretzel" for Woltemade, according to the VfB chief executive.

He also could not resist a dig at the Munich club over fan support. Referring to the recent DFB Cup meeting in May, when the two clubs faced each other in the final, he said the only fans you could hear were Stuttgart's.

"I didn't hear any FC Bayern fans," said Wehrle, whose outspoken address was met with thunderous applause from the VfB members in attendance.