Several elite clubs are looking to strengthen during the summer transfer and one that's expected to do a fair bit of business are Bundesliga Champions Bayern Munich.
The Bavarians may have won their 29th league and seventh in succession just a couple of months ago, but their ageing squad is in need of freshening up and they've already been busy making moves.
They've made two major additions to their backline in the form of Stuttgart's Benjamin Pavard (€35m) and Atletico Madrid's Lucas Hernandez, arriving for a club record fee of €80m. The pair look like two fantastic signings on paper and with them each just 23 years of age, they have plenty of potential to grow into stalwarts of this Bayern side.
More signings are expected to follow but there's also been some high profile departures. On Wednesday Mats Hummels made a €38m return to Borussia Dortmund whilst James Rodriguez returned to Real Madrid following his two year loan spell. But the biggest news comes in attack.
Legendary wide men Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben's immensely successful, trophy laden spells in Munich finally ended this summer upon the expiry of their contracts. The pair have been fantastic servants to the club over the last decade and Nico Kovac & co have a serious job on their hands in replacing them.
As always with Bayern Munich, they're linked with some of the biggest names in the game and one of which that refuses to go away is that of Manchester City and Germany international Leroy Sane.
The 23 year-old has been an absolute revelation since moving to the Premier League in 2016, proving to be an absolute snip at £37m in which they paid Schalke. His game has grown to new heights under the guidance of former Bayern boss Pep Guardiola and the Citizens are keen to retain their man at all costs.
But the 2017/18 PFA Young Player of the Year only started 21 of City's 38 matches in their Premier League winning campaign last term and despite them offering him a new deal, chiefs at Bayern believe they stand a chance of convincing him to move to Bavaria.
It would be some coup if they could manage to wrangle him away from the Etihad Stadium and he certainly wouldn't be cheap, especially with him still having two years left on his deal in Manchester.
But despite the complexities, it could be a deal that gets over the line if Robert Lewandowski's recent comments are anything to go by. The Poland international told Goal that "Bayern's German players are now very much looking forward to Sane's signing, but we have to wait and see what is going on."
Sane has been in the Germany squad following the completion of the Premier League season so could there possibly be some substance to these claims by the 30 year-old? Signing Sane would be a massive statement of intent from the Bundesliga Champions and he'd certainly be a worthy replacement for Ribery and Robben, something which the current Bayern man echoes.
"They [Robben and Ribery] are legends, of course their departure is sad.
"But Bayern will also sign more and better replacements. I believe that the winger Bayern will sign in the future will be as good as Robben and Ribery.
"In order to have a good performance next season and to overcome Dortmund, I hope that Bayern can do something in the transfer market this summer."
