It is a mark of how far Harry Kane, the England centre-forward, has come to terms with life at Bayern Munich that, as he embarks on his third season there, he’s having public differences of opinion with Lothar Matthaus, legendary former skipper of Bayern and Germany. It happens, sooner or later, to most senior figures in the Bundesliga.
Matthaus, whose strong views are aired widely across German media, took issue with statements made by Kane after Bayern’s victory over Stuttgart in the domestic Super Cup.
Kane, short of team trophies in his otherwise excellent career, wants to win more with Bayern and, talking to reporters after the Super Cup, made, by his diplomatic standards, a sharp remark about the thin back-up in Bayern’s squad.
“This is probably one of the smallest squads I’ve played in,” said Kane, applying pressure to the club’s hierarchy to stay active in the last few days of a transfer window in which there have been notable departures from Munich as well as a significant attacking addition, Luis Diaz, captured from Liverpool.
“There’s still time. Decisions could be made by Max [Eberl, the sporting CEO] and Christoph [Freund, director of sport],” added Kane.
Matthaus disagreed, insisting that if only Bayern made more confident use of their up-and-coming talents, the strong first XI would feel they had ample cover.
Kane, leading goalscorer in the Bundesliga in both his Bayern seasons so far, can count up a number of allies who have departed in the last two months.
Leroy Sane, with whom he developed a strong partnership, especially in 2023-24, moved to Galatasaray. Kingsley Coman has left for Al Nassr after 10 years supplying crosses from Bayern’s wings.
There’s also the fact that because of injury, the brilliant Jamal Musiala, who combines as effectively as any Bayern player with Kane, will miss at least the first three months of 2025-26.
And, for the first time in 17 years, Thomas Muller, the great conjuror of penalty-box space and furnisher of assists, is not part of the first-team squad, having elected, at 35, to see out his playing days in the American MLS.
Not least of the consequences of the talkative Muller’s leaving is that other senior players will have to spend more time in front of post-match microphones, as Kane did, with his firm message to his bosses.
His veiled criticism may yet resonate should Bayern, in the course of a long, fixture-heavy campaign they hope endures deep into the Uefa Champions League’s later phases, start to look weary.
Matthaus’s view is that Bayern, and head coach Vincent Kompany, are slow to promote youthful talent – and that it’s a habitual problem. Adam Aznou, the 19-year-old Morocco left-back was among those sold this summer, to Everton. Mathys Tel, 20, joined Tottenham Hotspur, another in a line of young departures that includes Kenan Yildiz, who left Munich in his teens and has since thrived at Juventus.
Naturally, 17 other clubs in Germany’s top tier regard Bayern’s squad as anything but thin. The champions, who get the season under way against RB Leipzig on Friday are clear favourites to retain a league title they have let out of their grasp only once in the last 13 seasons.
Erik Ten Hag, older and wiser
At next summer’s World Cup, Germany’s national team, determined to do better than their group-phase eliminations in 2018 and 2022, will entrust their fate to a head coach, Julian Nagelsmann, who will not turn 39 years old until the tournament is over.
Nagelsmann, whose fast-track career has already included a stint in charge at Bayern Munich and two other top-division clubs, is still unusually young for an elite manager. But he has long been the flag-bearer for the German fashion for promoting tyro coaches.
Of the 18 managers preparing for the 2025-26 Bundesliga campaign, five – Bayern’s Vincent Kompany, RB Leipzig’s Ole Werner, Wolfsburg’s Paul Simonis, Freiburg’s Julian Schuster and Hamburg’s Merlin Polzin – are 40 or under.
If Nagelsmann’s successes, notably at Hoffenheim and Leipzig, were one factor in emboldening other club presidents to trust the up-and-coming, so was the astonishing impact made by Xabi Alonso, appointed to his first senior coaching job by Bayer Leverkusen when he was only 40.
In Alonso’s first full campaign in charge, 2023-24, Leverkusen went through the entire domestic season unbeaten, interrupting Bayern’s long domination of the league title and winning the German Cup. His Leverkusen also made the final of the Europa League.
Alonso’s departure for Real Madrid, in June, has left the next man in his seat with a high bar to reach. But that man, Erik ten Hag, is no young greenhorn. He comfortably trumps almost all his new Bundesliga peers in terms of experience. At 55, the former Ajax and Manchester United manager, would be the oldest head coach in the top tier but for Werder Bremen having taken on Horst Steffen, who is less than 12 months his senior. And Steffen will be making his first ever appearance as a head coach on a top-division touchline this weekend.
Ten Hag, by contrast, has spent the last decade in the highest divisions of his native Netherlands and England. He will need that experience. Lessons learnt at United, where a glorious past tends to shadow every modern manager, should be useful at post-Alonso Leverkusen. And the habits of Ajax, where Ten Hag oversaw regular rebuilds as stars moved on, may be invaluable. The exit of so many leading lights of Alonso’s brilliant Leverkusen – Florian Wirtz and Jeremie Frimpong to Liverpool, Jonathan Tah to Bayern – means Ten Hag needs to be resourceful.
Dortmund’s fraternities
Five summers ago, a teenager with the name Bellingham on the back of his Dortmund jersey marked his competitive debut in Germany with a goal. The rest is history – Jude Bellingham was still in his teens when he joined Real Madrid from Dortmund for close to €100m – and a lasting legacy. Jude's rapid development at Dortmund is an example the club are proud of.
And it’s been too tempting an example to resist for Jude’s talented younger brother, Jobe Bellingham, who joined Dortmund from Sunderland in July. He will likely make his top-division bow, as a 19-year-old, this weekend, and on the evidence of lively preseason outings for his new club, the midfielder might just make the inevitable comparisons with superstar Jude work as a stimulus and not as a burden.
His head coach, Niko Kovac, should have a perfect understanding of the sibling dynamic too, a sensitivity about what it is to chart a similar professional pathway to a talented brother. Kovac’s assistant coach at Dortmund is one Robert Kovac, who, as a player, followed his older brother into the Croatia national team where they were teammates for the best part of a decade, and played in defences just behind midfielder Niko, who is a year older, for Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich. Dortmund is the fifth club they have worked together at as coaches.
Hamburg … at last
It has been an agonising wait. Hamburg, one of the historic giants of German football, and European club champions in the 1980s, are back in the highest division after seven years of exasperating struggle in the second tier. There, they finished just a place off possible promotion four times, and lost twice in the play-offs.
Their chances of avoiding a swift return to Bundesliga 2? Slim, if you judge them on their preseason – three successive losses to opponents from Denmark, Austria and Spain – or the difficulties they had in beating fourth-tier Pirmasens, 2-1 thanks only to goals in stoppage and extra-time, in the German Cup last week.
The specs: 2018 Nissan Patrol Nismo
Price: base / as tested: Dh382,000
Engine: 5.6-litre V8
Gearbox: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 428hp @ 5,800rpm
Torque: 560Nm @ 3,600rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 12.7L / 100km
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
More on Quran memorisation:
Jurassic%20Park
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESteven%20Spielberg%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Sam%20Neill%2C%20Jeff%20Goldblum%20and%20Richard%20Attenborough%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%205%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
In-demand jobs and monthly salaries
- Technology expert in robotics and automation: Dh20,000 to Dh40,000
- Energy engineer: Dh25,000 to Dh30,000
- Production engineer: Dh30,000 to Dh40,000
- Data-driven supply chain management professional: Dh30,000 to Dh50,000
- HR leader: Dh40,000 to Dh60,000
- Engineering leader: Dh30,000 to Dh55,000
- Project manager: Dh55,000 to Dh65,000
- Senior reservoir engineer: Dh40,000 to Dh55,000
- Senior drilling engineer: Dh38,000 to Dh46,000
- Senior process engineer: Dh28,000 to Dh38,000
- Senior maintenance engineer: Dh22,000 to Dh34,000
- Field engineer: Dh6,500 to Dh7,500
- Field supervisor: Dh9,000 to Dh12,000
- Field operator: Dh5,000 to Dh7,000
The%20specs
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESingle%20front-axle%20electric%20motor%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E218hp%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E330Nm%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESingle-speed%20automatic%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EMax%20touring%20range%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E402km%20(claimed)%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFrom%20Dh215%2C000%20(estimate)%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeptember%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
What is blockchain?
Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology, a digital system in which data is recorded across multiple places at the same time. Unlike traditional databases, DLTs have no central administrator or centralised data storage. They are transparent because the data is visible and, because they are automatically replicated and impossible to be tampered with, they are secure.
The main difference between blockchain and other forms of DLT is the way data is stored as ‘blocks’ – new transactions are added to the existing ‘chain’ of past transactions, hence the name ‘blockchain’. It is impossible to delete or modify information on the chain due to the replication of blocks across various locations.
Blockchain is mostly associated with cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Due to the inability to tamper with transactions, advocates say this makes the currency more secure and safer than traditional systems. It is maintained by a network of people referred to as ‘miners’, who receive rewards for solving complex mathematical equations that enable transactions to go through.
However, one of the major problems that has come to light has been the presence of illicit material buried in the Bitcoin blockchain, linking it to the dark web.
Other blockchain platforms can offer things like smart contracts, which are automatically implemented when specific conditions from all interested parties are reached, cutting the time involved and the risk of mistakes. Another use could be storing medical records, as patients can be confident their information cannot be changed. The technology can also be used in supply chains, voting and has the potential to used for storing property records.
THE SIXTH SENSE
Starring: Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, Hayley Joel Osment
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Rating: 5/5
Three ways to limit your social media use
Clinical psychologist, Dr Saliha Afridi at The Lighthouse Arabia suggests three easy things you can do every day to cut back on the time you spend online.
1. Put the social media app in a folder on the second or third screen of your phone so it has to remain a conscious decision to open, rather than something your fingers gravitate towards without consideration.
2. Schedule a time to use social media instead of consistently throughout the day. I recommend setting aside certain times of the day or week when you upload pictures or share information.
3. Take a mental snapshot rather than a photo on your phone. Instead of sharing it with your social world, try to absorb the moment, connect with your feeling, experience the moment with all five of your senses. You will have a memory of that moment more vividly and for far longer than if you take a picture of it.
The stats
Ship name: MSC Bellissima
Ship class: Meraviglia Class
Delivery date: February 27, 2019
Gross tonnage: 171,598 GT
Passenger capacity: 5,686
Crew members: 1,536
Number of cabins: 2,217
Length: 315.3 metres
Maximum speed: 22.7 knots (42kph)
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
Tax authority targets shisha levy evasion
The Federal Tax Authority will track shisha imports with electronic markers to protect customers and ensure levies have been paid.
Khalid Ali Al Bustani, director of the tax authority, on Sunday said the move is to "prevent tax evasion and support the authority’s tax collection efforts".
The scheme’s first phase, which came into effect on 1st January, 2019, covers all types of imported and domestically produced and distributed cigarettes. As of May 1, importing any type of cigarettes without the digital marks will be prohibited.
He said the latest phase will see imported and locally produced shisha tobacco tracked by the final quarter of this year.
"The FTA also maintains ongoing communication with concerned companies, to help them adapt their systems to meet our requirements and coordinate between all parties involved," he said.
As with cigarettes, shisha was hit with a 100 per cent tax in October 2017, though manufacturers and cafes absorbed some of the costs to prevent prices doubling.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
RIDE%20ON
%3Cp%3EDirector%3A%20Larry%20Yang%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EStars%3A%20Jackie%20Chan%2C%20Liu%20Haocun%2C%20Kevin%20Guo%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ERating%3A%202%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
The BIO:
He became the first Emirati to climb Mount Everest in 2011, from the south section in Nepal
He ascended Mount Everest the next year from the more treacherous north Tibetan side
By 2015, he had completed the Explorers Grand Slam
Last year, he conquered K2, the world’s second-highest mountain located on the Pakistan-Chinese border
He carries dried camel meat, dried dates and a wheat mixture for the final summit push
His new goal is to climb 14 peaks that are more than 8,000 metres above sea level
Getting%20there%20and%20where%20to%20stay
%3Cp%3EEtihad%20Airways%20operates%20seasonal%20flights%20from%20Abu%20Dhabi%20to%20Nice%20C%C3%B4te%20d'Azur%20Airport.%20Services%20depart%20the%20UAE%20on%20Wednesdays%20and%20Sundays%20with%20outbound%20flights%20stopping%20briefly%20in%20Rome%2C%20return%20flights%20are%20non-stop.%20Fares%20start%20from%20Dh3%2C315%2C%20flights%20operate%20until%20September%2018%2C%202022.%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EThe%20Radisson%20Blu%20Hotel%20Nice%20offers%20a%20western%20location%20right%20on%20Promenade%20des%20Anglais%20with%20rooms%20overlooking%20the%20Bay%20of%20Angels.%20Stays%20are%20priced%20from%20%E2%82%AC101%20(%24114)%2C%20including%20taxes.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The biog
From: Upper Egypt
Age: 78
Family: a daughter in Egypt; a son in Dubai and his wife, Nabila
Favourite Abu Dhabi activity: walking near to Emirates Palace
Favourite building in Abu Dhabi: Emirates Palace
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The%20Little%20Mermaid%20
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Rob%20Marshall%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EHalle%20Bailey%2C%20Jonah%20Hauer-King%2C%20Melissa%20McCarthy%2C%20Javier%20Bardem%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2%2F5%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Honeymoonish
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Elie%20El%20Samaan%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENour%20Al%20Ghandour%2C%20Mahmoud%20Boushahri%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESmartCrowd%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2018%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESiddiq%20Farid%20and%20Musfique%20Ahmed%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDubai%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFinTech%20%2F%20PropTech%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInitial%20investment%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E%24650%2C000%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECurrent%20number%20of%20staff%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2035%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeries%20A%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EVarious%20institutional%20investors%20and%20notable%20angel%20investors%20(500%20MENA%2C%20Shurooq%2C%20Mada%2C%20Seedstar%2C%20Tricap)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
GIANT REVIEW
Starring: Amir El-Masry, Pierce Brosnan
Director: Athale
Rating: 4/5
About Okadoc
Date started: Okadoc, 2018
Founder/CEO: Fodhil Benturquia
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Healthcare
Size: (employees/revenue) 40 staff; undisclosed revenues recording “double-digit” monthly growth
Funding stage: Series B fundraising round to conclude in February
Investors: Undisclosed
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
VEZEETA PROFILE
Date started: 2012
Founder: Amir Barsoum
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: HealthTech / MedTech
Size: 300 employees
Funding: $22.6 million (as of September 2018)
Investors: Technology Development Fund, Silicon Badia, Beco Capital, Vostok New Ventures, Endeavour Catalyst, Crescent Enterprises’ CE-Ventures, Saudi Technology Ventures and IFC
HIJRA
Starring: Lamar Faden, Khairiah Nathmy, Nawaf Al-Dhufairy
Director: Shahad Ameen
Rating: 3/5
The low down
Producers: Uniglobe Entertainment & Vision Films
Director: Namrata Singh Gujral
Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Nargis Fakhri, Bo Derek, Candy Clark
Rating: 2/5
Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
What is a black hole?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
