MUNICH
Bayern Munich executive board chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said he believes American winger Julian Green may spend another year away from the club after completing his loan spell with Hamburger SV.
Green is expected to return to Bayern this summer after completing his time in Hamburg. Bayern wanted the 19-year-old to feature regularly and gain valuable first-team experience during his time at HSV, but Green has not made a league appearance since December.
The situation means Green is likely to return to Munich at the conclusion of the Bundesliga season and then sort through his future once he rejoins the team. Rummenigge said Green is likely to spend another year away from Bayern to acquire experience and bolster his claims for a regular place in the Bayern squad.
"If, at the end, he comes back -- and it looks like he will come back -- at the end of the season, then we have to sit together and find the best solution for him," Rummenigge said. "I don't believe the first step will be here at Bayern. Probably, he will need one more year in a club wherever -- in Germany, in England, I don't know -- to show his quality because I believe he does have the quality."
The circumstances this season made it difficult for Green to burnish the skills revealed during the World Cup. He opened the season as a regular contributor under Mirko Slomka, but Slomka's departure after three matches complicated matters considerably. Green dropped out of the reckoning after sustaining a rib injury in September and struggled to pry his way into the plans of manager Joe Zinnbauer once he recovered.
Zinnbauer preferred seasoned figures in his bid to turn around the ailing giants, but he ultimately parted ways with the club on Sunday after a 1-0 defeat to Hertha Berlin on Friday left the club in the relegation playoff place with eight matches remaining. Hamburg appointed sporting director Peter Knäbel as his replacement until the end of the season.
Rummenigge cited the upheaval in Hamburg as one of the contributing factors in Green's frustrating loan spell.
"The problem what I'm seeing now is that, unfortunately, for one reason or another, he didn't play regularly at Hamburg," Rummenigge said. "Hamburg is in a very difficult position. They fired their coach yesterday. That is one more sign that things, unfortunately, at Hamburg are not going well. Maybe he is suffering about the total situation of the club and maybe not playing --- it is looking like -- that he had not a good relationship with the old coach. Maybe that is changing in a better way."
Green will have to wait for a few days to see whether another regime change will open the door for him at HSV after securing his place in the U.S. squad to face Denmark and Switzerland.
U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann said he included Green in his 23-man squad to assess him in the midst of a difficult season and speak with him about his future.
"For Julian, it's important that he has reconnected with us," Klinsmann told ussoccer.com on Sunday. "At the moment, Julian struggles with Hamburg. It's been a very, very difficult time since he came back after the World Cup, with injuries and not breaking in yet, so I decided to have a first look at him. We will have a serious talk and serious look at him and we want to understand exactly what happened in his club situation, but also he needs some support from the senior national team group."
