Stuttgart coach Huub Stevens has expressed a mixture of regret and understanding at his club's decision to sell Joshua Kimmich to Bayern Munich next summer.
Kimmich, 19, will move to Bayern for a reported seven million euros, despite having yet to make his debut for Stuttgart in the Bundesliga.
The defensive midfielder is currently on a season-long loan at Leipzig in Germany's second tier and will join Bayern on a five-year deal at the end of the campaign.
"You've got to see all the things that go on around the player -- he wants the best, his agent wants the best and his parents want the best and so, when Bayern Munich come along, it becomes very difficult to say no,'' Stevens told Sport1 television.
"But of course, the managerial staff are sad about it. I would have loved to work with him. But seven million euros -- my word -- that's a lot of money for a player who has yet to appear in the Bundesliga.''
Stevens' contract with Stuttgart expires in the summer, but he has a chance of earning an extension by keeping the club in the Bundesliga again.
Last year, he arrived in similar circumstances with the club in danger, but his short-term deal was not renewed in the summer as he opted to take time out from the game. The 61-year-old then returned to the club in November to succeed Armin Veh.
"I think we'll decide in May,'' he said. "I've first got to see how things work and then how I feel. You don't get any younger, it's got to be said. We will know then whether I have the energy to carry on feeling about football the way I am now.''