Arrivals
Sardar Azmoun, the transfer that we have all dreamed of, will now seemingly no longer come into fruition, reports Kicker. A likely extension of Alario combined with the hefty overall price of €30m (transfer fee and salary combined) has meant that we will now shift our priorities elsewhere. We should now be focused on finding a new winger to replace the Aston Villa-bound Leon Bailey for whom we should receive €35m.
Could the new winger be from France? Le10Sport write that Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Monchengladbach are the clubs best placed to sign 23-year-old Brest winger Romain Faivre who should be available for €15m. Although the two teams are the 'most active' they have not yet initiated discussions or made offers for the player. With him being a long-term target, he is one of the more realistic options to replace the Jamaican.
Staying in France, it has emerged that we have confirmed interest in Thilo Kehrer of PSG. The ex-Schalke player would not come cheap however with a potential price tag of €20m, despite his limited game time. Hence why according to Pedro Almeida (@pedrogva6) on Twitter, we would try to sign him on loan with a purchase option. He is a player that has been suggested a lot by Bayer 04 fans and his versatility would act to cover for Timothy Fosu-Mensah, at least in the short term. If Hincapie signs we would have little need for him however.
Finally, yesterday's match between Fortuna Dusseldorf and Werder Bremen was watched by both Rudi Voller and Simon Rolfes, allegedly to scout the American striker Josh Sargent. He isn't a very popular player amongst the fan base and it is an understandably hard pill to swallow were we to move from Azmoun to him, but contrary to what Bild speculates (that he will be a Bailey replacement) logically speaking he would be our third striker behind Schick and Alario, replacing Pohjanpalo. In this sense, he could arguably be an upgrade to Danger but €10m is a high price for a player that is yet to prove his quality in the top flight. Something else that speaks for a transfer is that our Head of Scouting, Tim Steidten, was the one responsible for bringing Sargent to Bremen in the first place.
Departures
Lucas Alario should no longer be a candidate for change at the Werkself. Instead he will sign a contract until 2024, ensuring that he will not leave on a free transfer anytime soon, a situation which the management certainly wants to avoid. According to Kicker, an agreement has already been reached. It is intriguing as to what was promised Alario to get him to sign the deal, after all a player of his quality would have ambitions to be a regular starter - maybe the lineup against Oberhausen was a sign of things to come...
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