Arrivals
Sardar Azmoun has signed with the Werkself with his contract lasting until June 2027. He will arrive as a free transfer at the end of the season - or will he? The manner in which he had completed the move is quite controversial with Zenit saying that he had broken club rules by leaving the winter training camp in Dubai to meet with club representatives to complete the paperwork and do a medical. The St Petersburg team's dissatisfaction is evident in how they still haven't acknowledged Azmoun's departure on social media. The punishment may not be limited to just a fine for the Iranian, but also demotion to Zenit's B team. Given how he is one of the club's highest earners, Zenit are now reportedly keen on offloading him early and have opened talks with Bayer Leverkusen regarding this - they demand a fee of around €5m. It seems unlikely anything will result as it would be too risky for Zenit to lose their top scorer in their pursuit of the Russian Premier League title and Alario's agent today made clear that the Argentina international will definitely leave in the summer - not this winter.
Could Ramy Bensebaini be on his way to Leverkusen? According to a user on Transfermarkt, who 'knows an insider', should Bakker leave for Newcastle, negotiations should already be underway to sign him with a potential fee in the region of €10m to €12m. Given there are no official media reports yet about what would be a very high-profile transfer within the Bundesliga, you of course have to take this with a bit more than a pinch of salt.
The next left back link to have surfaced over the last few days is Alfonso Pedraza of Villarreal. Nothing more should happen with him though. Toni Juanmarti tweeted that whilst Leverkusen and Napoli had submitted offers, Villarreal's manager Unai Emery is blocking them. Given what has emerged today about Bakker, the Spaniard isn't a terrible loss anyway...
Fabio Carvalho of Fulham is having a great season with the Championship leaders Fulham scoring eight and assisting twice from attacking midfield. Consequently this has aroused interest from numerous top flight clubs, not only from England, but also from Germany, with Leverkusen and Dortmund among the sides looking at the Portuguese-born England U18 international whose contract expires this summer according to Bruno Andrade of UOL Esporte. With Amiri's move to Genoa on hold for a while now and not many attacking midfielders being associated with us, could we see the second ever Englishman come to the Werkself?
In November Fussball Transfers speculated that Bayer Leverkusen were watching Eric Junior Ebimbe and would like to sign him in the winter transfer window. This has suddenly become much more concrete as, in the last few hours, Santi Aouna of Foot Mercato (French Fussball Transfers), claims that PSG will extend his contract before sending him on loan with an option to buy in addition to claiming a percentage of a resale fee. Loic Tanzi of RMC Sport states the potential option to buy is €15m. A young, dynamic central midfielder, also with the ability to play on the wing like him is everything we are looking for. A 6 month loan which starts and ends when Amiri's does would be perfect. In my personal opinion, if we are to replace Amiri, he is going to be the one to do it.
Departures
The Telegraph announced this afternoon that the negotiations between Mitchel Bakker and Newcastle have broken down. There had been talk of a transfer fee up to €19m but it seems that a transfer 'will definitely not happen' according to a senior source within Newcastle United. This makes a lot of sense on many levels. First, Newcastle in its current state is not attractive for players due to their relegation battle. Second, he is a very important part of our successful season. Third there is just so little time left in the transfer window and very few clubs, if any, would want to give up a player as good as Bakker in January.
A 6 month loan of Lucas Alario to Borussia Monchengladbach is currently being discussed according to the Gladbach podcast MitGeredet. In an interview with Bild Pedro Aldave, Alario's agent said, "Now he would only leave if Bayer suggested it. Should the club decide to loan him out, we would see which is the best option." Also in that premium Bild article was the revelation that he has a release clause of €8m. Were a loan to happen, maybe that would be a cause to bring forward Azmoun's transfer...
Comments