Daily Schmankerl: Liverpool targets Timo Werner for January transfer, Real Madrid interested in Denis Zakaria

BFW meetup: Come party with RLD on Saturday in Dallas!

Photo by Christopher Morris-Corbis/Getty Images

Our own RLD will be watching the game this Saturday at the British Beverage Company (the “BBC” — get it?) in Dallas, Texas. If people want to drop by and say hello, they are most welcome. RLD will be the guy in the David Alaba jersey and the Südkurve Toronto scarf.

Liverpool hatches scheme to get Timo Werner this winter (Daily Express)

Ian McGarry claims that FC Liverpool is so eager to secure Werner in the January transfer window that they are deliberating buying him in the January window and loaning him to RB Leipzig for the rest of the season, the same thing that FC Chelsea did to sign Christian Pulisic from BVB last season. McGarry said,

Werner was extremely disappointed that his move to Bayern Munich effectively broke down disappeared into the ether and he’s been quite unhappy since. Well, Liverpool are trying to make that a bit better for both the player and his club.

It has been suggested that Liverpool would buy the player in the January window and then he would be loaned back for the remainder of the Bundesliga season allowing RB Leipzig to get a good five months out of the player and to put the disappointment of the Bayern Munich transfer disintegrating behind him.

RB Leipzig wisely persuaded Werner to sign a contract extension in August after it became clear that Bayern would not sign him. His new contract runs through 2023, giving Leipzig all the leverage to sell him to the highest bidder.

Don Balon seriously doesn’t know Serge Gnabry from Mo Salah

I was trawling the interwebs for Schmankerl material and noticed a picture of Serge Gnabry over at Don Balon — the best publication in all Spain — with an intriguing headline: “Florentino Pérez loves him and is offering him the number and salary of Gareth Bale.” Since Bale makes a boatload of money for sitting on the bench while not learning Spanish, I was piqued.

But the truth is that Don Balon doesn’t know Serge Gnabry from Mo Salah. The article is about Real’s unending quest to dump Bale and buy Salah. Despite appearing prominently in the lead art, Gnabry isn’t mentioned once:

If they manage to put the Welsh attacker on a different team everything indicates that Florentino Pérez will go to the English market for a player that has stolen his heart, like the Egyptian Mohamed Salah.

“This is beautiful,” BFW’s own Ryan Cowper remarked. That’s one way to put it.

“There is a covered bomb!” Real Madrid after Zakaria (Don Balon)

Do you use auto-translate? Be careful out there, if you do. Also, if you check out this article, ignore the picture of Borussia Dortmund’s Julian Weigl vying with Rabbi Matondo. I don’t know why the Don chose that picture. The article isn’t about them. It doesn’t even scream “generic Bundesliga photo” to me, but whatever.

So the Don claims that Zinedine Zidane wants a midfielder, namely Paul Pogba. But not even Real Madrid is willing to pay for Pogba with all his baggage. They might go for Fabian Ruiz at Napoli, but if that doesn’t work out, they are looking at Borussia Mönchengladbach’s Denis Zakaria as an alternative. They might have trouble signing him, though, if like the Don they can’t tell him apart from all the other midfielders in the Bundesliga.

Check out Carina Wenninger’s UWCL goals for the Bayern Frauen:

Carina Wenninger scored a brace to power the Bayern Frauen to a 2-0 Women’s Champions League victory over Kazygurt. Check out the goals:

Sebastian Rode looking forward to seeing his former teammates

After advancing to the round of 16 in the DFB-Pokal I’m looking forward to the game on Saturday against my former colleagues from FC Bayern. It’s always a special duel. Over 8 years ago I scored my first goal here in the Bundesliga.

Good vibes, happy memories the last time Bayern played Eintracht

Ois Guade, Phil Bonny!

Phil Bonny will be announcing Bayern’s match on Saturday in Frankfurt. He turns 55 today.

Granit Xhaka explains himself to Arsenal’s fans

This speaks for itself.

Be kind to people. You never know how your words may affect someone.