Daily Schmankerl: Alaba targeting Spain over EPL, Coman rejected Manchester City, City eyeing Jack Grealish as Sané replacement, and more!

Alaba off to Spain if talks with Bayern collapse (Telegraph)

In the latest installment Alaba watch 2020, The Telegraph reports that Alaba intends to transfer to Spain rather than realize the wildest dreams of Chelsea or some other lucky suitor from the Premier League. The Telegraph claims Bayern would prefer to sell Alaba rather than allow him to leave on a free transfer:

...it is understood Alaba favours a switch to Barcelona or Real Madrid should he move from Bayern this summer.

Bayern will consider selling Alaba rather than running down his contract, which has one year left. They are concerned they will lose him on a free transfer at the end of the 2020/21 season.

Alaba has not ruled out staying at the club for next season but there has been no breakthrough in contract talks.

Curiously, The Telegraph claims that PSG is interested in Alaba, but “they too are behind La Liga’s big two in the race” for him.

They just might, however, be an interesting destination for Alaba — however much it would make Bayern fans’ skin crawl: since PSG is looking for a replacement for Thiago Silva, PSG would be another top club where Alaba could play center-back.

Ideally, of course, the club where he continues to play center-back is Bayern Munich.

Coman turned Manchester City down (Fussball Transfers)

Fussball transfers reported yesterday that they can confirm that Manchester City made “concrete advances toward Coman” to sign him as Sané’s successor, only to be rejected. Coman has no intention of going anywhere:

Coman does not want to transfer to City, but rather sees his future with Bayern. There he has a contract until 2023. Mutual declarations of intent to extend that contract have, according to FT’s information, already been exchanged. Thus far, Coman has played 157 times for FCB, scored 32 goals, given 35 assists, and collected already five Bundesliga titles.

Coman has said in the past that he looks forward to having a player like Sané as a teammate, because he wants the team to succeed. That’s just the attitude Bayern loves.

City may sign Jack Grealish if Sané leaves for Bayern (Telegraph)

The Telegraph also had a marginally interesting on the Sané transfer saga. Curiously, City is reputed to be considering signing Aston Villa’s attacking midfielder Jack Grealish. The background to that interest is Sané’s infuriating refusal to sign a new contract and Bayern’s “derisory” low-ball offer:

Sane has made it clear he wants to leave the club for Bayern and has refused to sign a new contract, meaning he could leave at the end of next season without a fee.

Bayern’s valuation of £35 million is considered derisory at City, who would rather let Sane’s contract expire than accept a deal below market value. An eventual transfer is expected to go beyond £50 million.

Enter Grealish:

Pep Guardiola is a huge admirer of Grealish, describing him as “one of the best players in the league” before facing Villa in the League Cup final this season. “I’m a big fan of him,” said the City manager.

What I want to know, however, is whether Pep Guardiola would want “1,000 Jack Grealishes” on his team. Only then could we be certain of City’s interest.

Dominika Skorvankova leaves Bayern for Montpelier

Montpelier have announced the signing of Bayern Frauen midfielder Dominika Skorvankova. The Slovakian leaves Bayern after three seasons in Munich. The 28 year old had one more year remaining on her contract, but no terms of the transfer or her contract with Montpelier were released.

Skorvankova made 71 appearances in her three seasons in Munich. Her departure must be used by Bayern to continue to build the squad and improve with the end goal of challenging Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga and Lyon in the Champions League.

Will the state bail out Schalke? (kicker)

The government of Nordrhein-Westfalen is apparently prepared to help the heavily indebted Royal Blues save their skin. A report from the Handelsblatt claims that NRW is prepared to grant Schalke a state-backed surety of €40 million. Schalke is nearly €200 million in debt.

The money would enable Schalke to borrow even more. They reportedly have also deliberated borrowing more from controversial president Clemens Tönnies, who has been under fire recently for a massive COVID-19 outbreak in one of his meat packing factories (“Schlaughterhaus-04,” as I like to call it).

And finally, Schalke is purportedly about to introduce the first salary cap in the Bundesliga. Schalke will supposedly fix the maximum salary at €2.5 million, effectively meaning that several of its stars who earn more than that will soon have to find new clubs.

Study finds racial bias in soccer commentary (Guardian)

An analysis of some 2,000 statements by commentators over 80 games from the Premier League, Serie A, La Liga, and Ligue 1 found that commentators disproportionately praise lighter-skinned players for their intelligence, quality, and work rate and darker-skinned players for their power and pace. Darker-skinned players also received about two thirds of comments criticizing intelligence and quality:

RunRepeat ratio-adjusted its numbers to account for the fact there were 1,361 comments about lighter-skinned players and 713 about darker-skinned players and found the former group more widely praised for intelligence (62.60%), hard work (60.40%) and quality (62.79%). Commentators are also 6.59 times more likely to talk about the power of a player if he has darker skin and 3.38 times more likely to reference his pace.

The study also found that 63.33% of criticism from commentators in regards to the intelligence of a player is aimed at those with darker skin, while the figure for quality is 67.57%.

In case you missed that discussion, I recently asked commentators here at BFW to stop bashing Kingsley Coman for his supposedly “low football IQ” and I detest the label “Boafart” for precisely these reasons. All of us can and must do better!

Otschi Wriedt, Derrick Köhn may miss final two Bayern II matches (VI)

Back in January, it was announced that Bayern II would be losing Otschi Wriedt and Derrick Köhn as the two would depart for Willem II in the Dutch Eredivisie on free transfers this summer. Before the COVID-19 outbreak, the plan was for the two players to be Willem II players officially on June 1. That’s Wednesday.

Wait! Bayern II have a game on Wednesday and Saturday!?

According to Dutch outlet VI, the two clubs are in negotiations on a possible week-long extension of the contract in order for the players to finish the season with Bayern II. If no deal is reached, we’ve already seen the last of Wriedt and Köhn in a Bayern shirt.

2 Frauen Bundesliga will likely have two separate division next season (Blick-Aktuell)

Following the cancellation of the 2 Frauen Bundesliga due to COVID-19, it was decided that no teams would be relegated from the second division would be relegated. The 2020/21 season would move forward with 19 teams; however, something had to give, and it appears we know what that is now.

According to a report, the plan is to split it into two separate divisions — North and South, err, Nord and Süd. The final decision from the DFB is expected in early July. The expected split is as follows:

Nord: Arminia Bielefeld, Berghofen, Borussia Bocholt, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Carl Zeiss Jena, Cloppenburg, Gütersloh, RB Leipzig, Turbine Potsdam II, Wolfsburg II

Süd: Andernach, Bayern München II, Eintracht Frankfurt II, Hoffenheim II, Ingolstadt, Köln, Niederkirchen, Saarbrücken, Würzburger Kickers

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