Report: Bayern Munich looking to loan a Barcelona right-back (Update: Sergino Dest the top target)

According to a report by RAC1 journalist Gerard Romero (considered quite reliable), Bayern Munich have called FC Barcelona to enquire about a loan deal for one of their right-backs. There’s no information on which player it could be, so any one of Sergi Roberto, Sergino Dest, or Emerson could be on the table.

This is the total extent of the “report”, such as it is, and confirming its existence was a nightmare and a half. So, before I get into the question of plausibility, let me take you down the rabbit hole we go through to try and make sure our info is properly sourced. In a sea of fake news, this job can get very difficult.

It starts with a tweet by @iMiaSanMia, who every Bayern fan follows. They actually do a pretty good job of making sure their news is real, so this is a good sign. However, when it comes to non-German sources, it’s best to find an outlet that corroborates the report.

The first step I usually go through is to look through the replies and quote tweets to see if anyone has called out the report for being false. There was nothing like that here, so I instead moved to Gerard Romero’s twitter to see if he had tweeted about the news. This led me to his Twitch stream, which is almost TWO HOURS long.

I tried to watch it, but the guy gave me a headache. Therefore, I tried to go to the source — RAC1’s actual website. But their sport section didn’t have anything on this news, and why would it? There’s barely enough info to fill a tweet, I’m just rambling about sources to fill up space.

Anyway, with that avenue closed to me, I moved on to other aggregators who generally post reliable info. Other Barca accounts seem to be posting the story without issue, such as Barca Universal:

You go through their replies and quote tweets and no one’s really calling out the news as fake. Football fans are known for at least trying to sniff out bullsh—, err nonsense, so this is a good sign. You can’t just attribute any old craziness to a journalist and get away with it. Plus, even non-English accounts are tweeting about it:

So that’s that. If you know Spanish/Catalan and can sit through Romero’s Twitch stream, be my guest. Comment if the report doesn’t exist. Now let’s evaluate the plausibility of the rumor.

Do Bayern need a right-back? YES. Do Barcelona need money? Also yes. Have these two clubs done similar deals in the past? Definitely. Just look at the Coutinho transfer. That was a classic case of the two FCB’s solving each other’s problems through a loan deal.

Now, the idea that Bayern would enquire about a loan for one of Barca’s players isn’t very far-fetched. In that sense, this report is likely accurate. Will this amount to anything? Probably not. Even if we do get a loan, the Catalans won’t let go of Sergino Dest, who was Bayern’s target in 2020. They’ll probably try to unload Sergi Roberto on us instead, who reportedly earns a massive salary and is being asked to take a pay-cut.

Would this be a good deal? Almost certainly not. Roberto is a mediocre midfielder and a mediocre right-back. Think Joshua Kimmich, but significantly worse in every single way. At Bayern, he would sit on the bench right next to Sarr for the entire season.

So why are we trying to get him? Well, I blame flipish:

I warned you, flipish! I warned you that this would happen. Why must you tempt the football gods in this way?

Update

There’s not really any new info, but Diario AS say that Bayern Munich want to take advantage of Barca’s vulnerable position to sign Sergino Dest. However, the American would prefer to stay at the Camp Nou, so the Bavarians may have to look at Barca’s other right-backs — either Sergi Roberto or Emerson.

Not really any new info here, just an outlet confirming what fans could already guess. If there’s a chance of signing Dest, Bayern should definitely take it — but if the price has gone up since last summer, it feels very unlikely to happen.