Timo Werner may move to Tottenham with regrets after £224m Liverpool revamp

Former Liverpool transfer target Timo Werner is reportedly on the verge of joining Tottenham Hotspur on a six-month loan deal

Timo Werner may move to Tottenham with regrets after £224m Liverpool revamp

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Mohamed Salah could miss as many as 10 Liverpool matches over the next month after departing for the Africa Cup of Nations.

Granted, this total is only met if the Reds progress in the FA Cup and require third and fourth round replays, while Egypt reach the continental final. But for the forthcoming weeks, starting with Sunday’s FA Cup trip to Arsenal, Liverpool will have to find a way to win without their Egyptian King.

And they will likely do so without making use of the transfer market, with Jurgen Klopp having no interest in short-term replacements. That was his stance in 2017 when losing Sadio Mane to AFCON duty and again in 2022 when Naby Keita departed along with the two aforementioned forwards.

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Admittedly, Luis Diaz was signed in January 2022 when Salah and Mane were still away at AFCON, but his arrival was always long-term. He was a replacement for the Senegalese on the left-wing for years to come, not for six weeks in winter as the forward helped his homeland become African champions.

Besides, the Colombian made just one appearance prior to Salah’s return, coming off the bench to make his debut against Cardiff City in the FA Cup fourth round. A first start followed in the Premier League against Leicester City, with the returning Egyptian utilised as a substitute, before Mane’s own return.

An intended target for the following summer, Liverpool moved early to sign Diaz from FC Porto in a deal worth up to £49m after Tottenham Hotspur forced their hand. Spurs had looked set to sign the forward, and ultimately negotiated the price down before the Reds hijacked the move.

His arrival was the start of a £179m attacking revamp over the next 12 months as Klopp looked to find replacements for the long-serving Mane and Roberto Firmino. Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo would make their own moves to Anfield in the subsequent summer and winter transfer windows to complete the club’s attacking revamp. For now.

One day the time will come where Liverpool will need to find a long-term successor for Salah. You suspect that search is currently quietly ongoing behind the scenes. But there is no desire for a short-term replacement with Klopp’s stance the same as it was back in 2017 and 2022. It isn’t going to change now.

And why should it? The Reds still have Diaz, Nunez, Gakpo, and Diogo Jota all available, while the likes of Harvey Elliott and Dominik Szoboszlai can bolster their attacking ranks too if needed.

But it is seemingly a different story at Tottenham as they face up to the prospect of being without captain Son Heung-min for up to seven matches due to his participation for South Korea in the Asian Cup.

While Liverpool handed the 25-year-old Diaz a five-and-a-half-year contract when bringing to Anfield two years ago, it has been widely reported that Spurs look set to complete a shock move for former Reds transfer target Timo Werner on a six-month loan deal from RB Leipzig.

Admittedly, Ange Postecoglou’s attacking options are not as fruitful as Klopp’s especially after selling Harry Kane to Bayern Munich in the summer. With Son at the Asian Cup, Richarlison, Brennan Johnson, Dejan Kulusevski, and Bryan Gil (who has spent the second half of the last seasons on loan back in Spain) are his only available senior attacking options, though James Maddison is expected back from injury later this month.

While the arrival of Werner will certainly bolster Spurs’ options in the absence of Son, his versatility, capable of playing both central and outwide, ensures he would be an attractive attacking option for Postecoglou for the rest of the season.

But that does not make his signing any less of a shock, considering the German flopped during his last stint in the Premier League when struggling for two seasons at Chelsea - Spurs’ bitter London rivals.

While the forward won the Champions League, FIFA Club World Cup, and European Super Cup at Stamford Bridge, while also losing in the League Cup and FA Cup finals to Liverpool, he quickly lost confidence and was left looking out of sorts in front of goal. Scoring 23 times for Chelsea from 89 appearances, only 10 of them came in the Premier League as he soon fell down the pecking order.

Signed for £47.5m from RB Leipzig in June 2020 as Chelsea activated his release clause, he was sent packing back to the Bundesliga club two years later for just £25.3m.

Admittedly flopping at Stamford Bridge is hardly a death knell to one’s career these days. Mohamed Salah, Kevin De Bruyne, and Romelu Lukaku (first time around) are just three examples of players who thrived after leaving Chelsea behind.

Consequently, Tottenham will no doubt hope that Werner can follow in Salah’s footsteps upon making his return to the Premier League. Yet the Egyptian and De Bruyne shone in Serie A and the Bundesliga respectively before returning for a second bite at the Premier League, completing big-money transfers off the back of such displays.

In contrast, Werner has struggled back at Leipzig. He scored 95 goals from 159 games during his first stint with the club, but has managed just 18 goals from 54 outings in the 18 months since his return. Only 11 of them have come in the Bundesliga, while he has scored only twice this season after falling out of favour and, with starting opportunities drying up, making just 14 appearances.

While the German returns to the Premier League looking to banish previous demons, he does so on a low, trying to revitalise his career, rather than on a high, having done enough to earn the second opportunity and chance to silence his critics. That is partly why his return is only a six-month loan, with Postecoglou gambling on being able to resurrect the striker's fortunes.

Of course, when Werner first joined Chelsea, there were comparisons to Salah and Liverpool.

Picture the scene. The Reds are interested in signing a forward after frequent speculation and initial contact is made. However, they don’t get a deal done and said forward joins Chelsea. However, said forward then flops at Stamford Bridge and leaves after a couple of seasons, before moving to Anfield and becoming one of the best players in the world.

This is the Salah story. But the turns Werner’s own career has taken over the past 18 months ensures it will never be his.

You could be forgiven for wondering if the forward would have fared differently the first time around in the Premier League had he actually joined Liverpool instead of Chelsea.

The Reds were heavily linked with Werner throughout the 2019/20 season as they went on to win the Premier League title, and he reportedly even held talks with Klopp. Liverpool had been expected to make a move for him that summer to take advantage of the £47.5 million release clause in his RB Leipzig contract.

The Germany international even spoke publicly about his admiration for Klopp and his side in the midst of such speculation.

But then the coronavirus pandemic struck, football was postponed and Liverpool’s transfer plans had to change. Keeping their powder dry due to the financial ramifications of the global crisis, they were left unable to move for Werner in June 2020, as Chelsea instead swooped in to activate his release clause.

With his release clause set to expire that summer, neither player nor club were in a position to wait and the Reds missed out as a result. Meanwhile, he would reportedly be paid a significantly higher wage than he could have hoped for on Merseyside, said to be worth over £270k a week.

Instead, Liverpool waited until September before bringing in Diogo Jota from Wolves in a £45m deal. And that signing was the start of a wider £224m attacking revamp at Anfield as Klopp first started to plot beyond his heralded triumvirate of Salah, Firmino, and Mane, even if such plans only accelerated in 2022 and 2023 with the arrivals of Diaz, Nunez, and Gakpo.

With the Portuguese a firm fan favourite on the red half of Merseyside, having scored 50 goals from 132 games and won both the League Cup and FA Cup, the Reds enjoyed a lucky escape. They will certainly have no regrets. But Werner might.

Set to turn 28 in March, even if the forward rediscovers his shooting boots at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the door to a potential move to Anfield has long since closed. And while Klopp might need a Salah successor in the not too distant future to once and for all complete an attacking revamp that almost started with Werner in the summer of 2020, now three and a half years on, no matter what happens in the second half of the season, his compatriot will not be it.

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