Reds watch and wait as Julian Brandt’s future to be decided this week

Posted by

The future of Bayer Leverkusen star, Julian Brandt, will be resolved this week after the club’s managing director, Rudi Voller, revealed the fact to Sky Sports in Germany.

“We know exactly which clubs have knocked [for Brandt],” Voller claimed. “Brandt has some requests, and in the next five, six or seven days there will be a decision.”

Voller also admitted that the Bayer Leverkusen remain hopeful he may end up staying in Germany, but that the chance of him staying was “50/50”.

Brandt has been previously linked with both the Reds and Tottenham; however, the initial fee (which was thought to be the £21.5 million release clause) has since rocketed after the Bundesliga club qualified for Europe.

German-based Bild, via talkSPORT, have also claimed that Brandt’s favoured choice of new club would be Borussia Dortmund, which would mean he would be refusing not just this year’s Champions League finalists but the likes of Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus and Atletico Madrid.

Despite scoring seven times and creating a further 11 playing in Leverkusen’s midfield, the Reds shouldn’t be too disappointed at missing out on the German wunderkind.

Of course, he would a valuable addition to our midfield ranks, but with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain fighting back from injury and Naby Keïta finally finding form in the final weeks of the season, we are already more than well-stocked in the middle of the park.

We’re not sure we could even guarantee him first-team football, which is probably what he needs at 23-years-old.

His real value to the Reds would have been his versatility. Before this season, Brandt played primarily as a winger, but this season manager Peter Bosz decided to utilise him in a ubiquitous, attacking midfield role.

With his price going up and a reported desire to move to Borussia Dortmund, this one looks to be out of our hands, Reds. Let’s keep pushing for full-back cover and that elusive, all-purpose attacker.