Rb Leipzig CEO Oliver Mintzlaff is ‘relaxed’ about Timo Werner’s future and hasn’t ruled out the Germany striker staying at his club long-term.
Werner had scored 27 goals before the season was curtailed by coronavirus and has been regularly linked to Liverpool as the player to come in and support our frontline – providing genuine competition to the world-class strikers Mo Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino.
The issue with Werner though is that his bargain £50m release-clause expires at some point in April – meaning that if no club triggers it this month – Rb Leipzig will be able to put whatever price-tag they choose on the player’s head.
‘I’m deeply relaxed about Werner,’ Mintzlaff told Sky Deutschland, cited in the Metro.
‘He hasn’t signalled yet that he wants to leave at the end of the season and he doesn’t have to. ‘He has a contract until 2023.’
There’s no way Liverpool will be triggering Werner’s clause during the pandemic, so it remains to be seen if we’re able to negotiate with his club whenever the transfer window is open – not that we have any idea when that’ll be just yet.
We’d suggest the likelihood of Werner arriving now is much smaller than a month back, before we realised the extent of the damage COVID-19 would do to the game and society.