Timo Werner close to joining Tottenham on loan from RB Leipzig

Former Chelsea forward Timo Werner is poised to join Tottenham on loan from RB Leipzig.

The clubs are finalising the details of a loan deal that would see Werner move to north London until the end of the 2023-24 season.

Manchester United have also monitored Werner, but the 27-year-old is set to link up with Ange Postecoglou’s side.

While the proposed move is a loan, the expectation is that it could be made permanent if it suits all parties.

Werner swapped RB Leipzig for Chelsea in for £47.5million in 2020 but was unable to replicate his Bundesliga goalscoring form and struggled to hold down a regular starting spot in west London.

He scored 23 goals in 89 appearances for the Stamford Bridge side, but returned to RB Leipzig in the summer of 2022 after making only 15 Premier League starts the previous season.

Werner has featured 14 times for RB Leipzig so far this term, scoring two goals and recording one assist.

Analysis from The Athletic’s Duncan Alexander

Few contemporary footballers divide opinion like Timo Werner, often within the same game, sometimes within the same phase of play.

Werner’s stock was high when he signed for Chelsea in 2020, having scored 28 goals and assisted eight more for RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga — figures that put him in the same numerical bracket as Lionel Messi and Robert Lewandowski that season.

His pace and movement looked like a perfect fit for the Premier League. But while those attributes were certainly demonstrated in his two years at Stamford Bridge, what Werner became known for was an incredible series of missed chances, perhaps illustrated best with an open goal double goalline miss against Leeds in December of his first season.

It comes as little surprise, then, that in his two years in England, Werner underperformed his expected goals by more (-8.26) than any other Premier League player in that period.

But the philosophical point remains: is it better to have a player frequently getting into these positions and (sometimes) not scoring than it is having a more reliable but less chaotic force in the team?

Werner’s movement does create acres space for others, and you have to think that in an Ange Postecoglou side he might become unplayable in ways football philosophers are yet to fully envisage.

And let’s not forget that Chelsea were pretty good when he played for them. They won the Champions League with Timo Werner in the team, they are unlikely to win it without him in the side for some time yet.

2023-24 is a season in which Tottenham fans have embraced chaos. Why not add Werner to the mix?

(Photo: Getty Images)

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