David Alaba wants money, and a midfielder role

David Alaba's saga is continuing. After months of negotiations with their reliable left-back, Bayern Munich counted their expenses and gave up on him. Then, when the news became official, it was months of transfer speculation about where will he end up. When he finally announced that he was leaving Bayern (at the press conference), he didn’t name his new club, so the speculations continued.

Now, we are in a „third round of hell“ with Alaba and his future club. This time, a new condition leaked: apart from big wage (he wants 12 million euros per year), the Austrian international now wants to play in central midfield, not a defense.

Alaba has been deployed as both a left-back and center-back by Bayern Munich, becoming one of the most highly-rated defenders in the world. He is so versatile, that he can play in midfield too, and apparently, that’s what he wants to play for a new club. That condition, however, changes a lot of things.

First of all, there are only a certain number of clubs that can afford Alaba’s wage. Second, Alaba loves money, be he also is ambitious. He needs to play Champions League regularly, he won’t jump from Bayern to an average European club. And third, his new condition will certainly distance other clubs from the race. Clubs like Real, Chelsea, Liverpool, PSG, and even Juventus and Barcelona were in the mix for Alaba, but with this „midfield condition“, it seems that at least one club is out: Chelsea. The Blues are known to be looking at defenders specifically, and Chelsea has a loaded midfield and certainly doesn’t want to pay 12 million euros to another midfielder. It seems that only Barcelona needs a total rebuild of the squad in both lines, but they also need to clear the financial part of the problem, and Alaba is commanding a hefty price. That leaves Liverpool as serious candidates, since they are expecting to lose Wijnaldum, and Alaba could be the answer, especially since he, as a natural on the left side, would partner Robertson in Klopp’s tactics. All in all, it seems that in this saga, only one club is out of the race, but we are not close to the final solution – Alaba’s new club.