In the long and exhaustive list of transfer regrets, Werder Bremen’s decision to sign Naby Keita after he left Liverpool must be up there.
And it’s a regret they can’t get rid of either, with BILD reporting that a proposed move to China may not be as advanced as they hoped.
Earlier this week we covered how Bremen were hoping to ship Keita off to China after being left furious when he pulled out of a move to Turkey this summer.
The midfielder has been a disaster of a signing since arriving on a free following his departure from Liverpool last summer.
He initially started the season injured and never came back from that, eventually ending up suspended by the club when he was fit for refusing to play.
Bremen want to offload him and thought they had done so this summer only for Keita to pull out of a deal at the last minute because he didn’t feel it was right. That led to Bremen eyeing up a move to China, where there is interest, but BILD dampen their hopes on that front today.
They explain that Keita is still keeping fit at the German club but hasn’t found a new club as yet and there has been ‘no notable progress or negotiations yet’ with the interested parties in China.
“There is nothing current. We’re waiting and seeing. Markets keep opening up and we are ready to react if something happens,” Bremen’s football licensing director Peter Niemeyer is quoted as saying.
That reads as something of a desperate ‘please help us’ statement, with everyone in limbo as Keita’s contract runs until 2026 and Bremen are refusing to terminate it.
Thus, he’s training on his own waiting for movement and a possible exit, neither of which seems to be appearing.
