“Why-o, why-o, why-o, did I ever leave Ohio,” — Alex P. Keaton, Family Ties
Tottenham Hotspur attacker Timo Werner has to be asking himself the same thing as Michael J. Fox’s character from the 80s sitcom — only about his home country of Germany.
Since rolling out of RB Leipzig in 2020 (in the midst of a Champions League run nonetheless…if you don’t remember the timing of that competition and how it coincided with the transfer window, you just kind of had to be there for the pandemic and all of its glory), Werner’s career had been one pratfall after another.
Sure, he did win a Champions League title with Chelsea FC during the 2020/21 season, but it has been, well, not good.
Werner did try to run it back at RB Leipzig, but that club’s direction is not one conducive to bringing back an old friend seeking to get his groove his back. So…that did not work. Then there was hope that Tottenham Hotspur squad in need of a turbo-boost would be a good spot for Werner, but that has flamed out, too.
So…what’s next?
Well, a move to a middling or lower-tier Bundesliga side like FC Augsburg or SC Freiburg (sorry!) would seem to be an ideal fit, but Werner might need to back to his factory settings — and what better place to do that than this boyhood club, VfB Stuttgart.
It would take a loan or a sale from RB Leipzig to make it work since Werner’s contract runs through 2026, but it is feasible.
It has not been easy for VfB Stuttgart this season. The team lost key players over the summer, has been ravaged by injuries, and just cannot find a way to get over the hump this season. All of that could lead them to look for a cheap jolt into their squad — which Werner might be able to provide if he can rediscover the reasons why he loved playing this game in the first place.
In the end, Werner should have just listened to Uncle Avi from the movie Snatch:
