RB Leipzig boss Marco Rose has wished forward Timo Werner all the best ahead of his anticipated loan move to Tottenham.
Spurs have moved for the former Chelsea attacker to bolster their options up front, especially with captain Son Heung-min being away at the Asian Cup with South Korea for the next month.
Werner’s current club Leipzig revealed on Saturday he was not involved in their friendly with St Gallen due to transfer talks and Rose has now confirmed his imminent six-month loan to Tottenham.
Rose told Sky Germany: “It’s right that Timo wants to go on loan. Timo would like to go to the European Championship. We wish him all the best and are keeping our fingers crossed for him.”
Germany international Werner will return to the Premier League with unfinished business after two mixed years at Chelsea, where he scored 23 goals in 89 appearances, and would be available for Spurs’ FA Cup fourth-round tie on the weekend of January 28, with the draw set to take place on Monday.
Tottenham attacker Brennan Johnson urged his team-mates to keep building momentum after their 1-0 win over Burnley on Friday. Pedro Porro’s 78th-minute strike eventually broke Burnley’s resistance and it made it four wins in five matches for Spurs. Despite a plethora of unavailable players, Johnson is relishing the attacking philosophy being implemented by head coach Ange Postecoglou.
“We’re enjoying it a lot. You can tell by how we play on the pitch,” Johnson told ITV. “We want to keep progressing individually and as a team we want to keep getting better.
“Before the game, the manager said, ‘we’re in two competitions, the Premier League and FA Cup, and we’re at no point where we can slack off in this cup or play half-hearted’.
“We know even (here), we won 1-0 but it went to seven minutes of extra time and they pushed with everything.
“We have to be on it 100 per cent and play how we play every week. If we can keep building momentum in this cup and keep playing how we do in the Premier League, I think we have every chance (of winning silverware).”
It was not a completely positive night for Postecoglou, with Giovani Lo Celso forced off early and, more worryingly, Ben Davies suffering a potential hamstring injury.
While Postecoglou hoped Lo Celso’s withdrawal was “muscle fatigue,” he was more downbeat about Davies, who will be assessed over the coming days.
There was better news on Micky van de Ven, after he returned following a two-month absence with a hamstring injury only to remain an unused substitute ahead of next weekend’s trip to Manchester United.
“He’s fine. The plan was to give him some game time but the way the game was going, we needed something up front to crack them open,” Postecoglou added. “We kept him on ice but he’s trained this week, he was OK and will train fully (next week). He’s available.”
Burnley also have injury concerns ahead of hosting Luton on January 15 with Lyle Foster replaced with an unspecified issue, while Charlie Taylor hurt his shoulder.
Clarets boss Vincent Kompany explained: “We’ll see. I hope it’s not bad news.
“I can’t tell you much more, but hopefully with that little bit of extra time before the next game, we’ll have some good news.”
