Daily Schmankerl: Manchester City chasing David Alaba (!?); Thiago Alcantara

Before Bayern Munich declared it would not sell David Alaba during this season, there was a report out of England that stated Manchester City was going to make a run at the 29-year-old Austrian.

Yup, Pep Guardiola (allegedly) wanted to spend more money on his defense. To make that happen, Guardiola would have had to sell Oleksandr Zinchenko. Alas, Bayern Munich’s foiled those plans by announcing it was not going to sell Alaba any time soon.

The long-running pursuit of Borussia Dortmund star Jadon Sancho by Manchester United might finally be ending — at least for now. Per a report from FunkeSport (can you read that name and not think of famed analrapist — part analyst, part therapist — Tobias Fünke?) that was captured by Ronan Murphy, BVB will hang on to Sancho even if Manchester United offers €150 million.

Gute Besserung, Thiago!

Boooo.

You might have seen that ol’ Loddar was up to his old tricks, suggesting (Bild) that Bayern Munich might sign 29-year-old striker Andrej Kramaric after he bagged a brace against them on Sunday in a 4-1 loss to TSG Hoffenheim.

Well, as you can see, Andrej himself at least found the suggestion amusing and possibly even appealing. But I wouldn’t expect the Croatian to really transfer to Bayern to sit on the bench behind Robert Lewandowski.

For all of our rugged Canadian reader, there is no one better equipped to deal with the cold weather than Edmonton’s own Alphonso Davies.

The great United States vs. Canada border war has taken the form of two excellent talents at Bayern Munich.

Davy Klaassen, who always looks irate about something on the pitch, is reportedly in discussion with Ajax in an effort to return to the club:

Ajax are working on a deal to bring midfielder Davy Klaassen, 27, back to the club, according to reports in Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, on Tuesday. Klaassen, a Dutch international, came through the Ajax academy and played 126 times in six years for the club, before moving on to Everton and then Werder Bremen. The Bundesliga club would rather keep the player, but are believed to be open to selling if the price is right.

The 27-year-old has been one of Werder Bremen’s best and most consistent players during this tenure with the club.

Eintgracht Frankfurt is off to a surprisingly hot start, but was dealt a blow with the news that Filip Kostic suffered a torn knee ligament. Though this injury is not of the “season-ending variety”, it still is an…