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If last summer's transfer rumour trend was "Everyone to Napoli!" because of the presence of one Rafa Benitez in Naples, this summer's trend is slowly revealing itself to be "Everyone from Bayern Munich!" for no real reason other than because the football gods are smiling favourably upon Liverpool. They may just be rumours — incredibly baseless ones, probably — but it's not the worst thing to be linked to players who won a historic treble in 2013.
Today's offering is Dante Bonfim Costa Santos, commonly known as Dante to teammates and fans of the Inferno. The centre back was purchased from Borussia Mönchengladbach by big spenders Bayern in 2012 for the princely sum of €4.7m. Dante immediately slotted into the starting line up and went on to be one of the club's top performers during their record-breaking season that saw them become the first German club to ever win the Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal, and the Champions League in one season.
With Daniel Agger's future looking murky following a recent interview, links to a centre back with proven experience at the highest levels of the game were inevitable. Dante was linked with a January move to Manchester United, but the rumour was borne of disgruntled congrat negotiations between the player and Bayern management. In March, the centre back finally signed an extension with his club until 2017, which makes this an odd rumour from the player's point of view.
It's an odd connection for Liverpool as well, as Dante is — brace yourselves — a left-footed centre back playing on the left side of the pairing. Yes. Really. It would be the Daniel Agger / Mamadou Sakho Left Footed Klaxon of 2013/14 all over again, only with additional literary references.
If Agger does depart it's hard to see Dante starting over Sakho, and on the occasion when he might, the thought of him pairing with Martin Skrtel does not exactly inspire confidence. While Dante had an incredible year in 2012/13, he looked an entirely different player the following season and there were lots of concerns over Bayern's overall centre back situation throughout the season. Even with Dante's contract extension, Bayern are looking to reinforce at the back themselves, and it seems incredibly unlikely that he'd end up on Merseyside.
