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Whether he deserves the amount of blame he's been given for Liverpool's poor season, Simon Mignolet has found himself near the top of many fans' lists of what's gone wrong. And whether there's any truth to them, rumours increasingly have Brendan Rodgers less than thrilled with the goalkeeper's command of his area.
That in turn means goalkeeper transfer rumours. And given Liverpool's fixation on your under Fenway Sports Group, it was likely only a matter of time before those transfer rumours turned to one of the most promising young shot stoppers in European football: FC Koln's 21-year-old rising star Timo Horn.
Horn has already made 65 appearances for Koln, and his 16 clean sheets in 32 league appearances last season were key to their promotion back to the Bundesiga this year. So far he has five clean sheets and is helping to keep Koln, who have scored the second fewest goals in the German top division, alive in mid-table.
As far as young goalkeepers with both promise and a proven track record in Europe's top leagues and who might also conceivably be available go, it's hard to do better than Horn. Given how important he is to FC Koln, of course, it's also unlikely the club would want to let him go, but with his contract winding down they may not have much choice.
Still, with a season and a half to go on his current deal, if he is a target, one imagines it will be for next summer and not for January. Koln's Bundesliga survival depends almost entirely on his quality between the sticks, and so unless Liverpool are willing to massively overpay, there's no way his current club lets him depart next month.
Next summer, though, if Liverpool are still looking for a goalkeeper, Horn would offer the kind of combination of quality and potential—plus a likely transfer fee south of the £10M mark if he doesn't sign a new deal—that would be hard to pass up.
