Bundesliga January 2026 Transfer Primers | VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach | OneFootball

The next of our 18 Bundesliga transfer primers to be published here on Get German Football News covers the nauseating rollercoaster ride known as VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach. This bloody team – forecast to actually have a successful season for a change – has literally been here, there, and everywhere. All the turbulence leaves the foals (interestingly enough) dead even with fierce regional rivals 1. FC Köln in the table.

Gladbach not only display the exact same record as Köln, but also that of Köln’s fellow promoted Bundesliga club Hamburger SV. All three teams possess 16 points thanks to the fact that all three teams have won four, drawn four, and lost seven in the Bundesliga. Quite the unique logjam between 11th and 13th place in the Bundesliga table!

Goal differential separates the trio a tad. Gladbach (minus six) sit below Köln (minus two) and above Hamburg (minus nine). Suddenly, the seemingly pointless ten-goal piece of insanity against Eintracht Frankfurt on match-day five comes into play. Gladbach’s four unanswered goals in the 4-6 home defeat at least statistically helped them gain a place!

Where in the hell with this crazy journey head next?

VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach

We might as well begin by assessing how things shook out.

Winter Predictions Check, VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach

Predicted Table Position – 7th place

Actual Table Position – 12th place, 16 points

(4-W, 4-D, 7-L)

(-6 G-Diff)

The Niederrheiner – given a bit more time after sporting director Roland Virkus’ sacking – began to gel under interim trainer Eugen Polanski in the second round of the Pokal in late October. Polanski’s extremely compact 3-6-1 parlayed a 3-1 Pokal victory over Karlsruher SC into a massive 0-4 away win over St. Pauli in the league just four days later. Polanski’s crew won their next two league fixtures against Köln and Heidenheim. A draw against Leipzig then gave them a five-match unbeaten run on-the-spin.

St. Pauli brought this to an end by exacting revenge in the Pokal at the beginning of December, but a win against Mainz the next weekend kept the Bundesliga unbeaten run alive. Wolfsburg snapped the streak and Gladbach also lost to Dortmund before the year was out. All four of the league wins came under Polanski during the strong stretch, mercilessly bookended by some of the worst top flight football many of us have witnessed since….hmmmm…probably since Florian Kohfeldt last coached in the top division.

Autumn Transfer Assessment, Borussia Mönchengladbach

Estimated Summer Transfer Balance = +€7m

One actually has to credit Virkus with doing a decent job in his final transfer window. In point of fact, Virkus and staff began building the foundation of this team last January. It was in the last January transfer window that the BMG administrative team snapped up Kevin Diks on a free and swung the deal to get Jens Castrop to move from Nürnberg after the 2024/25 season concluded. Both new additions qualify as “hits”. Diks has served all along Polanski’s back-line and successfully converted twice from the penalty spot. Castrop has worked on almost every axis and surprisingly even thrived as a wingback.

The totally unforeseen deal that brought Yannik Engelhardt back to German football has also yielded excellent dividends. If one had to pick a spot on the BMG roster that would be the hardest for any new addition to break into, it would be the congenitally packed midfield. Engelhardt defied expectations by doing just that. Though he was helped by Julian Weigl’s departure and Florian Neuhaus’ pre-season issues, Engelhardt blew past plenty of quality competitors to become Polanski’s hardest hustling and unquestionably most intelligent midfielder.

The author must now admit that he got it perfectly backwards with respect to attackers Haris Tabakovic and Shuto Machino. Tabakovic was ruthlessly skewered and labelled a sure flop in the pre-season section. Machino’s success was almost guaranteed in a total crap piece that also praised the signings of Jesper Lindstrøm and Samuel Mbangula. Triple oops. Injuries haven’t helped out in any of the cases, but Machino simply hasn’t met expectations. To be fair, the Japanese international has scored three goals when deployed tactically correct as a buttressing support attacker in the 3-6-1. 

One wishes that one could get something right or wrong when it comes to Giovanni Reyna. The fact is that Bundesliga watchers kept expectations comfortably at “zero” when it came to Reyna’s “Borussen switch”. We expected nothing. We got nothing. That may technically qualify as getting something right, but meeting the “zero threshold” essentially counts as an arithmetical brick wall. Just as one cannot divide by zero, a zero expectation line mothballs the calculation.

Dead Weight Ledger and Expiring Contracts, Borussia Mönchengladbach

Rouven Schröder’s inaugural transfer window in charge of this club begins with getting plenty of pieces of dead-weight off this 30-man-roster. Danish midfielder Oscar Fraulo is already reliably rumored to be on the way out. It shouldn’t prove too difficult to move former squad captain Jonas Omlin. The Virkus regime should have gotten the ex skipper out of the mix during the offseason, but rejected decent loan offers thanks to the fact that previous trainer Gerardo Seoane kept the race for the No. 1 keeper slot open longer than he should of.

It looks to be the case that Nathan Ngoumou – despite all of his well documented problems with the previous two coaching regimes – appears set to get another chance once he returns from injury in January. Outgoing transfer rumors continue to swirl around Kevin Stöger after the once indispensable Austrian fell out of Polanski’s good graces. To even think about labelling Stöger expendable would have been a sacrilege notion not too long ago. For some Germans, it still is. One hopes the popular Bundesliga journeyman can find some place to land. 

One also hopes that Schröder can find a place to park some of Polanski’s old BMG II protégées like Jan Urbig and Charles Herrmann. Promising young talents Niklas Swider (18) and new 16-year-old debutant Wael Mohya definitely need to be loaned out to developmental locales. If the rumor mills are accurate, Schröder is close to cashing in on Luca Netz ahead of his expiring contract. If he can find a buyer for Marvin Friedrich, that would count as a small miracle. Perhaps 1. FC Union Berlin can be persuaded to take Friedrich back.

Dead-Weight Ledger = Jonas Omlin (GK), Nathan Ngoumou (CM), Niklas Swider (DM), Kevin Stöger (ATTM), Wael Mohya (ATTM)

Expiring contracts =  Tobias Sippel (GK), Luca Netz (LB), Marvin Friedrich (CB), Oscar Fraulo (CM) 

Further Needs and Rumored Links, Borussia Mönchengladbach

Further Needs = LB, CB, RB, ADM, RW

Schröder recently caused a bit of a stir at a BMG presser when he remarked that his bosses reminded him that he needed to operate on a tight budget during this window. Gladbach have never been a wealthy club and are actually still fighting their way back from some over-leveraging during the final Max Eberl years and the devastating effects of the pandemic. Most of Schröder’s resources need to be focused on shoring up the right-back position, at which too much is being asked of Joe Scally at the moment. 

Ahem…might the author suggest “Hidden Heidenheim Gem” Omar Haktab Traoré? That’s probably the best name cropping up in the German press at present. The notion that Schröder can pick up Hoffenheim’s Alexander Prass or Bayer Leverkusen’s Jeanuël Belocian doesn’t look likely as both clubs wish to keep their respective players. The Julien Duranville deal could still happen, but one simply picks up far too many Werder Bremen loanee vibes from the whole idea.

The BVB man isn’t carrying the right king of energy with him. 

Avoid!

Rumored Links = Alexander Prass (LB), Jeanuël Belocian (CB), Jorge Spileers (CB) Omar Haktab Traoré (RB), Ryan Fosso (CM), Julien Duranville (LW), Amin Chiakha (CF), Keke Topp (CF)

GGFN | Peter Weis