It’s time for Rafael van der Vaart’s annual attempt to change clubs and he even warmed up his old Valencia shirt trick for us again – or I did.

The transfer period started with two early big money moves. In fact, very big money moves anywhere outside of Madrid. Diego sealed a transfer to Juventus for €24.5m, while Bayern were willing to spend €30m for Mario Gomez; further bonus payments not included. With the market awash with fresh money, the stage was set for the Euros to start dripping further down the food chain – what actually followed though, was a month long transfer crunch.

One month to swap, replace and recycle two thirds of the Bundesliga’s coaches and bring all transfer activity to a temporary halt. One month for some clubs to realize that they don’t have any money to spend in the first place. One month for Werder Bremen and Borussia Mönchengladbach to negotiate a transfer fee for Marko Marin*. One month to make AC Milan give up on Edin Dzeko.

Things have recently started to pick up pace again though. After ditching Martin Jol and Didi Beiersdorfer to become lone ruler of the Hanseatic Empire, Bernd Hoffmann was in desperate need of star power to appease his subjects – who were plotting an uprising against him only this January. He moved quickly to give Ze Roberto the two year contract Bayern were denying him, before eventually sealing a €9m deal for Twente Enschede’s Eljero Elia. Though, Elia is more a Beiersdorfer farewell present than a Hoffmann coup. And Hoffmann is back in the Netherlands again, this time to meet with Hans Nijland and Henk Veldmate, who happen to be the delegation send by FC Groningen to discuss the transfer fee for their striker Marcus Berg. If both clubs can come to an agreement, Hamburg would complete a hat-trick of signings consisting of the best Bayern midfielder of last season (unofficial), the talent of the year in the Netherlands (official) and the best player of the U21 Euro Championships this summer (official). That’s some ManCity millions well spent. For more Hamburg gossip head over to our Hamburg Offside.

Meanwhile, spending Bayern Munich millions seems to be quite a bit more difficult for Stuttgart. They are sitting on a mountain of cash since early summer and all they got for it was the talented young fullback Stefano Celozzi from Karlsruhe for around €2.5m. All other targets either picked up a serious injury (Helmes/Leverkusen), had to deal with complications from a previous serious injury (Demba Ba/Hoffenheim) or had to deal with their club adding a luxury tax to the transfer fee only billionaire backed clubs should pay (Jovanovic/Liege). In their desperation Stuttgart turned to Real Madrid and lo and behold came to an agreement concerning their no longer wanted striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (€18m + €2m in case of CL qualification). Stuttgart’s good fortunes didn’t stop there, with Europe’s big clubs largely ignoring Real Madrid’s left-over sale. That doesn’t mean Stuttgart is without competition. Sporting director Horst Heldt revealed in an interview that Tottenham seem to be the other serious contender. While not being one of Europe’s elite clubs, Tottenham certainly have something going for them. They’ve copied Real Madrid’s art of wasting huge amounts of money each year to compile squads that eventually fail to live up to the price tag. He would feel right at home again. Stuttgart could offer Champions League football and the honor of training with Jens Lehmann in his final year. Huntelaar is expected to make a decision today, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, but definitely soon. Should the deal implode Stuttgart then face the challenge to explain to their alternatives like Vagner Love, that they really aren’t their fourth choice but that they wanted him all along actually. Then they will have to work hard not to look too desperate when starting talks with CSKA Moscow.

After ignoring that there was such a thing as a transfer window last year, Bayern Munich have certainly done their homework this time. Half of the deals were already sealed in January actually: Lukas Podolski returns to Cologne (+€10m), Ivica Olic comes from Hamburg (-€0), Anatoliy Tymoshchuk will come to heal the club’s Petersburg trauma (-€11m) and Alexander Baumjohann was hired to fill Podolski’s now empty spot on the bench (-€0). As mentioned, in the summer the club quickly wrapped up the Gomez deal and then bought two players from the Eredevisie (Edson Braafheid for €2m and Danijel Pranjic for €7.7m) to help Louis van Gaal cope with potential homesickness. All in all, it looks like the club has done all the right things. They still want a right-back and maybe a goalkeeper. Chelsea’s Jose Bosingwa had been linked with Bayern for a while, while Manuel Neuer and Bayern enjoyed a brief flirt until Felix Magath returned from his holiday. Then there is also some French winger who wants to join some Spanish club but Bayern so far refuse to listen to any offers. Anyone who is looking to pick up Tim Borowski or Lucio may have better luck. For more Bayern related news you can head over to our Mark van Bommel Offside.

Elsewhere…

Wolfsburg’s efforts to add depth to their squad to handle the extra strain of Champions League football is handled by our new Wolfsburg blogger Chuck over at the Wolfsburg Offside.

Hertha’s efforts to sign players who cost nothing and earn less are routinely handled by our veterain Hertha blogger Abby over at the Hertha Offside.

At some point the new blogger of the Cologne Offside will certainly also tell you how the club intends to fix that gaping hole between the defense and offense – called midfield by clubs that have one.

Hoffenheim’s extensive scouting database, Felix Magath’s magic transfer touch, the latest Swiss imports and all the signings that aren’t happening at Bremen will be dealt with in another post for sure.

* somewhere between €8m to €9m FYI.

Ronaldinho

Diego (This is a report from Brazilian TV. You can skip to 1:45 to get directly to the tour of his house)

If I were Diego, I’d be hard pressed to give up the romantic setting of a German middle-class neighbourhood, for some random fairy tale villa. More than that though, I would miss playing keepy-up with my neighbour Naldo.

• Gilberto out, Domowtschiski in. (Hertha Offside)
• Arguez in, Gilberto no longer out. (Hertha Offside)
• Gilberto out (for real), Skacel in. (Hertha Offside)
• Seven new signings, who could make a difference in the second half of the season. (Bundesliga Offside)
• Plenty of over- and underrated summer signings. (Bundesliga Offside)
• A can of wupp ass for Wuppertal. (Bayern Offside)
• Wish me the best of luck for Euro 2008. (The Offside)

Five Stars
Just four players were awarded the elite rating: Miroslav Klose, Luca Toni, Franck Ribery and Theofanis Gekas. The Bayer Leverkusen striker was the league’s leading goalscorer last season, which earned Bochum a nice sum of cash, but five stars? He has continued to score his fair share of goals at Leverkusen, but hasn’t been particularly impressive and looked out of touch with the rest of the team.

Four Stars
This is my favourite category, as almost every single player who was awarded four stars either didn’t deserve such a high rating in the first place, or had a disappointing first half of the season.

Miserable failure: Carlos Alberto (Werder Bremen), Ewerthon (Stuttgart), AIlton (Duisburg)
Major dissapointments: Zidan (Hamburg), Radu (Wolfsburg),
Three stars in the first place: Charisteas (Nuremberg), Klimowicz (Dortmund)
Not sure: Hamit Altintop (Bayern Munich)

Three Stars and less
OK, here are the bulk of the players, so I won’t go through each one. Just a few who caught my eye, who I feel were underrated or positive surprises.

Vidal (Bayer Leverkusen, Three Stars)
That was a smart buy by Leverkusen. Vidal has shown glimpses of his talent already and scored a beautiful goal against Hanover.

Ze Roberto and Marcel Jansen (Bayern Munich, Three Stars)
Not sure what basis those three stars had in the first place. But both players have proven themselves at Bayern with Ze Roberto being on the team’s key players.

Sanogo (Bremen, Three Stars)
Re-ignited his career at Bremen like so many others.

Sestak (Bochum, Two Stars)
Another smart transfer by Bochum. A veritable replacement for Gekas and Marcel Koller will hope, he can keep a talent for more than one season for a change.

Petric (Borussia Dortmund, Two Stars)
Great transfer who will gift Dortmund a top quality strike force once Alex Frei joins him up front.

Hajnal (Karlsruhe, Two Stars)
Played an impressive first half of the season with the equally impressive Karlsruher SC.

Jones (Schalke, Two Stars)
Made it into the German national team and has been one of Schalke’s best players.

Dejagah (Wolfsburg, One Star)
One of Wolfsburg’s best and a positive surprise on the pitch. You might give his limited grasp of world politics a one star rating.

7) Alexander Bade moves from Paderborn to Dortmund. This guy will only be a backup, but Dortmund was forced to sign him when Arsenal’s Jens Lehmann preferred the pine to taking a pay cut. With Marc Ziegler between the sticks, Dortmund has been a much stingier defensive side and the injury to Roman Weidenfeller could be fortuitous.

6) Energie Cottbus secured Michal Papadopulos from Leverkusen on loan. While he has yet to score in the Bundesliga, we need to remember that the same could almost be said about Cottbus. Given a chance, this kid, who was once recruited by Arsene Wenger (a decent judge of talent), might provide enough firepower for the beleaguered club to scrape the points necessary to avoid the drop.

5) Albert Streit moved from Frankfurt to Schalke. The move for the winger, which has been a year in the making, could provide Schalke with some width in attack, as they have lacked any sustained wing-play for the first half of the campaign. The temperamental German might just be ready to make the step up and claim a spot on the German national team if he can learn a team ethic and help propel Schalke back into a Champions League spot.

4) Schalke also added Botofago’s José Roberto de Oliveira. The attacking midfielder, known simply as Zé Roberto, comes off two good campaigns with the Rio club and gives Schalke experience and flair in the center of the field. Not only does this help them immediately, as he should be able to slot in quickly for the Gelsenkirchen side, who already have an assortment of Brazilians; but it allows starlet Ivan Rakitić to develop without the full pressure of being the clubs attacking general.

3) Jan Koller moves from Monaco to Nurnberg. Nurnberg is another side with problems in their forward line and the massive Czech target man could help last year’s cup winners to avoid relegation, especially if his budding partnership with Charisteas proves fruitful. A handful for even the best defender, Koller has made the like of Milan Baros look decent and should do the same for Nurnburg’s anemic strike force.

2) Hertha Berlin land Serbian starlet Gojko Kačar from FK Vojvodina. This kid has already made his debut for the Serbian senior national side and has been tearing up the Serbian league after being converted from a center half to a holder to a striker by trainer Ivica Bržić in the summer. Expect big things from this young Serbian in the coming years.

1) Bayern Munich win the scramble for Sao Paulo’s Breno. Tim Vickery has called this 18 year old phenom the best defensive prospect in Brazil. He is the long-term replacement for Lucio at Bayern and back home. A good man-marker and excellent with the ball at his feet, he is bound for glory. He has already made Van Buyten expendable.

Here’s Ivan Klasnic on the beach of Belek in Turkey, where Werder Bremen prepare for the second half of the season.

Whether Klasnic really loves Werder Bremen is up for debate though. His doctor recently got in a row with Bremen’s medical staff, who he accuses of misdiagnosing Ivan Klasnic’s condition. Something that didn’t go too well with Werder. Then there’s Klasnic’s contract, which is expiring in June this year and Klaus Allofs has yet to offer a renewal. Bremen is a bit cautious and want to see how Klasnic is doing in the coming months.

Just in case, Hanover 96 have already positioned themselves as potential new employees. Klasnic could team up with former team mates Christian Schulz and Valerien Ismael to spearhead a squad increasingly made up of Bayern and Bremen rejects.

I would be grateful if someone could explain to me exactly why our German chums feel it necessary to take a break all the way to February? I appreciate that the northern European climate does not suit the aesthetics of the beautiful game but really… February? That’s nearly Easter!

It’s also time to ceremoniously undust the Rumours and Transfers category of this blog, whose last post dates all the way back to the warm summer months. Until January 31st though, this category will hopefully receive some fresh posts. The first of which will actually be this one.

I can proudly tell you, that the Bundesliga Offside has extensively scouted the blogging market and applied a mixture of Uli Hoeness and Klaus Allofs signing techniques, to bring two guest authors to the Bundesliga Offside. Uli Hoeness because I pillaged other Bundesliga blogs to cement this blog’s dominance in the league of English Bundesliga blogs. Klaus Allofs because they are talented and signed on a Bosman:

Dave from Red White Germany. Dave is an Englishman who recently moved to Germany – not for the football though. Nonetheless, spelled out for you that’s: England + Germany + Football + Rivalry. So look forward to a fresh perspective on all things German football culture to balance out those posts of mine, which could have been directly sponsored by Germany’s Tourist Office. Or it’ll be the other way round. We’ll see…

Chris from Bundesliga Talk. Chris has dumped his own excellent little Bundesliga blog to enjoy the riches and masses of The Offside. He’ll help me out with the matchday coverage and will inject some proper football analytics to this blog, to balance out the YouTube overdose I come up with on lazy days. He figured out Bayern Munich’s weakness before Stuttgart did, so look forward to his insights.

a) Rafael van der Vaart gets his wish granted and leaves Hamburg to join Valencia. The photo has been taken during his official presentation in Valencia.

b) Rafael van der Vaart is still in Hamburg posing for the Spanish sports daily As with a Valencia shirt.

Really, his dying grand parents want to see him play for a Spanish club, so it’s understandable that he takes every measure necessary to make their dream come true as quick as possible. So far we’ve got a faked injury and a nice snapshot of him holding a Valencia jersey. I don’t know if that was enough to convince his employer though. But van der Vaart still has two weeks to come up with more and better ideas to force his transfer.

Update: You can now earn some money while enjoying this little soap opera. Place a bet on which injury will stop van der Vaart from playing for Hamburg. Remember: there is still the UEFA Cup rematch against Honved coming up and when he plays that one he won’t be able to play for Valencia in the Champions League. Go here. Translation: Knie verdreht – twisted knee, eingewachsener Zehennagel – ingrown toe nail, Sommergrippe – summer flu (I used that excuse once), auf die Lippe gebissen – bitten on the lip, Sehnenscheidenentzündung – repetitive strain injury aka typewriter’s cramp, Schnupfen – cold. Good luck!

In early 2007 Huub Stevens took over as new Hamburg coach. The club had a disastrous start into the new season and was sitting at the very bottom of the table. Stevens lead the team out of the relegation zone and into the Intertoto Cup, through which the team eventually made it to the UEFA Cup. The next season would turn out to be a very successful one. Hamburg even challenged Bayern Munich for the title for a long time before they chocked and dropped down to the third place.

Up until a few days ago I was convinced that history could positively repeat itself for Hamburg. The preseason went smooth and was free of any particular drama – excluding a slight skirmish with Werder Bremen about Carlos Alberto. And their very convincing season opener against Hannover promoted the team to veritable Munich challengers in the eyes of many experts. Then a fax by Valencia, offering €14m for Rafael van der Vaart, arrived and now history could negatively repeat itself for Hamburg.

One year ago Khalid Boulahrouz was determined to leave Hamburg to join Chelsea (or as it turned out Chelsea’s bench) and faked an injury, so he couldn’t play for Hamburg in the Champions League. A few days later Boulahrouz had joined Chelsea and incidentally was still allowed to play for them in the Champions League. Now there is Rafael van der Vaart who is determined to leave Hamburg to join Valencia. And he too now had a mysterious back injury that prevented him from playing for Hamburg in the UEFA Cup. Incidentally that also means he would still be allowed to play in the Champions League for Valencia.

It’s a well publicised fact that it would be a dream come true for van der Vaart to play for one of the big clubs in Spain. His mother is Spanish and his grand parents live there too. A clause in his contract would allow him to leave Hamburg in 2009 for just €1,5m, which means that Hamburg will most likely sell him in 2008 to make a bit of a profit. But selling him now would definitely be too early. There is no chance to find a suitable replacement for him two weeks prior to the end of the transfer period. And the players you could get will be completely overpriced. Though, these concerns usually don’t matter to a player willing to leave a club.

His departure could also trigger a domino effect. In a worst case scenario, Hamburg would no longer be a serious candidate for the top spots in the league. Other players could be frustrated by another midtable season leading to a possible wave of departures. So ideally the management sits out those two weeks until the transfer period ends, kisses and makes up with van der Vaart and invites his mother and grand parents over to Hamburg for a short holiday.