62 Days later

By: Jan | June 26th, 2007

It’s official: Miroslav Klose leaves Bremen and joins Bayern Munich this summer.

Both sides agreed not to disclose any monetary details of the transfer, but Bayern supposedly improved their original bid by another €2m to a sum total of €12m, with some additional clauses that could earn Bremen up to €3m more if Bayern wins some titles next season (highly unlikely I guess). I’m still puzzled why he went to Bayern. It’s not like he didn’t have a fun time on the pitch with Bremen, and it’s not like he never wanted to play for a big foreign club. Hopefully there will be an insightful interview soon that explains his motivations.

The deal ends a transfer saga that started 62 days ago in a small airport cafe where Miro and Uli held ‘informal talks’. The German FA thought that this smelled a bit fishy. If those talks weren’t informal but rather contract negotiations both sides would have breached existing league laws. They couldn’t prove anything and decided to put the case to rest.

That those talks with the arch enemy didn’t go to well with his fans in Bremen is understandable. His following performances on the pitch did little to elevate their mood. Instead he became their scapegoat once Bremen in quick succession blew chances to win the UEFA Cup and the Bundesliga title. You could argue that this transfer argy-bargy had a negative influence on the team, yet Torsten Frings and his flirt with Juventus should be mentioned here as well. But I say that Klose simply has to take some of the blame for the semi-final knockout against Espanyol. His performance in the away game came close to playing with only 10 men most of the time. Then in the rematch at home he got himself two yellow cards in quick succession (the second for a stupid blatant dive), so that Bremen actually had to play with 10 men most of the time. I don’t hope that his motivation to move to Bayern comes from his desire to win some titles because he clearly had the chance to win two of those with Bremen last season. /rant off

Now let’s move on to the bright side of things. I’m simply awestruck by the beauty of this new Bayern Munich squad. Uli Hoeness spend an unprecedented €70m to add new players, giving coach Ottmar Hitzfeld luxury problems for almost every position and an abundance of tactical choices. I hope that he rotates players a lot. Otherwise the outlook for some young players like Podolski, Jansen or Sosa isn’t too rosy. I wonder if strikers like Mario Gomez or Patrick Helmes might be secretly hoping that this enhances their chances for a spot in the starting XI of Germany’s national team.

So, the Klose file can be put to rest. Time to open the new one: it’s clear that Roy Makaay will now leave the club. His agent recently proclaimed that he won’t go to a Bundesliga club but who cares about what agents say. I started the Makaay to Hamburg rumour so that might be a fun option, since there really aren’t enough Dutchies in Hamburg already. Or how about a move to Werder Bremen?