Klose vs Frings (and someone who will be revealed soon)

By: Jan | June 6th, 2007

First of all let’s start the post with a little recap of the more obvious things that happened in the last few months: Miroslav Klose didn’t score a lot of goals lately. Neither did he make a good impression on the field very often or got scorer-points for assists. He suffered from some bacterial infection and received medication. He did a really stupid thing when he met with Bayern Munich’s Uli Hoeness and Ottmar Hitzfeld close to an important UEFA Cup match. He played abysmal in that match. He received a red card in the second leg very early in the game. He apologised for his behaviour. There were all sorts of transfer rumours. Names included Barcelona and Bayern Munich. After a lot of argy-bargy over his possible transfer he announced to stay in Bremen until 2008. He chose a new haircut somewhere in between those events. And he has a calm and rather introverted personality which is nothing new but worth mentioning anyway.

That’s about as many facts as I could remember. Now everything from here onwards is speculation. And that’s what both overeager fans and the press are usually very good at. So papers were filled with all types of theoretical articles analysing the scenario while some fans on Werder Bremen boards decided to spread rumours about possible marital problems. And rumours about a possible move to Bayern Munich were very persistent as well despite continuous denial by Bremen’s sporting director Klaus Allofs.

Now it’s time to add another chapter to the story. Frings was quoted in an interview with the tabloid newspaper Bild: “I don’t get the impression Klose wants to stay at Werder. Of course, Bremen need him, but after all the speculation and uncertainty about his future at the club, I do not think that he still wants to play for Bremen. If it is the case, then I think it would be better if he just left the club” Klose who had remained closed lipped all the time then gave a remarkable interview to the German newspaper Sueddeutsche. Quote: “Those who really know Torsten will know he changes his opinions like the wind. When the wind blows in a different direction, he will contradict what he said before. I did not say anything when he was linked with a move to Juventus and I wish he would do pay me the same compliment.” There were other interesting statements in that interview. I will come back to them later. Frings reply followed swiftly at the press conference before the Slovakia match: “A player who is not happy (in a team) helps nobody. I have no problem with Miro, I don’t mind what he says to the press, but his opinions and what he has to say don’t interest me.”

So now we have a little catfight going on between those two. Joachim Löw has been quick to play down the incident but it will definitely be interesting to see how both Klose and Frings perform tonight in the match against Slovakia and what they will have to say afterwards.

What else did Klose say in that interview? First of all he simply denied everything that has been written lately. He said that he has been working very well together with his agent for a couple of years now and that he is not his puppet. Since that was something that the press wrote about after his meeting with Bayern Munich. He linked his bad form with fitness and health issues but said that he feels much better now and that it was good to be on the pitch for a full 90 minutes again against San Marino. He also once again denied rumours about his private life and stated that he is very happy with his wife and his kids. He added that he thinks he knows who spread those rumours and is going to return the honours…