Transfer Bubbles - June 20, 2007

By: Jan | June 20th, 2007

It’s time again to meet up with the usual ’sources close to the club’ to tell us a bit about their dreams, their delusions and their wishful thinking. There are also some news that are actually true and verified.

Transfer Bubble Bursts
Werder Bremen wants to sign Alou Diarra but according to Lyon’s chairman Aulas it’s Portsmouth who are in the driving seat: “Portsmouth are in the driving seat”. Edit: Forget about that statement for the moment. As Inara pointed out in her comment, Diarra rejected Portsmouth as he favours a move to a bigger club. So let’s hope he considers Bremen to be a big club. Josef Schnusenberg will take over the job as Schalke’s new president as of season 2007/2008. One of his long term goals will be to land similarly impressive transfers as Bayern Munich. Yet for the very near future he isn’t that optimistic: “For the moment we have to be honest and admit, that we aren’t in the race for the big stars. The deal with Appiah as it stands today is not possible”, admitted Schnusenberg. So no Stephen Appiah for Schalke and don’t expect any other big name transfers from them this summer. While at it, don’t expect the small name transfer of creative midfielder Albert Streit from Frankfurt to Schalke to happen either. The two sides couldn’t agree on the transfer fee. Steven over at the Dortmund Offside already had a lot of fun chronicling the Rozehnal transfer saga, so I don’t want to spoil the fun and will let him continue his work, once he is back in charge. I just tell you that there are some news.

Transfer Bubble Still Intact
I had reported earlier that the transfer of Carlos Alberto to Werder Bremen is basically a done deal. As it stands now Hamburg still has some hope left that they can lure him to their side to play with van der Vaart instead of Diego. Difficult choice. Meanwhile you can read contradictory reports about the transfer status of Schalke’s Lincoln by the minute. The Turkish press had reported earlier that Galatasaray and Schalke had agreed on a 5 million Euros deal. Schalke then again was quick to deny everything, claiming that there hasn’t been any contact between the two clubs since Friday. A possible player to replace Lincoln is FC Basel’s Swiss youngster Ivan Rakitic. His transfer fee is reported to be around 5 million Euros as well. Stuttgart is as always still looking for a new striker. The story so far: Afonso > Gomis > Bravo > Ewerthon. I’ll keep you posted.

Wishful Thinking?
Uwe Seeler is Hamburg’s Franz Beckenbauer. Or Franz Beckenbauer is Munich’s Uwe Seeler. Either way, both don’t really have any say in how their club is run yet still everybody listens when they got something to say anyway. Uwe Seeler recently expressed that he isn’t satisfied with the club’s recent signing Mohammed Zidan: “He doesn’t have the physicality of a striker like Makaay who can force goals.” Why of all the strikers in the world did he mention Roy Makaay, who is bound to leave Munich should the Klose saga come to an end this summer? Probably it’s just a coincidence, probably it’s wishful thinking by Uwe Seeler alone but I decided to create a rumour here and say that Hamburg is in the race for Roy Makaay.

Shock Moves
Metze Spooky Real Madrid President Ramon Calderon has revealed that that ex-Dortmund defender and current German international Christoph Metzelder has signed a contract with the club. How about ex-Stuttgart goalkepper Timo Hildebrand joining Valencia? Now that Metze is in Madrid anything seems posssible to me. In related news: Valencia’s sporting director Amedeo Carboni will leave the club following disagreements over player recruitments. Can you possibly guess one of those player recruitments? Their coach Flores is apparently quite happy with his current goalkeeper. But more on that later…

This just in: Borussia Dortmund signed another defender to replace Metzelder. Robert Kovac will join the club on a free transfer from Juventus. And as expected: striker Marco Streller will leave Stuttgart and head home to Switzerland to join FC Basel.