Transfer Talk: The Hunter and the Hunted

By: Jan | July 15th, 2009

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.