Coverage delayed

If you’ve been wondering about the lack of new posts…

I’ll be a bit behind in covering the start of the new season, as I’m currently visiting family in Goiania, Brazil.

However, things should be back to normal when the Bundesliga kicks off, and hopefully I’ll have time for a preseason review…and I’ll try catching up on the lower divisions too.

Transfers

Well, here’s the transfers as they’ve been happening so far. There’s certain to be a lot of moves left before the season starts, but it’s good to see what the clubs have been up to.

Note that an asterisk (*) means that the player was on loan. If no monetary value is given, the player is on a free.

Borussia Dortmund:            +1,200,000
The champions have done rather well. The Neons are actually making a profit. They had to sell want-away Shinji Kagawa, getting 15 million up front, with perhaps a couple more coming. They also got 12 million for Lucas Barrios, who is off to China. The big gain was of course Marco Reus from Gladbach. The open question is whether striker Robert Lewandowski, who had a breakout season, gets some big offers.

IN:
Mustafa Amini * 	Central Coast Mariners 	 	0
Leonardo Bittencourt 	FC Energie Cottbus 	        3.000.000 €
Marco Reus 	        Borussia Mönchengladbach        17.100.000 €
Marc Hornschuh * 	FC Ingolstadt 04 		0
Zlatan Alomerovic 	Borussia Dortmund II 	 	0
Koray Günter 	        Borussia Dortmund U19 		0
Marvin Ducksch 	        Borussia Dortmund U19 		0
Oliver Kirch 	        1.FC Kaiserslautern 	 	400.000 €
Julian Schieber 	VfB Stuttgart 	 	        6.000.000 €

OUT:
Johannes Focher 	SK Sturm Graz 	                0
Daniel Ginczek * 	FC St. Pauli 	                0
Shinji Kagawa 	        Manchester United 		15.000.000 €
Lasse Sobiech * 	SpVgg Greuther Fürth 	 	100.000 €
Marco Stiepermann 	FC Energie Cottbus 		200.000 €
Antônio da Silva 	(unknown)                       0
Julian Koch * 	        MSV Duisburg 	 	        0
Lucas Barrios 	        Guangzhou Evergrande 	 	12.000.000 €
Florian Kringe 	        (unknown)                       0
Dimitar Rangelov 	FC Luzern 	 	        400.000 €

FC Bayern München:            -28.800.000 €
Bayern has already spent big in trying to wrest the title back. Mandzukic didn’t come cheap, although Pizarro is on a free. They also splashed big on Shaqiri, a Swiss-Albanian. Tom Starke will fill in as Neuer’s backup. They did get rid of Olic and Breno, which should strengthen the squad and finances.

IN:
Mario Mandzukic         VfL Wolfsburg                   13.000.000 €
Claudio Pizarro         SV Werder Bremen                0
Xherdan Shaqiri         FC Basel 1893                   11.600.000 €
Emre Can                FC Bayern München II            0
Lukas Raeder            FC Schalke 04 U19               0
Dante                   Borussia Mönchengladbach        4.700.000 €
Tom Starke              TSG 1899 Hoffenheim             0
Patrick Weihrauch       FC Bayern München U19           0

OUT:
Rouven Sattelmaier      (Unknown)                       0
Hans Jörg Butt          (retired)                       0
Ivica Olic              VfL Wolfsburg                   0
Danijel Pranjic         (Unknown)                       0
Breno                   (jail)                          0
Nils Petersen *         SV Werder Bremen                500.000 €

FC Schalke 04:                       -1.700.000 €
Schalke has little money, and Obasi really joined last season. Barnetta might be an interesting pickup. The Swiss midifielder has shown flashes of brilliance at Leverkusen, but has been very inconsistent. The players dumped weren’t going to play a role anyway, but of course they desperately wanted to keep Raul. It’s not clear how they plan to replace him. Perhaps Barnetta’s playmaking ability will ease that loss.

IN:
Sead Kolasinac          FC Schalke 04 U19               0
Vasilios Pliatsikas *   MSV Duisburg                    0
Anthony Annan *         Vitesse Arnheim                 0
Edu *                   Besiktas Istanbul               0
Philipp Hofmann         FC Schalke 04 II                0
Roman Neustädter        Borussia Mönchengladbach        0
Chinedu Obasi           TSG 1899 Hoffenheim             4.000.000 €
Tranquillo Barnetta     Bayer 04 Leverkusen             0

OUT:
Carlos Zambrano         FC St. Pauli                    600.000 €
Tim Hoogland *          VfB Stuttgart                   200.000 €
Peer Kluge              Hertha BSC                      250.000 €
Ciprian Deac            CFR Cluj                        700.000 €
Mario Gavranovic        FC Zürich                       0
Jan Morávek             FC Augsburg                     550.000 €
Levan Kenia             Zenit St. Petersburg            0
Raúl                    Al-Sadd Sports Club             0
Mathias Schober         (retired)            
Hans Sarpei             (retired)

Borussia Mönchengladbach:     +2.950.000 €
Gladbach has spent a lot of the Marco Reus money. But they also lose two starters in Dante and Neustädter, so the team gets weaker on paper.

IN:
Anderson *              Eintracht Frankfurt             0
Lukas Rupp *            SC Paderborn 07                 0
Granit Xhaka            FC Basel 1893                   8.500.000 €
Peniel Mlapa            TSG 1899 Hoffenheim             2.500.000 €
Branimir Hrgota         Jönköping Södra                 200.000 €
Álvaro Domínguez        Atlético Madrid                 8.000.000 €
OUT:
Marco Reus              Borussia Dortmund               17.100.000 €
Roman Neustädter        FC Schalke 04                   0
Dante                   FC Bayern München               4.700.000 €
Mathew Leckie *         FSV Frankfurt                   50.000 €
Elias Kachunga *        Hertha BSC                      100.000 €
Logan Bailly            Oud-Heverlee Leuven             0
Tobias Levels           Fortuna Düsseldorf              200.000 €

Bayer 04 Leverkusen               -550.000 €
The Aspirins haven’t made many big moves yet, except signing Wollschied from Nürnberg. You have to figure they will make a couple more moves.

IN:
Jens Hegeler *          1.FC Nürnberg                   0
Lucas *                 1.FC Kaiserslautern             0
Hajime Hosogai *        FC Augsburg                     0
Philipp Wollscheid      1.FC Nürnberg                   7.000.000 €
Nicolai Jörgensen *     1.FC Kaiserslautern             0
Carlinhos *             Sao Paulo                       100.000 €
Dominik Kohr            Bayer 04 Leverkusen U19         0
Junior Fernandes        Universidad de Chile            0

OUT:
Michael Ortega *        Atlas Guadalajara               0
Michael Ballack         (Unknown)                       0
Eren Derdiyok           TSG 1899 Hoffenheim             5.500.000 €
René Adler              Hamburger SV                    0
Thanos Petsos           SpVgg Greuther Fürth            50.000 €
Tranquillo Barnetta     FC Schalke 04                   0
Fabian Giefer           Fortuna Düsseldorf              400.000 €
Bastian Oczipka         Eintracht Frankfurt             600.000 €
Danny da Costa *        FC Ingolstadt 04                0

VfB Stuttgart                  +6.800.000 €
Stuttgart has been quiet so far, although Didavi proved himself on loan, so should be considered a plus coming back. Selling Schieber off to Dortmund brings in some cash to play around with.

IN:
Daniel Didavi *         1.FC Nürnberg                   0
Raphael Holzhauser      VfB Stuttgart II                0
Antonio Rüdiger         VfB Stuttgart II                0
André Weis              VfB Stuttgart II                0
Kevin Stöger            VfB Stuttgart II                0
Tunay Torun             Hertha BSC                      0
Tim Hoogland *          FC Schalke 04                   200.000 €

OUT:
Matthieu Delpierre      TSG 1899 Hoffenheim             0
Timo Gebhart            1.FC Nürnberg                   1.000.000 €
Khalid Boulahrouz       (unknown)                       0
Stefano Celozzi         Eintracht Frankfurt             0
Julian Schieber         Borussia Dortmund               6.000.000 €

Hannover 96                   -1.430.000 €
Not much action from the 96ers yet, but they don’t have any money anyway. That being said, they’ve actually paid for 3 of 4 new players.

IN:
Willi Evseev *          SC Wiener Neustadt              0
Hiroki Sakai            Kashiwa Reysol                  1.000.000 €
Felipe                  Standard Lüttich                2.500.000 €
Adrian Nikci            FC Zürich                       580.000 €

OUT:
Altin Lala              FC Bayern München II            0
Carlitos                (unknown)                       0
Erdal Akdari            Kayserispor                     0 
Emanuel Pogatetz        VfL Wolfsburg                   2.300.000 €
Moritz Stoppelkamp      TSV 1860 München                200.000 €
Daniel Royer *          1.FC Köln                       150.000 €

VfL Wolfsburg              +400.000 €
After his drunken sailor-in-a-whorehouse winterbreak, Felix Magath continues to wheel and deal, and I think he’s just getting started. He pulled in 13 million from selling off Mandzukic, and he likely figures to dump most of the returning loanees, Kyrgiakos, Lakic, Kahlenberg, Pekarik, Diego and Kjaer will end up costing the VWs money, but they’re available for bargain rates. Of course, everybody knows that Magath doesn’t want them, so why should they pay Wolfsburg to take them off the wage books?

IN:
Tuncay Sanli *          Bolton Wanderers
Bas Dost                SC Heerenveen                   9.000.000 €
Emanuel Pogatetz        Hannover 96                     2.300.000 €
Patrick Drewes          VfL Wolfsburg U19               0
Ivica Olic              FC Bayern München               0
Sotirios Kyrgiakos *    AFC Sunderland                  0        
Srdjan Lakic *          TSG 1899 Hoffenheim             0
Vaclav Pilar            FC Hradec Králové               1.000.000 €
Thomas Kahlenberg *     FC Évian Thonon Gaillard        0
Peter Pekarík *         Kayserispor                     0
Diego *                 Atlético Madrid                 0
Simon Kjaer *           AS Rom                          0
Kevin Pannewitz         FC Hansa Rostock                300.000 €

OUT:
Mario Mandzukic         FC Bayern München               13.000.000 €
Nassim Ben Khalifa *    Grasshopper Club Zürich         0
Bjarne Thoelke *        Dynamo Dresden                  0
Caiuby                  FC Ingolstadt 04                0
Kevin Scheidhauer *     VfL Bochum                      0
Sebastian Polter *      1.FC Nürnberg                   0
Chris                   (unknown)                       0
Thomas Hitzlsperger     (unknown)                       0
Hasan Salihamidzic      (unknown)                       0
André Lenz              (retired)                       0
Ibrahim Sissoko *       Panathinaikos Athen             0

SV Werder Bremen                +2.800.000 €
Werder will have a completely new look. They’ve dumped a lot of veterans, and managed to get some cash from Chelski for Marin. (Normal folks might pay around 4 million, but those EPL wankers have more money than sense). Lukimya and Gebre Selassie are promising defenders, and Sokratis had a decent season. (The latter two had good Euro tournaments as well).
The move for Petersen is interesting. With Pizarro gone, he figures to get a lot of playing time. If he can prove himself, Bayern will probably want him back, but Werder might be tempted to try and buy him.

IN:
Sokratis                FC Genua 1893                   4.500.000 €
Sandro Wagner *         1.FC Kaiserslautern             0
Levent Aycicek          SV Werder Bremen U19            0
Raphael Wolf            SV Kapfenberg                   200.000 €
Richard Strebinger      Hertha BSC II                   0
Assani Lukimya          Fortuna Düsseldorf              0
Cimo Röcker             SV Werder Bremen U19            0
Theodor Gebre Selassie  FC Slovan Liberec               1.800.000 €
Nils Petersen *         FC Bayern München               500.000 €

OUT:
Francois Affolter *     BSC Young Boys                  0
Marko Marin             FC Chelsea Chelsea              9.800.000 €
Sebastian Boenisch      (unknown)                       0
Onur Ayik               (unknown)                       0
Markus Rosenberg        (unknown)                       0
Tim Borowski            (unknown)                       0
Tim Wiese               TSG 1899 Hoffenheim             0
Mikaël Silvestre        (unknown)                       0
Claudio Pizarro         FC Bayern München               0
Lennart Thy             FC St. Pauli                    0

1.FC Nürnberg                 +5.000.000 €
Looking at der Club, who wonder “Where’s the beef?”. They made some nice money off Wollscheid, but let a bunch others go for nada. And it doesn’t seem like they’ve added strength to the squad.

IN:
Sebastian Gärtner       1.FC Nürnberg II                0 
Felicio Brown Forbes *  Rot-Weiß Oberhausen             0
Noah Korczowski         FC Schalke 04 U19               0
Timo Gebhart            VfB Stuttgart                   1.000.000 €
Hiroshi Kiyotake        Cerezo Osaka                    1.000.000 €
Sebastian Polter *      VfL Wolfsburg                   0
Roussel Ngankam         Hertha BSC II                   0
Marcos António          Rapid Bukarest                  0

OUT:
Jens Hegeler *          Bayer 04 Leverkusen             0
Rubin Okotie SK         Sturm Graz                      0
Dominic Maroh           1.FC Köln                       0
Christoph Sauter        Karlsruher SC                   0
Manuel Zeitz *          SC Paderborn 07                 0
Albert Bunjaku          1.FC Kaiserslautern             0
Christian Eigler        FC Ingolstadt 04                0
Philipp Wollscheid      Bayer 04 Leverkusen             7.000.000 €
Daniel Didavi *         VfB Stuttgart                   0
Juri Judt               RB Leipzig                      0

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim            +10.100.000 €
Remember when Hoffenheim was a buying club, throwing money around? (Or so the German fans thought.) Dem days be over, ya hear? The Hopp-ers have quietly become a financially responsible club. They might have overspent on Derdiyok, but they are desperate for some punch up front. But getting Wiese and Delpierre on free certainly makes up for it. They also did a good bit of business in cashing in on Sigurdsson, who never fit in, but is highly thought of in England.

IN
Kevin Volland *         TSV 1860 München                0
Ahmed Sassi             TSG 1899 Hoffenheim II          0
Takashi Usami *         Gamba Osaka                     300.000 €
Eren Derdiyok           Bayer 04 Leverkusen             5.500.000 €
Matthieu Delpierre      VfB Stuttgart                   0
Joseph-Claude Gyau      TSG 1899 Hoffenheim II          0
Tim Wiese               SV Werder Bremen                0
Stephan Schröck         SpVgg Greuther Fürth            0
Jens Grahl *            SC Paderborn 07                 0
Michael Gregoritsch *   SV Kapfenberg SV                0
Filip Malbasic          FK Rad Belgrad                  0
Wellington *            Clube Atlético Linense (SP) 

OUT:
Srdjan Lakic *          VfL Wolfsburg VfL Wolfsburg     0
Jukka Raitala           SC Heerenveen SC Heerenveen     800.000 €
Franco Zuculini         (unknown)                       0
Manuel Gulde            SC Paderborn 07                 0
Peniel Mlapa            Borussia Mönchengladbach        2.500.000 €
Knowledge Musona *      FC Augsburg                     200.000 €
Tom Starke              FC Bayern München               0
Daniel Haas             1.FC Union Berlin               0
Andreas Ibertsberger    (unknown)                       0
Chinedu Obasi           FC Schalke 04                   4.000.000 €
Gylfi Sigurdsson        Tottenham Hotspur               8.400.000 €

SC Freiburg                -550.000 €
No money. But they cashed in on Pappiss Cisse earlier (some 12 million from Newcastle) and still stayed up, so at least the treasurer can’t complain.

IN:
Christian Bickel *      Jahn Regensburg                 0
Max Kruse               FC St. Pauli                    750.000 €
Marco Terrazzino        Karlsruher SC                   0
Christian Günter        SC Freiburg U19                 0
Erich Sautner           SC Freiburg II                  0
Mounir Bouziane         SC Freiburg II                  0

OUT:
Oliver Barth            VfR Aalen                       0
Andreas Hinkel          (unknown)                       0
Simon Brandstetter *    Karlsruher SC                   0
Stefan Reisinger        Fortuna Düsseldorf              200.000 €
Erich Sautner *         Hallescher FC                   0

1.FSV Mainz 05                 +800.000 €
Very little movement by Mainz, you wonder what Thomas Tuchel is thinking? Perhaps he believes that there are enough crap teams that he doesn’t need to strengthen his squad.

IN:
Petar Sliskovic *       FC St. Pauli                    0
Benedikt Saller         1.FSV Mainz 05 II               0
Shawn Parker            1.FSV Mainz 05 II               0

OUT:
Eugen Gopko             (unknown)                       0
Mohamed Zidan           (unknown)                       0
Zoltán Stieber          SpVgg Greuther Fürth            800.000 €
Fabian Schönheim *      1.FC Union Berlin               0

FC Augsburg                  -2.150.000 €
As befits a club with little budget, FCA didn’t make much on players leaving. But they did bring in several bargains, perhaps some will pan out.

IN:
Dominic Peitz *         FC Hansa Rostock                0
Knowledge Musona *      TSG 1899 Hoffenheim             200.000 €
Jan Morávek             FC Schalke 04                   550.000 €
Ronny Philp             Jahn Regensburg                 50.000 €
Kevin Vogt              VfL Bochum                      600.000 €
Aristide Bancé          Al-Ahli Dubai                   500.000 €
Ragnar Klavan           AZ Alkmaar                      0
Milan Petrzela          FC Viktoria Pilsen              400.000 €
Pablo Pigl              FC Augsburg II                  0

OUT:
Hajime Hosogai *        Bayer 04 Leverkusen             0
Axel Bellinghausen      Fortuna Düsseldorf              0
Andrew Sinkala          (unknown)                       0
Edmond Kapllani         FSV Frankfurt                   0
Daniel Brinkmann        FC Energie Cottbus              150.000 €
Nando Rafael            Fortuna Düsseldorf              0
Patrick Mayer           1.FC Heidenheim 1846            0
Marcel Ndjeng           Hertha BSC                      0
Jonas de Roeck          Oud-Heverlee Leuven             0

Hamburger SV                -3.500.000 €
HSV has been burned big-time in their transfer policies, which no matter which way you looked, ended up screwing the club. So this year, they’ve been reluctant to spend, although the free transfer of Rene Adler could turn out to be a massive gain if he has fully recovered. You’ll notice that everyone leaving ain’t bringing in any cash…

IN:
Maximilian Beister *    Fortuna Düsseldorf              0
Macauley Chrisantus *   FSV Frankfurt                   0
Artjoms Rudnevs         Lech Posen                      3.500.000 €
Lennard Sowah *         FC Millwall                     0
René Adler              Bayer 04 Leverkusen             0

OUT:
Romeo Castelen          (unknown)                       0
David Jarolím           (unknown)                       0
Mickaël Tavares         (unknown)                       0
Sören Bertram           VfL Bochum                      0
Miroslav Stepanek       FK Senica                       0
Dániel Nagy             VfL Osnabrück                   0
Mladen Petric           FC Fulham                       0

SpVgg Greuther Fürth            +350.000 €
After the euphoria of promotion, reality check for Fürth: they have (by far) the smallest stadium and fan-base in the Bundesliga. Which means: really limited funds. Not only that, they lost their top scorer to a fellow promoted side.

IN:
Ilir Azemi              SpVgg Greuther Fürth II         0
Thomas Pledl            TSV 1860 München U19            0
Wolfgang Hesl           Dynamo Dresden                  0
Michael Hefele          SpVgg Unterhaching              0
Thanos Petsos           Bayer 04 Leverkusen             50.000 €
Lasse Sobiech *         Borussia Dortmund               100.000 €
Baba Rahman             Asante Kotoko Kumasi            0
Zoltán Stieber          1.FSV Mainz 05                  800.000 €

OUT:
Dani Schahin            Fortuna Düsseldorf              0
Stephan Schröck         TSG 1899 Hoffenheim             0
Christian Dorda         (unknown)                       0
Christian Rahn          (unknown)                       0
Franco Flückiger        (unknown)                       0
Jasmin Fejzic           VfR Aalen                       0
Fabian Baumgärtel *     Alemannia Aachen                0 
Asen Karaslavov         Botev Plovdiv                   0
Olivier Occéan          Eintracht Frankfurt             1.300.000 €

Eintracht Frankfurt               -4.600.000 €
Frankfurt is a big club, so it’s not surprising that they can actually spend a little more than fellow promotees. They also pull off a rarity: a direct player swap with Köln

IN:
Erik Wille              Eintracht Frankfurt             0
Takashi Inui            VfL Bochum                      1.200.000 €
Martin Lanig            1.FC Köln                       (trade)
Bastian Oczipka         Bayer 04 Leverkusen             600.000 €
Stefano Celozzi         VfB Stuttgart                   0
Kevin Trapp             1.FC Kaiserslautern             1.500.000 €
Stefan Aigner           TSV 1860 München                0
Ricardo Clark *         Stabaek IF                      0
Georgios Tzavellas *    AS Monaco                       0
Alexander Hien          Eintracht Frankfurt U19         0
Julian Dudda            Eintracht Frankfurt U19         0
Olivier Occéan          SpVgg Greuther Fürth            1.300.000 €

OUT:
Matthias Lehmann        1.FC Köln                       (trade)
Thomas Kessler *        1.FC Köln                       0
Erwin Hoffer *          SSC Neapel                      0
Anderson *              Borussia Mönchengladbach        0
Caio                    Figueirense (Brazil)            0
Ümit Korkmaz            FC Ingolstadt 04                0
Habib Bellaid           CS Sedan-Ardennes               0
Dominik Schmidt         (unknown)                       0
Marcos Álvarez          Stuttgarter Kickers             0

Fortuna Düsseldorf               -1.050.000 €
Düsseldorf will have a whole new squad. Lots of newcomers, and many of the promotion stallwarts, such as Lukimya, Beister, Bröker and Rösler are leaving. Obviously they’re hoping to find some untapped talent. The best known incoming player is Doo-Ri Cha, son of former Korean Bundesliga legend Bum-kun Cha, and who has bounced around with several German clubs.

IN:
Ronny Garbuschewski     Chemnitzer                      0
Aliosman Aydin          Fortuna Düsseldorf              0
Gerrit Wegkamp          VfL Osnabrück                   250.000 €
Tobias Levels           Borussia Mönchengladbach        200.000 €
Stefan Reisinger        SC Freiburg                     200.000 €
Bastian Müller          FC Bayern München II            0
André Fomitschow        VfL Wolfsburg II                0
Du-Ri Cha               Celtic Glasgow                  0
Nando Rafael            FC Augsburg                     0
Fabian Giefer           Bayer 04 Leverkusen             400.000 €
Leon Balogun            SV Werder Bremen II             0 
Axel Bellinghausen      FC Augsburg FC                  0
Bruno Soares            MSV Duisburg                    0
Dani Schahin            SpVgg Greuther Fürth            0
Ivan Paurevic           Borussia Dortmund II            0
Adriano Grimaldi *      SV Sandhausen                   0
Mazin Ahmed Al-Huthayfi Al-Ittihad Dschidda             0

OUT:
Maximilian Beister *    Hamburger SV                    0
Ranisav Jovanovic       (unknown)                       0
Kai Schwertfeger        Alemannia Aachen                0
Michael Ratajczak       (unknown)                       0
Thomas Bröker           1.FC Köln                       0
Assani Lukimya          SV Werder Bremen                0
Markus Krauss           Stuttgarter Kickers             0
Sascha Rösler           Alemannia Aachen                0
Adam Matuschyk *        1.FC Köln                       0
Villyan Bijev *         FC Liverpool Reserves           0
Sascha Dum              (unknown)                       0

WSV: Squad wrap-up

The WSV squad that finished 5th in the Regionalliga West. Best players were Moosmayer as defensive midfielder, Zieba attacking midifielder and of course Knappmann, who led all 4th division scorers with 30 goals.

No                       (Age) Country GM/St  YEL-RED  GOALS   

GOALKEEPERS

1   Sascha Samulewicz     (26)   GER 	7-7 	0-0    	0    
12  Bastian Sube          (20)   GER	3-3 	0-0 	0   	 	
24  Christoph Semmler     (32)   GER 	23-23  	1-0 	0     	
32  Martin Klafflsberger  (28)   AUT	3-3	0-0 	0      		

 DEFENDERS 

4   Robert Fleßers 	 (25)   GER 	28-27   6-1 	4
5   Stefan Lorenz        (30)   GER 	5-3  	0-0 	0
14  Daniel Flottmann 	 (27) 	GER	33-33 	8-1 	3
16  Thomas Schlieter 	 (31)   GER	33-32 	3-0 	3     
19  Lukas van den Bergh  (23)   GER	6 -2  	1-0 	0
21  Jörn Zimmermann 	 (20)   GER 	19-4  	1-0 	0
22  Felix Herzenbruch 	 (19) 	GER 	24-22  	4-0 	1     
31  Felix Haas 	         (24)	GER	13-11  	2-1 	0     

MIDFIELD

2   Björn Weikl 	 (35) 	GER 	0-0 	0-0 	0
3   Benjamin Baltes 	 (28) 	GER 	25-10   3-0 	0
6   Dennis Brinkmann 	 (33) 	GER 	2-2  	1-0 	0
7   Raschid El Hammouchi (30) 	MOR	31-30  	2-0 	0   
8   Tom Moosmayer 	 (32)	BEL	33-33  	5-0 	4    
15  Marcel Landers       (27) 	GER 	35-32  	4-0 	2     
17  Ben Abelski 	 (29) 	GER 	21-9 	1-0 	1
18  Ken Asaeda 		 (28) 	JPN 	16-8  	2-0 	1
20  Jan-Steffen Meier    (20) 	GER 	27-16  	1-0 	0      
23  Nico Matern 	 (19) 	GER 	1-1  	0-0 	0
25  Maciej Zieba 	 (25) 	POL 	31-29 	3-0 	9

FORWARDS

9   Christian Knappmann  (31) 	GER 	36-34 	4-0 	30   
10  Bekim Kastrati 	 (33) 	ALB 	10-2 	3-0 	1
11  Marco Quotschalla 	 (23) 	GER 	16-12  	3-0 	5    

Misc news

It was funny when the story first broke, but the ending kinda sucks. Bayern’s Brazilian defender Breno was sentenced to 3.5 years in jail for arson. Last year Breno burned down his own house. The whole incident was an embarassment to the club, so Bayern fired his ass. But unfortunately that wasn’t the final act, and a court in München threw the book at him. Breno’s lawyer was hoping for a suspended sentence, but looks like the talented defender will spend time in the klink. There were reports that Lazio was interested in signing him, but this is probably a death sentence to his career. Most likely after less than a couple of years in the slammer, he will get deported to Brazil. The also-not-funny ending had another surprise, as Bayern management was quoted as saying “we support Breno”. But of course not enough that they didn’t can his ass prior…

Bayern was in the news in a more positive way, although maybe it will also end as a joke. The club apparently dumped 13 million euros over to Wolfsburg for Croatian striker Mario Mandzukic. I’m not sure this move makes too much sense. Bayern signed oldtimer Claudio Pizarro, and now Mandzukic. Of course they already have Mario Gomez, so expect some grumbling over playing time. The VWs probably made a good deal. Mandzukic got off to a quick start, but then became a magician. (He disappeared.) He did have a good euro tournament. I guess Felix Magath figured he already had a zillion players on the VW roster, so he might as well dump one and get some cash.

BTW, I promise I’ll try and write something on the transfers in the Bundesliga soon…

To continue with our “Bayern News Week”, Bayern apparently has brought in Matthias Sammer as Sport-Direktor. What?! Sammer is a Dortmund legend, both as a player and coach. Then he went off to the DFB, and has certainly has had a hand in Germany’s revival via their strengthened youth program. Now why (aside from lots of deutschmarks, err, euros) would he go over to Bayern? Guess everybody has their price…

Well, here’s another one that isn’t too stunning. Ralf Rangnick is now boss of RedBull Leipzig. err, Rasenballsport Leipzig. Rangnick is Sport-Direktor and will also be responsible for Austrian powerhouse RB Salzburg. Not sure how that works, since in theory corporate teams are not allowed in German football. (Bayer Leverksuen an exception, but at least they go back to 1904). But the more interesting aspect is the “been there, done that”. Rangnick was in charge of Hoffenheim and brought them into the Bundesliga. Red Bull wants to do the same thing with Leipzig, so who better to do it than the man that already? Of course Rangnick burned out at Schalke after leaving Hoffenheim, so perhaps this is a good move for him, as he doesn’t seen redy to step into direct coaching just yet.

If you wondered what happened to Augsburg’s coach Jos Luhukay, who really put FCA on the map, not surprising that he didn’t stay out long. The Dutchman stunned everybody by resigning after leading Augsburg to an unexpected salvation in the Bundesliga. Most speculated that he must have figured that was as far as FCA was going to get. Luhukay then turned around and took over as head coach for relegated Hertha BSC. It would be a surprise if he didn’t manage to get them back in the Bundesliga, although obviously a long-term fix isn going to be more difficult.