Obviously you can only judge at the end of the season. So this is just a sort of rambling status at the first deadline. Basically, it’s a subjective account of whether the squad got better and whether the club did some good business.
Borussia Dortmund -350.000 €
Grade: A
The champions pulled a major move when they signed Marco Reus from Gladbach. They sold on favorite Shinji Kagawa to Manchester United and needed someone big to replace him. Kagawa liked playing for the Neons, but his dream was to play in the EPL, so there was no holding him. Reus was probably the hottest property and should fit in nicely. They also did a nice bit business in getting big money for Lucas Barrios from China. Good player, but wasn’t going to get on the field much. Schieber looks like a decent buy as well. I’ve always thought Florian Kringe was a decent player, but he wasn’t going to get in the lineup.
(* - indicates loan) IN: Leonardo Bittencourt FC Energie Cottbus 2.700.000 € Marco Reus Bor. Mönchengladbach 17.100.000 € Zlatan Alomerovic Borussia Dortmund II Koray Günter Borussia Dortmund U19 Marvin Ducksch Borussia Dortmund U19 Oliver Kirch 1.FC Kaiserslautern 350.000 € Julian Schieber VfB Stuttgart 5.500.000 € Mustafa Amini * Central Coast Mariners Marc Hornschuh * FC Ingolstadt 04 OUT: Johannes Focher SK Sturm Graz Dimitar Rangelov FC Luzern 300.000 € Daniel Ginczek * FC St. Pauli 100.000 € Shinji Kagawa Manchester United 16.000.000 € Lasse Sobiech * SpVgg Greuther Fürth 100.000 € Marco Stiepermann FC Energie Cottbus 200.000 € Julian Koch * MSV Duisburg 100.000 € Lucas Barrios Guangzhou Evergrande 8.500.000 € Florian Kringe FC St. Pauli Antônio da Silva MSV Duisburg
FC Bayern München: -69.800.000 €
Grade: A to F
When you can spend like Bayern, it’s easy to fix your problem areas. But they appear to have done a decent job. Bayern reacts to a “poor” season by spending. So what else is new? They spent 70 million, but the bulk was on Javi Martinez right at the deadline. The Mandzukic move appeared to be crazy, with getting Pizzarro, but with Gomez out, it looks pretty clever now. Dante seems a decent pickup, Shaqiri a major talent, and supposedly Weiser is another youngster that just seems to be cropping up in Germany lately. Starke a fine GK backup now that Butt retired. Getting rid of Olic was probably good, and loaning Petersen AND getting 500,000 was clever too. Petersen wasn’t going to play, but if he does well at Bremen, there could be a nice sell on factor. (Can you say “Bernd Leno”?) Since money is no object with Bayern, you can really only judge them if they win it all. Bundesliga title = A-, Champions League = A…anything else is probably a failure.
Mario Mandzukic VfL Wolfsburg 13.000.000 € Xherdan Shaqiri FC Basel 1893 11.800.000 € Mitchell Weiser 1.FC Köln U19 800.000 € Patrick Weihrauch FC Bayern München U19 Tom Starke TSG 1899 Hoffenheim Dante Bor. Mönchengladbach 4.700.000 € Lukas Raeder FC Schalke 04 U19 Emre Can FC Bayern München II Claudio Pizarro SV Werder Bremen Javi Martínez Athletic Bilbao 40.000.000 € OUT: Rouven Sattelmaier unknown Hans Jörg Butt (retired) Ivica Olic VfL Wolfsburg Danijel Pranjic Sporting Lissabon Breno (1.FC Gefängnis) Nils Petersen * Werder Bremen 500.000 € Takashi Usami * Gamba Osaka
FC Schalke 04 +200.000 €
Grade: A-
Schalke is struggling financially, so they don’t have lots to spend. Losing fan favorite Raul was huge, but you can’t begrudge the Spaniard one last giant paycheck, and what he gave to Schalke was inspiring. But they did some business, sending out players that weren’t really going to play, and getting
Neustädter and Barnetta on free was excellent. They even made a tiny profit. Then they swooped on a major loan deal, getting Afellay, who can perhaps fill some of the Raul loss.
The Obasi loan was made permanent, and he’s good cover for Farfan and can help out in attack. The major move was one that wasn’t made: supposedly Zenit St.Petersburg offered 20 million for defender Papdoupoulos. I seriously doubt it was that much, but keeping him was definitely good.
IN: Sead Kolasinac FC Schalke 04 U19 Roman Neustädter Bor. Mönchengladbach Chinedu Obasi TSG 1899 Hoffenheim 4.000.000 € Tranquillo Barnetta Bayer 04 Leverkusen Ibrahim Afellay * FC Barcelona 500.000 € Vasilios Pliatsikas * MSV Duisburg OUT: Carlos Zambrano FC St. Pauli 750.000 € Andreas Wiegel FC Erzgebirge Aue Philipp Hofmann * SC Paderborn 07 100.000 € Hans Sarpei (retired) Tim Hoogland * VfB Stuttgart 300.000 € Peer Kluge Hertha BSC 250.000 € Ciprian Deac CFR Cluj 700.000 € Mario Gavranovic FC Zürich Jan Morávek FC Augsburg 700.000 € Raúl Al-Sadd Sports Club Mathias Schober (retired) Levan Kenia Karpaty Lviv Alexander Baumjohann 1.FC Kaiserslautern Anthony Annan * CA Osasuna 300.000 € Edu * SpVgg Greuther Fürth 100.000 € José Manuel Jurado * Spartak Moskau 1.500.000 €
Borussia Mönchengladbach -7.050.000 €
Grade: C? F?
This is one where you really have to “wait and see”. Gladbach spent over 30 million, and I’m not sure what they got. We certainly know what they lost – 3 key starters from last years team. OK, if they had cashed in, understandable. But they spent big, so unless they finish at least same as last year – 4th – it has to be considered a major fail. I think the players they brought in are “iffy”. They could hit, or they could flop. Very risky for a club that had financial problems not too long ago.
IN: Granit Xhaka FC Basel 1893l 8.500.000 € Peniel Mlapa TSG 1899 Hoffenheim 2.500.000 € Branimir Hrgota Jönköping Södra 400.000 € Álvaro Domínguez Atlético Madrid 7.000.000 € Luuk de Jong FC Twente Enschede 12.000.000 € Alexander Bieler Bor. Mönchengladbach II Anderson * Eintracht Frankfurt Lukas Rupp * SC Paderborn 07 OUT: Marco Reus Borussia Dortmund 17.100.000 € Roman Neustädter FC Schalke 04 Dante FC Bayern München 4.700.000 € Mathew Leckie * FSV Frankfurt 50.000 € Elias Kachunga * Hertha BSC 100.000 € Logan Bailly Oud-Heverlee Leuven Tobias Levels Fortuna Düsseldorf 200.000 € Anderson Eintracht Frankfurt 800.000 € Yuki Otsu VVV-Venlo 400.000 €
Bayer 04 Leverkusen -6.350.000 €
Grade: C
Bayer addressed their issue by firing their coach, they were too boring last season. They didn’t spend a ton of money (less than 14 million), but they didn’t get much in return. They sold Derdiyok, one of their better players last season. A top GK in Adler left (but Leno had made him redundant. Getting Rensing as a cheaper backup was a good move for Bayer). Wollschied was probably a good pickup, but who knows about Carvajal. Spanish players seem overpriced in many cases. Let’s see if Michael Ballack catches on with RedBull Leipzig, since he looks like only a benchwarmer at Eintracht ESPN, based on his Euro 2012 performance…I half expected him to say something like “Wenn ist die nunstuch git und schlottermeier? Ja!! Beierhund die oder das flipperwalt geschput!!”…
IN: Niklas Lomb Bayer 04 Leverkusen U19 Daniel Carvajal Real Madrid B 5.000.000 € Júnior Fernandes Club Universidad de Chile 3.500.000 € Dominik Kohr Bayer 04 Leverkusen U19 Carlinhos * Desportivo Brasil Ltda (SP) 100.000 € Erik Zenga Bayer 04 Leverkusen U19 Kolja Pusch Bayer 04 Leverkusen U19 Samed Yesil Bayer 04 Leverkusen U19 Philipp Wollscheid 1.FC Nürnberg 5.000.000 € Michael Rensing 1.FC Köln Jens Hegeler * 1.FC Nürnberg Lucas * 1.FC Kaiserslautern Hajime Hosogai * FC Augsburg OUT: Michael Ballack (Eintracht ESPN) Zvonko Pamic * MSV Duisburg Lucas Vasas Budapest Nicolai Jörgensen * FC Kopenhagen Danny da Costa * FC Ingolstadt 04 Bastian Oczipka Eintracht Frankfurt 500.000 € Fabian Giefer Fortuna Düsseldorf 400.000 € Tranquillo Barnetta FC Schalke 04 Thanos Petsos SpVgg Greuther Fürth 50.000 € René Adler Hamburger SV Eren Derdiyok TSG 1899 Hoffenheim 5.000.000 € Samed Yesil FC Liverpool 1.300.000 € Michael Ortega * Atlas Guadalajara Vedran Corluka * Tottenham Hotspur
VfB Stuttgart +6.200.000 €
Grade: B
Again, it depends what they do. Stuttgart didn’t spend at all, although with Didavi and Hoogland, perhaps some addition to the squad. But they lost some talent as well.
IN: Raphael Holzhauser VfB Stuttgart II Antonio Rüdiger VfB Stuttgart II André Weis VfB Stuttgart II Kevin Stöger VfB Stuttgart II Tunay Torun Hertha BSC Tim Hoogland * FC Schalke 04 300.000 € Daniel Didavi * 1.FC Nürnberg OUT: Matthieu Delpierre TSG 1899 Hoffenheim Timo Gebhart 1.FC Nürnberg 1.000.000 € Khalid Boulahrouz Sporting Lissabon Stefano Celozzi Eintracht Frankfurt Julian Schieber Borussia Dortmund 5.500.000 €
Do you reckon Breno will get a regular game at 1. FC Gefaengnis? And will the crowd be allowed to use fire crackers and flares at home games?