http://www.sport1.de/de/fussball/fussball_dfbpokal/artikel_875699.html so places 5-7 can now gain qualification to the EL as BVB and presumably FCB will play inthe Pokal final and both teams have already qualified for the CL. Augsburg may be able to squeez in there, they been a revelation this year. good job to them! Shame they will be without Hahn next season.
Mainz will have to collapse for FCA to sneak back in there. I'm sure we'll do our part to assist Mainz' collapse on Saturday! LOL!! Seriously. Mainz is five points ahead of FCA and seven points ahead of Hoffenheim with twelve points (four matches) left to play for. After Mainz plays us on Saturday, their remaining schedule is: Hosting FCN At Gladbach Hosting HSV People will probably see FCN and HSV on that schedule and think "Easy. Mainz is in." Not so fast. FCN and HSV are both fighting for their lives. Gladbach is fighting to get into one of the CL spots. Mainz could very well could not win another match the rest of the way. While there's no title race, the relegation battle in the Bundesliga this season is f#cking awesome!! Everyone from 10th placed Hertha BSC Berlin on down to Braunschweig in last place is legitimately in the relegation battle. It's going to be a fun ride!!!
I fear 'der Glubb' is going down and Kyiotake as well as Drmic will leave the club far below market value. Guess Bader should have accepted that € 10.5m offer for the Japanese from Aston Villa last summer...
I hope 'der glubb' goes down in fantastic fashion. @footyfan1 knows where my personal dislike for them came from.
I don't really care about Nuernberg and Brauschweig so wouldn't mind if they go down. I just hope Stuttgart and HSV stay up.
I'd rather see two hard-working and well managed clubs on a budget remain in the Bundesliga than two severely mismanaged 'big clubs'...
Agreed. But Drmic as a potential Borussia Dortmund target, gives me reason to want Nürnberg to relegate.
You guys are what Bayern used to be 10-15 years ago. Farming all the best players from the other Bundesliga clubs. The only difference, you are a lot more stingy when it comes to paying transfer fees.
My experience at the easy credit stadion. I recall relaying that to you on chat. To be fair, I realize there are jerk fans everywhere. My run in was with the 1FCN fans while my kids were with me following a tie, yes a tie.
Yeah. Vaguely remember now. I think we discussed my feelings about the new generation of "Club Fan." And you're right. Every club has jerk fans. Some just have a larger group of them than others.......
Btw bvb fans who do you think will make the strongest case in the CL for a 4th BL spot next season?? I think my patience with kusen has run out, they become an embarrassment time after time.. At least schalke are consistent in the CL no matter how suck they get from time to time. You guys will be good as long as klopp is around. At least QFs and up every season within. But who do you think would be our best 4th spot? Wolves or gladbach? Or anyone else in mind?
Uh, no, it isn't. You show me one time where we've targeted our closest competition to deliberately weaken them. Simply signing German players from other German clubs is not the same thing. Bayern fans may try to make it out to be the same thing, but it isn't. Shame on you for going with that line of f#cking bullshit.
The bolded is very subjective; how is one supposed to differentiate between purchases designed to weaken the competition and purchases designed to strengthen oneself?
Peterssen: Taken from a 2.BL team, unused by Bayern, to keep him from going to another top BL team. Rode: See Petersen. Those are two examples of players picked up for no other reason than to keep them from competitors. I am sure there are others. As far as weakening versus strengthening, anytime you pick up a player that is certainly the purchasing team's hope. What distinguishes one from the other is the manner and method of that acquisition.
It's squeaky bum time at the top of 3. Liga. 2nd(Leipzig) vs 3rd(Darmstadt) tomorrow. Only 1 point difference between the two. What a huge game that is. If Leipzig finish 3rd in the end of the season, they will most likely play their neighbors Dresden in the playoff. That would be a thrilling match up. There is no doubt that RB Leipzig and the police want to avoid this scenario at all costs.
Weiser and Kirchoff come to mind. Both were rumored to be Dortmund-bound before Bayern stepped in and offered them places in the Regionalliga and on the bench before going on loan....... Not to mention the obvious one from Dortmund there now and his former teammate about to follow him. Not always. Hell, even I admit not every purchase or signing Bayern makes within the Bundesliga is for the purpose of weakening competition. For example. When Bayern picked up Dante from Gladbach, one can easily argue this was a purchase made without malicious intention. Gladbach was of no danger to Bayern and Dante certainly made Bayern better. Hell, Gladbach is more dangerous to Bayern now than they were before Bayern bought Dante. I don't think Bayern gave a thought toward weakening Gladbach, Dortmund, Leverkusen or Scheisse when they bought Dante. That was a move where I believe Bayern's sole intention was to strengthen themselves at a position. I also don't think Bayern bought Mandzukic to weaken Wolfsburg or anyone else. To use my own club, the Reus purchase. See what I wrote about Bayern and Dante. Another is us buying Sokratis from Bremen. You think we cared about weakening Bremen? We did not. Leverkusen claims we bought Sokratis to weaken them as they supposedly had a deal. Did we? Let me ask you something. How many years ago had we last finished behind Leverkusen? Four years ago? Five years ago? I know it's been twice in the last seven years. And a couple of those years we finished ahead of them, they very arguably had better squads than we did. It is pretty easy to figure out which purchases/signings were made maliciously and which were made to actually better a side with little to no malicious intent. Agree 100%!!
Lewy and Neuer for example were one of the best players in their position worldwide and Bayern would be interested in them regardless of the clubs they play for. That is a move whose primary aim is to strenghten Bayern in a position they could do with an upgrade
I understand if we were discussing a domestic sport. For example, the New York Yankees locking up every available player before the trade deadline but global football is different. Who is to say if Bayern didn't sign these guys, they wouldn't sign in Italy or Spain and screw them in UCL.
The point was whether Bayern signed players to keep them from their competition, and that has been proven. When it comes to better players who are natural starters, it is a bit more nebulous. Of course Bayern picked up guys like Lewa, Götze, Neuer, Klose, etc., because they were/are great players, but I am sure there were secondary motivations. No way to prove it, but given the club's practice of doing such things we can extrapolate.