VfB Stuttgart - Pushing for Europe, 08/09 Season Thread Part III (R)

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

In Stuttgarter Zeitung today Ba appeared in an interview again stating that he wants to move here. He really seems to be forcing himself a move here, I hope it works.

Though at the same time it's got to be mentioned I don't know what it says about player when he's trying so hard to push a move through against the will of his side. He hasn't been respectful to Hoffenheim. Nevertheless, i'm hoping he arrives, although the only way he could come is if it Hoffenheim sees no point in having a player who doesn't want to be there, because financially there's nothing we can do to force Dietmar Hopp to sell, and hell, i'd hope we wouldn't want to do that anyway.

In other, unrelated news, Zvonimir Soldo has been linked to the trainer post at 1. FC Koeln. Whilst it doesn't concern us, i'd be thrilled to see the guy back in the Bundesliga! :)

[Kirsten19]

Just wanna ask, is Stuttgart the best German club in terms of developing young domestic strikers?

Klinsi, Bobic, Kuranyi, Gomez and so on?

So feel comfortable at Riedle Junior's career at all?

[footyfan1]

Press reports say you guys have stepped up your interest in Standard Liege's Serb striker Milan Jovanovic.

The article I read said Jovanovic's transfer fee would be around 5M.

That's a nice drop-off. During the winter transfer window, BVB were rumored to be interested along with Bayern and Real Madrid.

Then, they were saying it would cost 10M to get him.

The guy is a good striker IMO. Not worth 10M, but certainly worth 5.

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Yah, Jovanovic has been on the cards for a while. Seems like it's getting serious now, he's been widely considered to have been the best player in the Belgian league this last year so he must be pretty good, although he didn't stand out when we played Standard in the UEFA Cup.

But he's no striker though?? I think he's generally used as a winger, am I wrong?

[footyfan1]

Yah, Jovanovic has been on the cards for a while. Seems like it's getting serious now, he's been widely considered to have been the best player in the Belgian league this last year so he must be pretty good, although he didn't stand out when we played Standard in the UEFA Cup.

But he's no striker though?? I think he's generally used as a winger, am I wrong?


I've seen him play up front quite a bit.

You might want to ask "serbov" where Jovanovic plays for Serbia.

Transfermarkt.de lists him as an all-around offensive player.

His profile is linked here. (http://www.transfermarkt.de/de/spieler/14933/milan-jovanovic/profil.html)

I know most other clubs have pursued him as a striker, as I think you guys would/are too.

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

So, today's news:

Demba Ba's agent has requested an apology from Hoffenheim for writing in the letter that Ba could be 'injured more often next season' if he was made to stay with Hoffenheim. Indeed, we know there's no realistic amountmoney that could really force a sale by a billionaire like Hopp - so our only hope of getting him was if he said he wants to come (which he did) and Hoffenheim accepts it. But Hoffenheim isn't accepting it. Gotta say i'm impressed at their manager Schindelmeiser, he's been very tough on this issue and seems like a smart guy. And right now it looks like he'll get his way, Ba is looking less likely to come now.

But, others rumours persist:
Helmes failed, Ba is currently failing as well, but the next target is already up and it's one that was first mentioned 1-2 months ago: Vagner Love from CSKA Moscow. He said 'I know Stuttgart, they are a good European side' an 'If they give CSKA an offer the club will obviously look into it'. Sounds like we could have some shot at getting him then, from what I know he's a very very strong attacker, i've seen him play a few times and I know he scores tons of goals in Russia. He would be a good buy. But I don't want to get too upbeat.

Mind you, he's been valued around 20 million.

http://www.spox.com/de/sport/fussball/bundesliga/0906/Artikel/vfb-stuttgart-vagner-love-interesse-horst-heldt-wechsel-zska-moskau.html

And Jovanovic looks like he could well be on his way, 5 million euros the likely price. For that price he'd definitely be a good buy, that's quite cheap considering he was the best player in all of Belgium this last season. He's 28 of course, would probably have like 2-3 more years in him at a high level, but nevertheless, at that price i'd be happy to welcome him.

[aloisius]

Demba Ba's agent has requested an apology from Hoffenheim for writing in the letter that Ba could be 'injured more often next season' if he was made to stay with Hoffenheim.

.

i don't understand this . did the agent write the letter? why is he then asking for an apology?

[footyfan1]

i don't understand this . did the agent write the letter? why is he then asking for an apology?


I think it is obviously a mistake......

[aloisius]

yeah, but what actually happened?

[footyfan1]

But, others rumours persist:
Helmes failed, Ba is currently failing as well, but the next target is already up and it's one that was first mentioned 1-2 months ago: Vagner Love from CSKA Moscow. He said 'I know Stuttgart, they are a good European side' an 'If they give CSKA an offer the club will obviously look into it'. Sounds like we could have some shot at getting him then, from what I know he's a very very strong attacker, i've seen him play a few times and I know he scores tons of goals in Russia. He would be a good buy. But I don't want to get too upbeat.

Mind you, he's been valued around 20 million.



Exactly. And big Russian clubs don't sell cheaply.

But you guys will have 20M........ ;)

[Rainer24]

Exactly. And big Russian clubs don't sell cheaply.

But you guys will have 20M........ ;)


getting a bunch of Swabians to spend 20M on anyone is about as likely as squeezing water from a stone. I'll believe it when I see it.

[footyfan1]

getting a bunch of Swabians to spend 20M on anyone is about as likely as squeezing water from a stone. I'll believe it when I see it.


Dude, the ;) in my original post means we agree. :D

[Equilibrium]

But, others rumours persist:
Helmes failed, Ba is currently failing as well, but the next target is already up and it's one that was first mentioned 1-2 months ago: Vagner Love from CSKA Moscow. He said 'I know Stuttgart, they are a good European side' an 'If they give CSKA an offer the club will obviously look into it'. Sounds like we could have some shot at getting him then, from what I know he's a very very strong attacker, i've seen him play a few times and I know he scores tons of goals in Russia. He would be a good buy. But I don't want to get too upbeat.
Hmmm, I have never liked Vagner Love. I think it would be best if you looked for another striker rather than him. I have never been impressed with him, especially when he played for Brazil, I always wondered how he made the team.

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Well, according to Spox we may be making an official bid for Demba Ba in the coming days:

http://www.spox.com/de/sport/fussball/rundumdenball/0906/fussball-ticker-cristiano-ronaldo-real-madrid-man-utd-carlos-tevez-transfergeruechte-news.html

Talk would be somewhere between 16 and 19 million...

[seashore10]

According to STZ, Hleb has made the decision that he will stay in Barcelona.
link:http://www.stuttgarter-zeitung.de/stz/page/2051864_0_9223_-kein-wechsel-zum-vfb-hleb-bleibt-beim-fc-barcelona.html

And these days there are so many rumors between Tasci and Juve, I do really wonder which are true and which are false, though the color of his new homepage does upset me.

[footyfan1]

Well, according to Spox we may be making an official bid for Demba Ba in the coming days:

http://www.spox.com/de/sport/fussball/rundumdenball/0906/fussball-ticker-cristiano-ronaldo-real-madrid-man-utd-carlos-tevez-transfergeruechte-news.html

Talk would be somewhere between 16 and 19 million...


I hope not............

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

StZ has confirmed that Hleb has decided to stay in Barca for atleast one more season and won't be joining us.

Two reasons for this:
1) He didn't want to appear to be a failure
2) VfB couldn't offer him the minimum 4 million euros a year that he would have liked. So Basturk can earn 3 but Hleb not 4????????????????????????
Heldt, you really ********ed this one up. You say your willing to spend more money, indeed oyu can't say anything else after we've earned 30mil. for Gomez plus potential CL money. To go to the 'Schmerzgrenze' in spending. You say you want 'Klasse statt Masse'. And how do you go about achieving this???
You fail to get the one world class player who we've been going after for months. And you've failed, 2 weeks after Gomez left, to make a concrete offer for any striker as of yet.

I'm really pissed off. Can't blame Alex, you'd see why he doesn't want to make a move this summer then. Best of luck for his next season at Barca, he's still one of my favourite players. Maybe somewhere down the line he'll play for us again. But the dream that it would be next season is virtually over.

And, in my eyes, the blame for this lays squarely on Heldt. Early transferseason prognosis: Sale of our best ever player to the only club where it wasn't ok for him to go. Failure to get the one star who everybody wanted to see. Oh, and now Juve appears to be heating up their bid to sign Tasci. What have we done so far? Oh yeah, signed a 17 year old for the youth team. Typical ********ing VfB.

No other team in the world would have a budget of 30 million euros and dither around so silently and pathetically.


My hope for the next weeks:
- Lets get Jovanovic AND Barnetta if we can now. They would still be big improvements to our midfield. Jovanovic seems to be close to a done deal, I hope we can confirm that soon. Barnetta has offers from England though.
- Please just get a top striker signed already. Either Love or Ba would be good buys (though 19 million if really pushing it for the latter... funny, can't give Hleb 4 mil. a year, but CAN spend potentially 19 mil. on Demba Ba...).

There's nothing fun about watching big name after big name rule out joining you. Heldt better sign someone good, sometime soon.

I'm sorry you aren't coming Alex :(

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Also, can I say something about the Agent Uli Ferber.

He is the agent of Gomez, Hleb and Tasci.
- He was behind Gomez's move to Bayern.
- He said he could see Hleb returning, but obviously he didn't try to hard to convince his star in the end.
- He says he'd like to see Tasci stay for 1-2 years, whilst Juve are looking more and more intently.

And through all this he says he's a VfB fan.
Well, I don't care, as far as i'm concerned this guy should get a Hausverbot from all of Wurttemberg and never be allowed within a 400km radius of any VfB player ever again. :mad:

[berloha]

I hope not............

16-19 M € ...how long did they sit over that idea ?

I know that Demba Ba will be worth all the money one day, but not know. Even though this amount of money would be worth a thought, I have to admit.

[Rainer24]

I can see it now - Pantelic in a VfB Trikot. We are ultimately going to end up with someone relatively cheap and serviceable but no one that is really going to help us improve our place in the world. We just aren't willing to spend the money to take the next step.