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

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

According to this "Bild" article (http://www.bild.de/BILD/sport/fussball/bundesliga/vereine/stuttgart/2009/07/01/demba-ba/hoffenheim-kriegt-12-millionen-euro.html), Hoffenheim and Stuttgart have agreed on a 12M Euro transfer fee for Hoffenheim striker Demba Ba to move to Stuttgart.

While this is undoubtedly big news, i'd say let's not start welcoming him to the club until it's official. So far no other news site has taken it up and Heldt has come out denying the rumors (I know probably means nothing but still). It looks likely to be true and assuming he passes the medical i'm looking forward to seeing him at the club!

And if it's 12 million, then all the better! 8 million cheaper than what Hoffenheim called for, well done Heldt!... if it does indeed happen. I'd say at the end of the day Hoffenheim know they can't keep him around after all that happened and for all that Rangnick and Schindelmeiser say they have to be willing to sell him at a cheaper price than intended if nothing else comes in.

I'm hoping this will be confirmed in the following days!

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Nice to see Demba Ba in the red stripe. Now lets hope he doesn't cause Mr. Babbel the same kind of headaches he caused in Hoffenheim after a season or two........

A bit off topic, but fun (at least I thought)

The SV Vaihingen / VfB 100th anniversary friendly went off yesterday.

As one might expect, VfB romped to a 6-0 victory.

Magnin (C), Scheiber, Laning, and Delpierre were some of the more notable folks who showed....

There were a few moments of intent by SV Vaihingen, but as one might expect, they were outmatched at every turn.

However, most importantly, it's stayed truly friendly on the pitch, the crowd seemed to have a lot of fun, there was no rain, I had two rot wursts, a magnum and Dinkel Ackers, and I even won an SV Vaihingen t shirt from the tombola.

A nice evening out. I'm very glad to be back in Germany.


hope you enjoy it back in stuggi!

Moehringen - nice place to live too.

Maybe i'll be seeing you around the bars in the future :D

[footyfan1]

hope you enjoy it back in stuggi!

Moehringen - nice place to live too.

Maybe i'll be seeing you around the bars in the future :D


I hope I can get to Stuttgart when BVB plays there this season to meet some of you guys!

[stonesean]

hope you enjoy it back in stuggi!

Moehringen - nice place to live too.

Maybe i'll be seeing you around the bars in the future :D

I am at both Ackermanns (www.ackermanns.de) in Stuttgart-West and Maulwurf in Vaihingen at least once a week.

See you there!

[footyfan1]

You guys open the new season at Wolfsburg. Thoughts??

[Rainer24]

You guys open the new season at Wolfsburg. Thoughts??


3 pts. :D

[benztown]

You guys open the new season at Wolfsburg. Thoughts??

I think it's great that we'll have the opening match. It brings us more attention. I just hope that we'll put on a great show. And of course that we'll take home 3 points. :cool:

[Rainer24]

In all seriousness, let's see if they still have the same team at that point.

[Rainer24]

In all seriousness, let's see if they still have the same team at that point.

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Crazy draw!!

I'm really excited that we'll be opening at Wolfsburg.The first game of the Bundesliga on the Fridat is always a big one and it's awesome to be in it and to meet Armin Veh again in his first game since we parted ways!

I just know it'll be exciting. Of course, starting with a win is great and we'll only be outsiders going into this one, but it should still be a good one! And, who knows, maybe we can cause the year's first upset!

Some of the Highlights:
- Our first home game, on matchday two, will immediately be a derby, as SC Freiburg come to town.
- To complete an overall very tough start for us, we're gonna have to travel to Dortmund on matchday 3 and Hamburg on matchday 5. Won't be easy.
- VfB-Bremen is always a top game. We'll meet them on matchdays 8 (home) and 25. Indeed, matchdays 8 and 9 will both be big ones, as we host Bremen and then Schalke. In the rueckrunde we'll travel to both...
- We'll host ScheissBayern on matchday 11 and travel on matchday 28
- Final game of the season away to Hoffenheim...

Overall??
I think it's a crap draw for us. The start is crucial, we have a crap one with trips to Wolfsburg, Dortmund an Hamburg in the first 5 games. In the Rueckrunde we could well go through a horror streak when we travel to Bremen, Schalke AND Munich within a month of each other. Having such huge matches so close is very bad, and that's what we've got. And, finally, last match of the season away to Hoffenheim. In each of the last 3 seasons we've gone into the final match fighting for something, and to have a hard last game like that certainly won't be easy.

So, can't say i'm happy altogether.

[benztown]

I dunno...I don't believe in these lucky/unlucky streaks...we'll have to play every team twice and we have to win as many games as possible.

What's more important than the date we play a team is the form this team (and our team) will be in when we play them, and at this point, it's impossible to tell. Last season for example, we were really unlucky to play Bayern so late in the season. Had we played them 1-2 months earlier, we might have won and taken the direct CL qualification.

But there are lot's of factors there. Will a new coach work out from the beginning (Wolfsburg, Schalke), which of our players will be injured, which of the other teams players will be injured, will some coach be fired at some point, etc...all we can do is to play whoever is put in front of us and give it the best we can. If we can't beat a full strength Hoffenheim team on the last day of the season, we probably can't beat them on the first day either.

Anyway, I believe we can beat anyone as long as our players are healthy, so bring it on...:D

[sean4stuttgart]

I think the draw is ok. in the past stuttgart have lived up to the pressure of big games, last year we had 3 huge games in the last 4 rounds and we did pretty well with the pressure. I thought we would have bayern at home in the rueckrunde since we played at munich last season? So with bigger games together, it gives us a chance to put some runs together and gain confidence.

On the transfer note, i cant even express how disappointed I am, i mean we lose the best goal scorer we have had in decades, and the replacement we are taking about is Demba Ba? really? one good season, bad character. not even close to the same talent as gomez. Its really disappointing that heldt cant get a good player with the money we have. Regardless nothing is going to hurt more than seeing gomez play in the bayern trikot next season. i just saw a picture on bundesliga.de and it pretty much sucked...

[Rainer24]

I don't really care about the draw. Sure, it'd be nice to play a bunch of bottom feeders to start, but then it's just more difficult games at some other point. You never know when you or your opponent is going to be missing key players due to injury or suspension. Just have to play each game as it comes.

[benztown]

New development in the never ending Demba Ba story:
http://www.stuttgarter-zeitung.de/stz/page/2113976_0_9223_-neue-probleme-mit-demba-ba-vereine-sind-sich-einig-aber-ba-ist-nicht-fit.html

According to this article, Stuttgart and Hoffenheim have agreed on a €15m fee some time ago, but Ba didn't pass the physical examination...

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

I thought it was 90% certain that Ba comes but it looks like the 10% chance of him not coming could well happen.

BILD reports that Ba has failed the medical test because the wound from an operation he had some weeks ago is healing much too slowly and he couldn't train in the coming weeks. So now it's no longer certain that he'll join us. He may still come, he may not. But VfB and Hoffenheim are in agreement on the price so it's all a question of whether we choose to take Ba despite the injury. Stuttgarter Zeitung have written that we are already shifting our focus back to potential alternatives: the names they list have all been mentioned in the past: Huntelaar, Love, Mbokani, Pavlyuchenko and Pantelic. Each would be positive - some amazing, others solid, except for Pantelic imo.



BILD also reports that the Jovanovic deal has taken a turn back in to a positive direction and that he could be joining us within days. But that's been the story with him for 5 weeks now. Stz wrote that Heldt said that Jovanovic 'Will be joining us in the coming days'.

And:
It seems Heldt wants to prolong Mandjeck's contract even though he hasn't been able to break through in his two years here so far, and then send him on loan to Kaiserslautern for the season, where he has already spent a year.

[benztown]

New rumor: Goran Pandev from Lazio...

I don't really know much about him, so it's hard for me to comment. Certainly wouldn't be cheap though and his stats aren't really stellar for a striker. Although, as I said, I don't know much about him and stats can be very deceiving.

At this point, I'm thinking that unless we can get a top striker like Huntelaar or Love we shouldn't be bothering anymore. Maybe we should get an additional midfielder or switch to a 4-5-1 or just give our young guys (Schieber, Fischer, Riedle) a chance. fielding young players is how we got to where we are. I mean the only high profile transfer that wasn't a failure in recent years was Meira.

Demba Ba for example shouldn't cost more than €10m even when healthy and unless he can have an immediate impact in our CL qualification we shouldn't spend a lot of money on someone who might take months to recover.

[benztown]

I've just read that Huntelaar is as good as in Milan...not surprising, but I was hoping for a miracle...I guess it's Love or nothing now...

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Sunday news

Very good article in Spox about a lack of bravery in our transfer politics:
http://www.spox.com/de/sport/fussball/bundesliga/0907/Artikel/vfb-stuttgart-heldt-ba-jovanovic-vagner-love-gomez-millionen-als-fluch.html

Ba continues to believe that he'll be moving to us:
'I believe that there will be a final decision in the next week and that the transfer will go through'

Meanwhile, Stuttgarter Nachrichten take a wholly different perspective, they have written today that we are refocusing on Vagner Love.... the striker who we probably should have been concentrating on all along. We'll see.

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

The increasingly frustrating daily news:

- Along with Ba's uncertainty now it also looks increasingly uncertain that Jovanovic will join us. Liege suddenly changed their mind and are asking for 8.5 million euros which Heldt/Schneider apparently do not want to pay. Stuttgarter Zeitung, Stuttgarter Nachrichten and BILD are all reporting that the transfer could be close to collapsing. Apparently the final discussions could take place today.
Gotta say i'd be furious if this move gets messed up again. If he doesn't come, Heldt will have officially spent 5 weeks 'working on' someone who doesn't end up coming and will then suddenly shift focus back to somebody, Barnetta, who was originally mentioned over a month ago but whom he chose not to focus on.

I hope Jovanovic still comes, but it's looking increasingly bleak.

With Ba, negotiations are heightening with CSKA apparently over Love as another potential buy (once again, originally mentioned a month ago and chosen not to focus on...) if they decide that Ba is too risky. My position: Love has said he could come here, I think we should pony up the 18-20 million cash, he is anyway a prolific goalscorer and in my eyes a better striker than Ba. Also, he's not injured. Also, he seems more disciplined than Ba (and i'm not just talking about what he said to the media, let's also remember Ba currently has the injury problem because he didn't take enough care of his injury along doctor's orders).

If we do sign Ba after all, i'll be happy we've got a good striker at last. But if we have the chance to buy Love instead, he's certainly worth the 5 million more in my eyes.


Overall though Heldt is really going into the firing line slowly. First we were supposed to have quick replacements. Fail. Then we were supposed to get them before training
starts. Fail. And now, hell, i'm just hoping we DO buy SOMEONE.

In other news, we had our second friendly match, beating Friedrichshafen 11-2.

This is how we played:
Ulreich (46. Stolz) - Osorio (46. Träsch), Boulahrouz (46. Tasci), Delpierre (46. Niedermeier), Magnin (46. Funk) - Gebhart (46. Rudy), Schwarz (46. Didavi), Hitzlsperger (46. Lanig), Elson (46. Simak) - Riedle, Schieber (46. Bastürk)

From the highlights I saw, the goalscorers were: Riedle x2, Schieber x2, Simak x2, Elson, Lanig x2, Didavi, and some nobody that i've never heard of called Basturk scored one as well :D

Overall, the most positive figures were the two strikers, Riedle and Schieber. Riedle surprised me particularly scoring twice, and assisting two other goals in a very nice way. We'll have to keep an eye out on this guy, he clearly seems to have the talent. Simak has also done pretty well so far this summer, he is up to now the firendly match topscorer, Elson played well in his position too. Didavi also showed well, he played well on the wings this game, he's quick technically good as well.

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

Jovanovic won't come:
http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/bundesliga/startseite/artikel/511044/


Can incompetence get any greater?