Tea Light in the Dark Universe: Bobby Wood at Hamburg

Discussion in 'Yanks Abroad' started by LoewenBoy, Aug 26, 2010.

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  1. Suyuntuy

    Suyuntuy Member+

    Jul 16, 2007
    Vancouver, Canada
    Ah the good old days!

    He should pull a Constanza and stick to the contract till the end. For €4m/year, totally worth it.

     
  2. Gorky

    Gorky Member+

    Jul 28, 2006
    NYC
    Club:
    New York Red Bulls
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    What if Union go up to the BL? Would they be able to take him on loan or buy him?
     
  3. The Irish Rover

    The Irish Rover Member+

    Aug 1, 2010
    Dublin
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Ireland Republic
    No. They simply don't have the money for even 50% of his wages and aren't likely to get it this side of the Day of Judgement (@mschofield can fill us in on the details). They're a well-run club that have been doing well over the last decade, precisely because they are well-run, but a club like them spending 2 million on a single player's wages is next-stop-Chapter 11 territory. As for a transfer, doubly not and for the same reasons.

    Unless, of course, HSV are willing to give Bobby a free transfer and Bobby is willing to simply eat his contract . . .
     
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  4. The Irish Rover

    The Irish Rover Member+

    Aug 1, 2010
    Dublin
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Ireland Republic
    #9454 The Irish Rover, May 22, 2019
    Last edited: May 22, 2019
    With Gareth Bale's standoff with Real making the news there are obvious parallels with Bobby, even if Bale's problem is mainly with the coach while Bobby seems to have HSV's entire technical staff against him.

    IMO the better comparison for Bobby is Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Signed/appointed by a massive club that has seriously lost its way with a restive fanbase? Check. Unproven at top level when signed/appointed? Check. Hit a hot streak immediately? Check. Under-pressure suits, desperate to appease the fans? Check. Said suits lack the cojones to ignore current form for proven class? Check. Big-money deal that's better than you'll ever get anywhere else again? Check.

    Most important of all: neither of them are in Thorgan Hazard swapping Chelsea's books for Dortmund's territory. It's Catch-22 for both: stay, and you'll get canned and have the flop label attached to you by the club. Go, and you've attached the flop label yourself. Either way, you get to spend the rest of your career dealing with the same label but if you stay there's a ghost of a chance that you can pull it off.
     
  5. uniteo

    uniteo Member+

    Sep 2, 2000
    Rockville, MD
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Absolutely, and with his chronic knee condition he could eat up most of his time in PT probably. HSV has essentially no bargaining position beyond “we will make you sit at the kids’ table”

    I expect a hefty HSV buyout after the summer transfer window closes.
     
  6. Suyuntuy

    Suyuntuy Member+

    Jul 16, 2007
    Vancouver, Canada
    I think it's simply that Bobby is a borderline Bundesliga talent that got signed for the wages you pay to a proved better striker because HSV's godfather at that time, Klaus-Michael Kühne, was doing business with Yanks and wanted to show good will, so he basically pressured the club into signing Bobby and further raising his wages after his first season there, in June 2017, for him to stay --which was completely unnecessary, he was making over $2m/year and no one was seriously intending to pay him more.

    Be as it may, Bobby saw his annual salary raised to close to $4m, all under Kühne's pressuring*, and three months after signing the new contract the godfather announced he was done pouring money into HSV and walked away** --and the club was left in the hole, with a striker they didn't care much about, paying a huge salary that was too much for his worth, and with a contract running for 4 years.

    Then relegation made a bad situation even worse.

    Not even MLS is going to offer Bobby that much money. He should stick to it, even if he's sent to the reserves for the two years left in his contract. And I bet they'll play him, because you don't sit the guy who's taking the biggest chunk from your payroll.

    ----

    * https://sbisoccer.com/2017/08/hambu...funds-unless-club-signed-bobby-wood-long-term

    ** https://www.besoccer.com/new/billionaire-investor-announces-he-is-done-funding-hamburg
     
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  7. LouisianaViking07/09

    Aug 15, 2009
    #9457 LouisianaViking07/09, May 22, 2019
    Last edited: May 22, 2019
    We can never have nice things. We're just cursed. He looked phenomenal in 2 Bundesliga but couldn't consistently replicate that in the first division. For all the Yank strikers/forwards/goalscorers we have had in Europe, only Dempsey seemed to do it consistently in a top 4 league.

    Sure there's McBride who did well in a traditional center forward role but he never put up many goals. Though, probably due to the fact he was on a relegation fodder club. And there's been Clint Mathis or Conor Casey guys who score well for a few matches and then it's gone. Maybe too small a sample size. But I swear it's like Fortune disapproves of us. Charlie Davies for example. Riding High and then well you guys remember.
     
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  8. mschofield

    mschofield Member+

    May 16, 2000
    Berlin
    Club:
    Union Berlin
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    Which, to be fair to Wood, he should not do. I know on here, playing professionally is all about the playing bit, but I think I'd be willing to hang out with the kids for a year for $4m.
    I totally agree, I cannot see Union taking on a contract like that. I really hope they don't. He's got a special place at the club. Beyond being their all time single season goal scoring leader, they readily acknowledge that the $3m they got selling him is why they were as strong as they were this season.
    But a team that sees $3m as a club changing windfall isn't really ready to spend with the big boys. It's a club, in the classic meaning of club. Union is not set, commercially, for the first.
    If Union goes up, I'm really hoping they use the season to pocket a bit of extra cash and make themselves much stronger when they go back down. If Union are going to last in the top, it needs to be a long term project. But that's just me, and a lot of that is about my daughter's club experience when they got promoted to the 1bl before they were ready. Bmunch, Blev, dort, etc kicked the holy crap of them the next year ( i think they conceeded some, and what had been a really good young squad scattered to the four winds. It's different, mens and womens, but the way clubs can be destroyed trying to punch above their weight remains the same.
    McBride was fine, as well. But it's a solid point.
     
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  9. White/Blue_since1860

    Orange14 is gay
    Jan 4, 2007
    Bum zua City
    Club:
    TSV 1860 München
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    Bobby has 10 goals in 3 Buli seasons, half of which from 3 years ago. No one's going to pay you 3-4 mil for 3,33 goals per season. No recently promoted team would invest that chunk of money in a player you can rely on getting relegated with(as he's not going to score enough goals to keep you up).

    Unless you are an EPL or Championship club, of course. He can keep that pay if his agent somehow manages to sell him to England, otherwise it will be a big pay cut or the stands. Dunno how that will be possible given homegrown player rule though. Given Brexit, possibly not even applying for German citizenship(EU passport) is going to help him out on this one
     
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  10. mschofield

    mschofield Member+

    May 16, 2000
    Berlin
    Club:
    Union Berlin
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    Yes. Hamburg will pay him that, because the contract says they will. Hence the discussion focusing on the likelihood of him remaining.
     
  11. LouisianaViking07/09

    Aug 15, 2009
    So, essentially, he has to have a wage cut if he wishes to move. If he remains at Hamburg, how much of a cut will there be since he's in the 2 Bundesliga? If he were to go to an average club in the Championship or big club in Belgium/NL/Turkey, would he be taking 60% hit or something akin to that?
     
  12. White/Blue_since1860

    Orange14 is gay
    Jan 4, 2007
    Bum zua City
    Club:
    TSV 1860 München
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    No one else than HSV. Hence, "the stands". View from the 2nd tier in Volksparkstadion is nice. Hamburg have to reduce their batshit crazy budget from 30 mil to 20 mil. He is not going to stay eating up 25% of the budget
     
  13. uniteo

    uniteo Member+

    Sep 2, 2000
    Rockville, MD
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    HSV can take no unilateral action...he stays unless HSV makes an offer that he finds acceptable and for a guy who came over as a teenager and has fought through several levels of the professional game, there's probably not a lot that HSV can threaten to make him walk away from $10 million.

    They're just going to have to get out the checkbook and write a lot of zeroes if they want him away from the club. To pretend otherwise is childish.
     
  14. SilentAssassin

    Apr 16, 2007
    St. Louis
    https://www.capology.com/soccer/player/bobby-wood

    I just found out about this site. Does anyone know how accurate it is? I think the leagues without a player's association generally don't publish a comprehensive list of salaries, so I'm not sure if this is like a wiki created with input from a bunch of agents, or educated guesses, or what. In any case, it lists Bobby Wood at $1.8mil/yr gross. Probably still overpaid, but not nearly as bad, if true.
     
  15. mattjo

    mattjo Member+

    Feb 3, 2001
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I may be a bit lost. I see his market value as 3 million Euros. I see Hannover salary as 848,000 Euros, although he was a loanee, so is that total or the portion Hannover is paying. Not sure where they got this data.
     
  16. LouisianaViking07/09

    Aug 15, 2009
    Well I remember reading he was being paid 1.5 million in his first year with Hamburg (not sure if its euros or dollars) and it was doubled for the second season. He got loaned to Hannover with Hamburg paying a significant amount of his wages. I believe he should be back on 3 million euros/dollars.
     
  17. freisland

    freisland Member+

    Jan 31, 2001
    I see. And they will... declare bankruptcy to get out of the contract? And... you think he's getting 5 million a year? Interesting. That's a LOT of dough. He'll play for the kindergarten team for that - or 1860 - it's all the same.

    But the likelihood that a team that can't afford his salary can afford to pay his salary and not have him play is even lower than the likelihood they will sell him for what they hope. HSV will either eat his transfer and part of his salary or eat all of his salary unless Wood is desperate to move.
     
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  18. WheezingUSASupport

    Dortmund
    United States
    Aug 28, 2017
    I still think he’s a shell of the player he was 2-3 years ago, but partly due to injuries.

    That first season with Hamburg he looked like he belonged at a mid-Bundesliga team. He had poor service but made those blistering runs, and always found a way to get open.
     
  19. BostonRed

    BostonRed Member+

    Oct 9, 2011
    Somerville, MA
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Every time I come into this thread, I leave hungry.
     
  20. freisland

    freisland Member+

    Jan 31, 2001
    You need to eat part of Wood's salary...

    (there's enough to go around!)
     
  21. freisland

    freisland Member+

    Jan 31, 2001
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  22. mschofield

    mschofield Member+

    May 16, 2000
    Berlin
    Club:
    Union Berlin
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    Yeah, and I see transfermarkdt goes with GBP 1.8m. But the more widely reported number is "more than 3 million" in US references and 3m here, so euro 3, dollars more than 3m (because, bothering with currency conversion for an online piece is pointless as it's always changing).
    Now, a 1.8m figure in some currency might just about work out to his net, but that would be a weird number to use. $1.8m would also just about reflect Wood's salary for his first year at Hamburg (depending on the day on which we work the conversion, but it hovered in the $1.20 range for quite a while), before he got the raise that doubled it.
     
  23. White/Blue_since1860

    Orange14 is gay
    Jan 4, 2007
    Bum zua City
    Club:
    TSV 1860 München
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    Oh, HSV will have ways of making him leave

    [​IMG]
     
  24. SilentAssassin

    Apr 16, 2007
    St. Louis
    transfermarkt doesn't report salaries. They only estimate their transfer values. The two values are completely different and have nothing to do with each other.
     
  25. freisland

    freisland Member+

    Jan 31, 2001
    I'm waiting... I'm also waiting for 1860 to return to the B1. Which will happen first?
     

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