Think that Chelsea will negotiate come season's end. It is likely that they will miss the CL and is also very likely that Michy will be the second option behind Morata, or possibly even lower in the pecking order of they decide to buy strikers. If Conte ends up staying there then it will make all the more sense for Bats to force a move to BVB, since the Italian clearly doesn't rate him high. If we want to make a statement - grab both Bats and Martinez. There is more than enough deadwood in the squad to release and make even more space for quality.
The Kicker story, if one believes it, mentioned that BVB's doubts are concerning the tactical aspect of Bat's game. It's a point I can see to a degree as well. He looks raw/naive at times, sometimes holds on to the ball for too long or opts for the eye candy instead of the easy option (to his credit, that works for him most of the time). But he's still also quite new to the team and his numbers so far are great. Besides his finishing, his technique and ability to play with the other guys are very good. But I can understand that one would want the complete package for a 60+ million player. Martinez looks interesting but he seems to be even more of a gamble (very young, different league, Europe would be new for him) when we know what Bats can do.
My only issue with Bats is that he has tunnel vision whenever he receives the ball anywhere close to the 16-yard box. This is normally a good thing if you're a striker but there has been numerous instances where he received the ball with his back to the goal and multiple defenders in front of him but he would always have his head down at the ball, turn with it and blindly shoot towards goal as opposed to look around as he had open guys on the corners in much better scoring position.
The boat seems to have sailed with Lautora sadly. I can see Dortmund's reluctance to stump up the 60 mil for Batshuayi, although I do question whether Watzke could have stumped up in January to make the move permanent without a buy back. It certainly would have cost a lot less than it will now, and it would have been a lot easier to convince them than it will now. This will be a very important summer ... if they don't get it right, Dortmund could end up going the way of Schalke. At this rate, I'm not even sure they will make the CL to be honest.
Transfergerücht: BVB jagt Jonathan Tah und Mitchell Weiser https://t.co/XM2gEuKVu2 pic.twitter.com/BstWvp6mGz— GOAL Deutschland (@GoalDeutschland) March 20, 2018
The only thing well-known about you is that you want somebody to injure Castro. It is logically and ethically the wrong way to express your anger about a player.
Tah just extended his contract and now does not have that 25 mil buyout http://www.espn.com/soccer/bayer-le...tah-signs-bayer-leverkusen-contract-extension
With respect to the squad overhaul in coming summer, there was a survey carried out by spox where club fans voted on which players should be sold and which ones to retain. http://www.spox.com/de/sport/fussba...er-auswertung-der-user-abstimmung.html?buzz09 I do agree with the overall results and those seem to be in line with the sentiment of this forum. To summarize, fans clearly want Toprak, schmelzer, toljan, durm, rode, sahin, castro, schurrle and Stoger OUT. Akanji, guerreiro, piszczek, weigl, dahoud, reus, philipp, sancho, pulisic have been voted as MUST BE RETAINED, with Burki, sokratis, zagadou, gotze and kagawa also getting thumbs up.
Good find. Did not know you understood German. Glad to find out that we are for the most part in sync.
I listed the results here. 22,800 fans voted so I would consider this a reasonably large sample size. Castro is too fücking high. I don't see what 40% of the people see in him. He is clumsy, clueless, cannot defend, cannot attack, coward without the ball and useless with it. That Schmelzer and Sahin are over 20% was also a bit surprising but whatever. Yarmolenko deserves a bit better. Sergio is too new and has not played so his rating is unfair. I also am convinced that if the results were gathered today Mo would be above 90%. Timing matters. Of course there are some naysayers who are complaining about the difference between Toprak and Sokratis. Reus 96% Max 94% Akanji 90% LP 90% Raphael 88% Jadon 88% Weigl 81% Mo: 80% Kagawa 74% DAZ 73% Götze 72% Isak 72% Sokrates 67% Bürki 65% Sergio 65% Michy 57% Reimann: 56% Yarmolenko 54% Toljan: 42% Castro 40% Schmelzer 37% Schürze 36% Toprak 35% Sahin 32% Dumm 19% Störer 16% Rode 9%
What an annoying way to present the results on that page. You basically have to click through 32 pages. Pulisic was at 94% as well. The number for Batshuayi seems low. The support for the young/new guys is nice to see. And I think the users got it right with the last ones on that list: Rode, Durm and Sahin are likely those that the club sees as obvious choices to get rid of regardless of the extent of the overhaul. Rumours are we are interested in Hector which wouldn't surprise me at all. He would be relatively cheap if Köln gets relegated. He's usually an LB who was tried in midfield as well. But I wonder if he could provide cover for the RB position as well.
Still would be an upgrade over Schmelzer. The mere fact that he is playing for a team that is likely to be relegated and still get picked over Schmelzer for the NT speaks volumes. Two things boggle me with this survey - how the hell can LP have 90% whereas the likes of RG, Dahoud, Sancho, Sokratis, Gotze and DAZ all have less? I get that he has been loyal to the club but he is nowhere near good enough to start for us. The only use for him would be rotation and that is it. Also - those 40% for Castro are pure madness. The people who like him must be smoking some high-end stuff.
I don't see why he shouldn't join the club. He'd be very useful in training the players to get faster. On matchdays he can join the marketing folks to help make the club more money and enjoy the team play.
I wrote that post in jest and I am not sure how much we profit by having him associated with the club. Also he wanted to join the club so I doubt we have to pay him anything directly. A sprinter goes through a completely different training regimen compared to a pro footballer throughout their lives so I don't want him ever to play for BVB in a competitive fixture. Then again I don't want Gonzalo Castro to ever play for BVB in any fixture.
So Thomas Tuchel is going to Arsenal. If this is true then neither he nor Sven Mislintat were the problem at BVB.
There is no question that these two had personal problems. But I always maintained that Tuchel had learned his lesson to not engage in battles with everyone at the club. It is still ironic that he goes to the club where Mislintat is and whether there will be struggles again remains to be seen. Some might think that Mislintat, willingly or not, might leave but I doubt that. Tuchel also joins Auba and Miki again. I think it's a good fit for him and I imagine Arsenal are willing to spend.