Schürrle yes - but Holtby played often weak after his national team debut. But next year Zoltan Stieber will play in Mainz - he is maybe the best player in 2. Bundesliga.
When Klopp went to Dortmund Heidel came up with the Viking coach who led us to promotion. After that he got Tuchel seemingly out of nowhere. The same is true for the players that have played in Mainz in recent years (well, in the last 20 years). Whenever talent leaves, they find good replacements. In rare cases it doesn't work out too well, like in the first half of the season we got relegated, but that is expected. So the loss of Schürrle and Holtby isn't that bad at all - it's the same procedure as every year. Heidel and Strutz always say that they want the club to be among the top 24 clubs in Germany, which seems realistic. Obviously, this includes regular relegation battles. I hope they make it into the EL group stage and manage to stay in midfield of the Liga table for the whole season. Given that we have a 6th spot for international play next season hoping for another EL qualifiation is tempting, but not realistic at all. The 7 wins in the first 7 matchdays helped us tremendously. After that they played like a relegation contender if you look at the points-per-game stats, i.e. like every year.
I agree with everything you said, although I think minor exception on Tuchel coming out of nowhere. He had been youth team coach for quite a few years and had so impressed that management always was thinking "this guy will be our first team trainer in near future." It just happened a little sooner than people expected. Curious: Should Mainz make the EL group stage, do you think even the home games in the group stage will be sold out at the new arena? I would think so, but was wondering.
Mainz is on 9th place in the second half of the season Except for the horrible Match against Cologne (and some mathes in november, december), it was still a good season since october (by our standards)
I'm pretty sure it will always sell out. They could have sold way more than 30.000 tickets for pretty much every home game in recent years anyway and playing in Europe is a big thing for Mainz. That's because they managed to deliver a nice Endspurt. They finished the season like they started it, but in between, i.e. for most of the season, they barely got more than 1ppg.
Why would you ignore a large number of games and conclude they were only as good as the remaining games in which they averaged 1 pt/game. That's silly. Pick a group of games for any team and they can produce a set of good, mediocre, or poor results. It's not very indicative of a team's quality or lack of quality to point to a specific set of games and make a judgment that they were lucky to finish where they did. It's the whole season that counts.
Christian Fuchs goes to Schalke. He opted out of his recent contract signing. Heidel claims he is not mad at Fuchs, but feels he is making a foolish move.
That's not what I was trying to argue. I was merely saying that for most of the season they actually did perform like a team battling relegation. This is quite unusual for a team finishing in the top 5, so we should be clear about it - otherwise one might assume that Mainz might (have) become a regular Euro qualification contender, which certainly isn't the case. Fuchs leaving does make me worry - unlike midfielders, good leftbacks are hard to find.
Quite the eventful summer it has been for Mainz. Even with the departures of keys players, management have done well in replenishing the squad with quality new additions and depth. Overall the team has made about €28 Mio in transfer revenues this summer. Including club records for highest gains in Geis (€12 Mio) and Okazaki (€11 Mio). Furthermore, Mainz have signed a new €260 Mio contract with the sports marketing company, "Infront Sports & Media". This deal guarantees €10 Mio immediately, and remainder will be earned throughout the next 10 years. Will be interesting to see how these new resources will be reinvested into the team. http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/...0-millionen-euro-geldsegen-fuer-mainz-05.html
LOL. Was just getting a bit reminiscent of the Bruchweg Boys days. But it's great to see this hard working club achieve big things financially.
Any idea as to Jara's current status? As soon as the incident against Uruguay happened, the FO came out and said he was done. Then there was an apparent detente in their relationship and afterward it seemed like Jara was once again on his way out. Any updates?
There does seem to be a lot of back and forth on this Jara situation. From what I gather from these recent articles, it looks likely now that he'll stay at Mainz for the final year of his contract. He's admitted his mistakes and is ready to move on. Jara says he wants to help the team by covering whatever defensive position is needed. Also, he's been taking German language lessons to better integrate and communicate with teammates. http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/.../artikel_jara_habe-hier-ein-jahr-vertrag.html http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/...tikel_jara_natuerlich-war-das-ein-fehler.html
Thanks, Epitome. Now that he's staying, is it likely for him to get a chance from the coach? Does the coaching staff rate him? My German is really poor.
The coaches recognize his work rate and defensive versatility. Compared to last season where he rotated several spots including CB & DM, his best chances currently should be at the fullback positions.
Another testament of Mainz's rising financial growth and stability. Overall revenues are expected to reach €100 Mio this year, which is the first time in club history. The new 10-year deal also forecasts marketing revenues to increase by an average of €5 Mio annually. http://www.transfermarkt.de/19-mio-...rkt-ins-7-jahr/view/news/208665/fromnewsbox/1
Big 3 points on the road against Gladbach at a stadium that's always difficult to play in. Clemens and Samperio linking up for some good plays along the flanks. Which made up for those 2 chances in the first half that hit the crossbar. Muto showed promise in his first start. Has a good technical game, and savvy positioning. However, needs more time to work on the finishing. Overall, I find the chemistry of the new players to be clicking well.