More talk about Gundogan moving back to BVB. Salary and duration already set. City want to buy Rodri from Atleti. Rodri wants to leave. I guess good news for BVB fans who want him back.
I actually like the idea of Hummels' back with us. It's sentimental as hell, but he's one of my all-time favourite footballers and I hate the idea of him ending his career with those scumbags. Witsel needs a better midfield partner than Delaney, who's clearly a utility player. BTW Favre extended his contract for another year. I guess he's earned it as we now seem to have a clear playing identity despite bottling the Bundesliga.
I dont like the idea of what we are doing. It sends a message to me with all these has been players that we are just "okay" with competing for the title instead of actually spending to win it. I get it, we cant spend like crazy but these rumors are a little discouraging after we seemed to build some momentum with the earlier signings. They certainly are not wow factor signings and rumors.
To me, these possible signings of Hummels and Gündogan look as if the management has the league title in mind in the timeframe of the next 2-3 years. That makes sense for guys like Reus and I really want to see him win more than just that Cup. This will naturally come with negative consequences for some of the young players. But in defense we actually need some experience and leadership overall. Everyone knows that our young defenders need time but we aren't in the same position anymore like we were when Hummels and Subotic could grow together as a very young defender duo. Now, the young players will get the time to develop and they'll be part of the rotation. Their playing time will decline but in the meantime they'll have elite players as mentors and we also want to go for titles. It's likely we'll lose at least one of our current young CBs and possibly at least one of Weigl and Dahoud. But it seems that this is the price we are willing to pay for the gamble to win something within the next few years.
The biggest problem I see is that we have a lot of dead weight on the books. For a management that is extremely tight with the purse strings, they must be sweating over the signings. Apart from Jadon Sancho (although the mgmt should try and keep him as long as possible), we dont foresee losing any of the core players in the next 2 years so our wage budget, albeit high would remain stable.
Mats Hummels is back in BVB. Bayern have confirmed. BVB has as well albeit with a weird tweet. The only thing that does not make any sense is the final fee. Its apparently 30M with bonus. Which is ridiculous for him and he is going to be making 10M.
thats a lot more than i envisioned too... not sure what to think of this. If it works out then its no big deal. If it flames out, then its catastrophic. We just gave them 38 million to spend when they are already rich. I wouldnt do many deals with those guys if we want to pass them
Bayern is f**king us over big time. Snatched hummels up on his prime years for over 30 mil, and now they sell him back at age of 30 for more then they paid in the first place..... Wouldnt have minded fee of 20 mil but 38 mil for a 30 years old CB. Aki saves money on wrong occasions and then he overspends on wrong occasions as well.
You mean we are fugging ourselves over.. we have to write the check.. Bayern can only ask.. I still think this is a dumb move at this price.
I won't lie, this news has made my day, besides I'd much rather have Mats Hummels as the experienced CB to mentor Akanji, Balerdi and Zagadou than Toprak, whose experience consists of being knocked out of the park in the Champions League, speaking of which why haven't we duped PSG into signing him?
[QUOTvE="Arlo, post: 37891195, member: 71100"]Bayern is f**king us over big time. Snatched hummels up on his prime years for over 30 mil, and now they sell him back at age of 30 for more then they paid in the first place..... Wouldnt have minded fee of 20 mil but 38 mil for a 30 years old CB. Aki saves money on wrong occasions and then he overspends on wrong occasions as well.[/QUOTE] 38m is including bonuses. Fixed fee is 30.5m according to transfermarkt.de which is a fair price in my opinion. In the second half of the last season Hummels showed that he is still world class.
It's really difficult to judge the sum paid out for Mats Hummels. He is a solid defender with a lot of experience and he has won trophies. Nobody can doubt his winning mentality and he's....as old as Marco Reus and I am sure his favourite club was always BVB, even when he left. And they are both better players than say Mario Götze who is 3 years younger. On one hand the actual sum is around 30-31-5M + bonus ranging from 6-7M. If we do not win fückall + Mats stays injured a lot, we dont pay a cent more than 30M. On the other hand if we come home with the treble next season which I really hope we do then we pay out the full lump of gold and I am fine with it. Then on the other hand we are comparing his departure which took place prior to the Neymar sale which altered the transfer market completely to what it is now. Bonucci cost 15M more at the same age. Despite some poor performances, he is statistically a standout defender globally. Like with most transfers (apart from Schurrle and Toprak who everybody knew were duds), we should judge this two or three years from now.
In purely financial terms, we are far behind Bayern. So I don't know how we can afford a 125M transfer window plus a 25M increase in the wage budget when we have not sold Toprak, Schurrle, Kagawa, Toljan, Philipp. But when somebody who has insider news says we are getting Ilkay Gundogan on top of that, I am going to question why are we spending all this money all of a sudden. And where is this coming from?
Apparently we think our window to win the league is small with Reus aging and Sancho likely to be gone in 2021?
Good discussion My comments and thoughts. Very pleased with our transfer business thus far. Paid at least full value for Hummels but okay with it. I don’t know if this is posted in our website but Edison research has a good report from 2 days ago detailing many financials but in particular our transfer spending. We are spending more this cycle but the Pulisic sale helps offset roughly half already. We also have cash available and as noted we have dead weight to sell. That will be the tricky part I am less enthused about Gundogen returning but will wait and see if he does and fee paid I hope by strengthening our attack and defense that either or both Dahoud and Weigl are given more opportunities in the midfield.
Actually, we made a lot of money from selling Dembele and Aubameyang that we did not reinvest into the squad a couple of years ago. Either we just had that cash lying around or they were invested in short term bonds.
I disagree. Hummels was horrible in is last season with us. He's just too slow for our team who likes to give most of their goals on counter attack.
Hummels ticks most boxes for us. Besides, he is far better to mentor the likes of Akanji, Ballerdi and Zagadou than that prop Toprak. As a plus - the chemistry with Gotze and Reus is likely to be there. As for finances - I believe we are the 11th richest club in the world (or so I read, not entirely sure). I think we can afford to spend in these price ranges, especially since we did not seem to reinvest the Dembele and Aubameyang money until now from the looks of it. Moreover, we will surely offload quite a few players - for example, RG is rumored to be a Barca target and 25M seems to be his price tag. BVB also seems to be interested in Plea. Good chap, Favre knows him well. Will be a good option to have in attack. What worries me is the midfield. Witsel-Delaney was probably the preferred option because we were defensively suspect. With Hummels back I hope we can see more of Dahoud instead of Delaney and hopefully Weigl making a comeback in Favre's eyes.
I agree Hummels was a bit more expensive than I would have liked, but we are coming for the title. I think Watzke has learnt his lesson and regrets his mistake. He is ready to spend to do what has to be done. Now it's the midfield. With strong leadership at the back, we need to give Weigl and Dahoud a chance, at least initially. Neuhas is a possible option if we don't have faith in Dahoud. I also have a felling we are going to play Thorgan as a striker or rather I want Thorgan as a striker. Speed kills and we can play a team with great speed. Reus, Sancho, Brandt is scary. It's as good as anything in the world. Unless Barca get Neymar. We also have quality on the bench with the likes of Zagadou, Witsel, Delaney, Gotze and possibly Alcacer.
The leadership in this squad is still a concern. We bottled a 9 point lead with Reus wearing the armband. What does that say about his leadership skills? Witsel is a good leader when times are smooth. To me that's not even leadership material. Burki lacks the charisma. Delaney is not a leader at all. Neither is LP. So now there is Hummels who has literally been at odds with every coach he has ever played for. Maybe Reus, Hummels and Witsel as a combo will be good enough but it's doubtful.
It's not always about leadership. Sometimes you just fall short because the team isn't good enough. From what I can see there are multiple players who exhibit certain leadership qualities. There are a lot of exuberant young players in the team as well as general good vibes within the squad, so hopefully Hummels can come in with a chip on his shoulder and back up his mouth both on the field and off.