Transfers for 2014/2015

Valentin Stocker snapped up by Hertha. They also got Plattenhart and Hegeler. All three players of quality I think Stuttgart should be getting. Ginczek is a fine signing tho, he showed a lot of potential and after he got injured is when Nurnberg fell apart.

 

We had the biggest financial loss in club history last year, and we're going to post another loss at the end of this month. There's no money. We're not about to go out of business or anything and we can afford to not sell Antonio Rudiger to Porto for a ridiculously low fee like we're apparently about to, but any big signings would be irresponsible.

That said, the signings we have made so far have been very underwhelming. I'm not really sure why after one terrible season we're suddenly a less attractive destination than Augsburg, but I guess that's just how it is now. Hoping Veh can spin some magic, but we're a bit of a shambles at the moment.

 

The main reason for the loss "is bad transfer politics after winning the Bundesliga title" in '07. Former Board Exec Dieter Hundt said, "There have been several transfers that linger financially until today." Link

It does seem odd that we're still struggling six years on. Even though we haven't spent big I'm sure it doesn't help that we have a needlessly massive squad. So much deadweight that we should be clearing out instead of bringing on, and then we let promising players like Rani Khedira leave for nothing. Someone on another thread here said he wondered when it would be time for Fredi to look in the mirror and start blaming himself. I think we're well beyond that point.

Lots of negativity here, but I am optimistic for a Europa League run next season. Rudiger, Leitner, and Werner is a nice young spine, Holzhauser coming back, lots of attacking options. Even considering the exodus we had last season and the horrific form you would have to say that we were an unlikely relegation candidate. For some reason last season we hit a bad patch and then just never recovered. Hopefully an experienced manager like Veh will be able to get us past the bumps in the road this year.

 

I think the club leadership needs to do some more explaining of how transfer moves after 07 are still dragging us down. We have admittedly bought some useless players, but most of our acquisitions have been and continue to be guys we get on the cheap. I don't really see how a couple bad signings explain this, especially considering we must have been at least € 40 million to the positive just based on the Gomez and Khedira sales. This situation baffles me.

 

Bild reporting Stuttgart interest in 21-year-old winger Filip Kostic from FC Groningen as a Traore replacement. Sporting Lisbon, Porto, and PSV also interested. That's more like it!

 

It is true, they've had some highly paid crappy contracts for years: Cacau, Molinaro, Tasci all were on enormously overpriced wages. Someone like Audel was useless for his years at the club and on pretty high wages. They got rid of some of that deadweight last season but still impacted bottom line. Now they should be back to having a reasonable wage bill. Recovery likely going to be another year or two though.

 

Why are we not looking to Mexico or MLS for some "cheaper" talent? Couple of talented players we could sign also what about the loan market? Always works on FM ....

 

Speaking of finances, the annual general meeting was on Monday:

 

Negotiations are underway, and appears Stuttgart are close to finalizing the signing of Georgios Spanoudakis, who was previously in Barcelona's youth academy. The 15 y/o is a member of the Germany U17 NT and considered one of the top talents in the 1998 age group.

He's posted updates on his social media channels to show Stuttgart, including this photo of himself on Facebook.

 

We loaned Oriol Romeu for one year from Chelsea. He was originally a Barcelona youth product, spent last year on loan at Valencia after being out for a year with a torn ACL. General consensus is that he's a pretty solid loan (I guess people said that about Leitner though...), seems like finally an exciting transfer happened. Still seems like everyone else is improving more than us though.

 

http://www.transfermarkt.de/vfb-verpflichtet-wunschspieler-kostic-vom-fc-groningen/view/news/168735

VfB Stuttgart and FC Groningen have reached an agreement on the transfer of Filip Kostic. The 21 y/o left winger is travelling to Stuttgart this weekend to complete his medical. Transfer fee reported to being around 5 mil, and a new contract til 2019.

 

Where did this player end up ?

 

The signing is complete, and Spanoudakis is officially a Stuttgart player. He'll begin the season with the U17 team.

http://www.fupa.net/berichte/vfb-verpflichtet-spanoudakis--183155.html

 

I think this team needs a proper left back (assuming Rausch is now not first choice) and a proper center back. As an Arsenal fan it would also suit both teams if we made a loan move for our old charge Serge Gnabry. I don't expect anything to happen on any of these fronts, however and unfortunately.

 

There's currently 27 players training in the first team right now. Veh wants the ideal squad to be around 24 or 25. Several players have been considered for transfer or loan away moves to clear space.

-Bursaspor is interested in Sercan Serarer
-Kaiserslautern showing interest in Raphael Holzhauser. VfB want 1 million in this sale, which is currently too high for Lautern
-Marco Rojas will be sent out on loan to receive more match practice

Veh plans to have 3 defensive midfielders on the depth chart. William Kvist is currently one of them. But Gruezo and Romeu are ahead of him, and Kvist wants to feature regularly.

 

Apparently he had no interest in coming back with us, so it's probably best to just look at this as a free €6 million.

 

Fun article in the Guardian about players with expiring contracts. A few of them would be great for Stuttgart, even if none of them have a chance of actually coming:

Loris Karius (Mainz): Hot young German goalkeeping prospect. We've got one of those (Vlachodimos), but I don't think anyone would be too sad to see both Ulreich and Kirchbaum kicked to the curb.

Sami Khedira (Real Madrid): He's already said that he wants to come back to end his career, although I'm sure he meant as a epilogue, rather than the last several chapters. Also, super high wages.

Luiz Adriano (Donetsk): Won't be able to afford the wages again, but if we could...hey someone talked him into playing in Ukraine. Surely, Stuttgart must feel like the south of France compared to that!