Kicker reports that, 5 months before the match will take place, all tickets for VfB - Bayern have already been sold out. That shows the success of the first part of this season - impressive news. VfB will play in an indoor tournament in Nuernberg on the 5th of January with Nuernberg, Hertha, Kaiserslautern, Burghausen and Fuerth. The next day, they play in a tourney in Mannheim with Kaiserslautern, Mainz, Offenbach, Karlsruhe(!) and Hoffenheim. Not the most serious of warm ups, but i always find these tournaments fun
My wife got me a sweet VfB hat (Mütze) that is in their 3rd jersey colors. She wanted to get the scarf to match, but they were sold out, apparently. It was a nice Christmas present. Did everyone else have a good holiday? I'm disappointed we didn't pick up a few more points in our final few games before the break, but as was said by others, I never expected us to be this high up back in August when we had no idea how we'd come together. So with that in mind, I'm pretty happy overall. Is Hildebrand out of contract in the summer and going to leave on a free, or is his contract go a little longer, but we're going to sell him in the summer for a fee? Are there any rumors about what might happen in the winter transfer window? What does everything think would be something we could improve with a player or two during the winter transfer? Or is everyone happy with the squad we have?
Yeah, everyone seems to prefer the 3rd jersey colors. As we now dropped a few points with red maybe Veh will make gold the new home jersey? As to Hildebrandt's contract it ends after this session. Regarding transfers I don't think anyone will come this winter. I'm quite happy with the squad. Several players in their prime (da Silva, Pardo, Meira) who will be very eager to prove themself. And with lots and lots of talents coming up I think we will continue to improve just by keeping the players we have. Actually on the last annual meeting managnement has said they want to reduce the squad as salaries are too high. Magnin is probably still a candidate to go. Not that he played badly but there are simply too many people wanting to play on the left side. Another rumor is Lauth coming from Hamburg. Wouldn't help us much but as compensation HSV will keep Luboija (currently loaned from VfB to HSV) so I quess it makes sense.
Me too. I still regret they canceled the indoor-master-tournament. On 8th and 10th Jan VfB plays 2 games against middle eastern national teams. Looking forward to see how Langer will perform in these games. He's said to oneday taking over as VfB goalkeeper. He's 22, the position will become free. If not now then when? some german TV fixtures out of VfB message board: (no idea about non-german TV) -Friday, 5th Jan., 5.15 pm, D:SF indoor-tourney in Nürnberg partipicants: Stuttgart, Berlin, Nürnberg, Kaiserslautern, Fürth, Burghausen -Saturday, 6th Jan., 5.30 pm, D:SF indoor-tourney in Mannheim partipicants: Stuttgart, Mainz, Karlsruhe, Kaiserslautern, Of- fenbach, Hoffenheim -Monday, 8th Jan., 4.25 pm, D:SF Dubai Football Challenge: Emirates - VfB Stuttgart -Wednesday, 10th Jan., 1.55 pm, D:SF Dubai Football Challenge: Iran - VfB Stuttgart
well no matter what club, not much movement is done usually during the winter transfer session. yes clubs explore elsewhere and talks begin, but usually for the summer. stuttgart is a place for harvesting young talents and using them to become the best in germany. and so far stuttgart's program seems to work, the youth program is amazing, the work with the reserves and second team is good, you just know stuttgart is all about the youth. finally, rumor has it Tomasson might be moving so that would free up some funds that are wasted for his overpaid arse
VfB message board: Tomasson is set to succeed Hildebrand in Stuttgart. VfB is optimistic his no-goal-guarantee will hold for years to come. Anyway as far as I know he's in Denmark training and hopes to make Stuttgart starting XI in second half of session. Doubt he leaves in winter. Would be strange timing after his injuries.
I agree with everyone else that we don't really need to get in any new players over winter. We have a very good, young starting side and perhaps the best squad depth in the Bundesliga. No matter who gets injured, we have a replacement - i don't think many other sides in the Bundesliga can say that. I wouldn't want Magnin to go, he should remain Boka's first sub. I'd say a wiser person to let go of in the defense would be Babbel. He has played no part this year since the second game of the season, and i don't really see that changing much in the second half of the season. Plus he's probably higher paid than Magnin anyway. as for Tomasson, well, i hope he doesn't go. There's rumours linking him to a move back to Italy or even to Levante. I'd rather keep him and hope he does begin to score eventually(and anyway, he hasn't gotten mcuh chance this season. he's played less than 180 bundesliga minutes overall 'cause he's been injured the whole time). but we'll see, and i guess if Lauth does come, then we wouldn't need 5 strikers so that could change everything.
Yes Magnin can replace Boka. But so can Tasci and Beck. I don't think keeping the leftback of the swiss NT on the bench is worth it. And playing time for our talents is a longterm investment. Forgot about Babbel. Of course someone likely to want to leave in winter. You don't seriously consider playing Lauth, do you?! I'd quess the plan with Lauth would be playing him a bit with the reserves and then selling him in summer. Unless he improves a lot of course.
So why does it sound like management is just going to wait until the end of the season and let him leave on a free. I guess most teams know he'll be free in June and will just wait until than rather than pay a fee to have him in January, yes?
I'd expect Lauth to be a substitute, but i don't think the VfB management would bother bringing him in just to get rid of him later on. They would try their best to make something out of him. I hope he doesn't come. And as far as i remember, Beck played rightback last season and Tasci has played in Rightback and central defense. I don't remember either of them being able to play on the left side. I could bwe wrong though.
No way is he gonna want to leave. Nobody would pay him what he gets at Stuttgart . He’s gonna sit out his contract.
Of course everyone knows that he'll be free next summer. But it wouldn't make much sense selling him now as we don't have a replacement. Plus, hardly anyone in Europe is in need of a GK in January (save Hamburg, but I doubt that he would want to go there.) So that in combination with the ending contract would mean that we wouldn't get a big fee anyways.
Regarding transfers, Tomasson seems to be willing to go back to Italy. Personally, I've mixed feelings about this. I really like him and I think he's capable of a lot more. I guess Stuttgart won't sell him this winter. If Tomasson can get back into the first team and show his qualities he might reconsider a move. But if he doesn't, a move would seem to be the best decision for both sides. Apart from that, I don't see any moves this winter, although Babbel seems to be a possibility. One thing I really hope for is that Khedira extends his contract and won't leave (for Schalke, ugh).
I've just read that Stuttgart is supposedly interested in Aruna Dindane from French club Lens. He's a 26 year old striker from Ivory Coast (scored two against Serbia during the World Cup) and as of now leading the goal scorer table in France. Might be the replacement for Tomasson...
More JDT rumors: http://www.kicker.de/fussball/bundesliga/startseite/artikel/359543/ I really hope Tomasson stays. To be honest i seriously doubt it at this point: i now expect him to leave this winterbreak. If he has to leave, Dindane would be the much better buy than Lauth. Gomez---Dindane... sounds nice in my opinion. Btw benztown where did you read that? I can't find it anywhere.
Ha, thanks, i hadn't heard about that before you brought it up here. If Portsmouth and Manchester City are also interested in him though, we'd be the clear underdogs in the race to sign him. And according to the article, if he changed clubs he'd move in June, not this winter.
More importantly, you can’t sell him if he doesn’t want to leave. If he wants to play out his contract , there’s nothing the club can do about it.
First of all this is only a rumor up until now, but I if it's true, our chances might not be that bad after all. Portsmouth and City might have a little bit more money, but I think there are other factors that are just as important. In Stuttgart, he has a better chance to play internationally (maybe even the Champions League (I know that I'm dreaming )). Also, I'm sure that Stuttgart is a much nicer place to live than either Portsmouth or Manchester. And third, we already have Boka who could tell him how things work here and who might convince him. So I think if Heldt is serious about Aruna, we have a good shot at signing him. Also, I've read somewhere (don't remember where, but it definately wasn't an official site, but some VfB forum somewhere on the web, so take it with a grain of salt) that Lens is interested in Stuttgart's Magnin and that the two clubs talk about a player exchange. Of course Stuttgart would have to pay some extra millions on top of that, but if Tomasson leaves this winter, the money wouldn't be a problem, so maybe he'll join us this winter.
Well, we've got the first of two indoor tournaments coming up in half an hour. Here's the squad: Michael Langer, Timo Hammel – Andreas Beck, Thomas Hitzlsperger, Heiko Gerber, Cacau, Roberto Hilbert, Christian Gentner, Antonio da Silva, Tobias Weis Obviously not all the starters are there, which is good. I'm looking forward to the tourney, players like Cacau and da Silva should really be good players indoors judging by their technical ability. Also, young talents like Langer, Hammel, Beck and Weis will ged to show what their capable of, which is a good thing. I hope no one gets injured, but i also hope we win
Hallencup 2007 VfB - SV Wacker Burghausen 5:1 VfB - Hertha Berlin 6:6 Semi-final VfB - 1. FC Kaiserslautern 6:4 Final VfB - Greuther Fuerth 4:3 So, our boys won the first tournament and will participate in the Harder13 in Mannheim on Saturday. Cacau was named player of the tournament for Hallencup 2007 after he scored 7 goals (tied for topscorer with Kevin-Prince Boateng of Hertha). For this he received a bicycle!
VfB is in the final again today first round: VfB Stuttgart 0 - 2 Hoffenheim VfB 4 - 3 Karlsruhe(we qualified in second and eliminated the assholes in the process) semi final VfB 1 - 1 Mainz we qualified 4 - 3 on penalties Now we play in the final against Offenbach, which we should win and that will allow us to have completed two successful days indoors