2.Bundesliga club VfB Lübeck wants to have Conor Casey for the next season. Lübeck promoted last year and currently is on a safe 8th rank. I'm pretty sure that Conor would go there (if he doesn't have other offers), but of course Dortmund are the ones deciding about a transfer. Dortmund already permitted reserve defender Florian Thorwarth to go to Lübeck though.
i don't know much about vfB lübeck, but if they are indeed a newly promoted team from the 3rd division and are looking to become a contender for the bundesliga then casey would definately be starting regularly. he might even be one of the top earners, because he is experienced at this level and very young and talented.
Olaf, do you see Dortmund selling him outright, or loaning him to Vfl and at the same time extending his contract or resigning him to a longer one? Obviously, he's not up to Dortmund's level now, but what about later?
It's the crucial question what Dortmund does. It's impossible to answer it right now. Maybe they've given up hope after Conor did not make it in Hannover and let him go, but everything regarding this and a possible loan with contract extension or entire sale would be mere speculation. My view in case that it happens: good for Casey. D2 starter is what he needs. A bit more secure team would be better (general saying: the second year in a league is the hardest), but I don't know if he has other offers. Lübeck is a city from the most northern state in Germany (Schleswig-Holstein) that has no other pro soccer team; there is quite a good support for the team, whose aim IMO has to be to be a permanent D2 club. I can't claim to know too much about their team. Last week they played with three forwards, so if this is their usual formation then Casey would go for the center role again. Last week Jens Scharping played there - he played 46 Bundesliga games for St Pauli (12 goals) and now has about 90 2.Bundesliga games with a goal average of about one in every three to four games. He's not bad, but Conor is better. Their four main strikers this season are Dennis Kruppke (leaving to Freiburg), Scharping, Daniel Thioune and Daniel Bärwolf. They have no top 10 striker of the league, so Conor does not have to fear too much. For the next season they most likely also lose their playmaker Ferydoon Zandi, who is just on loan from Freiburg; new will be Bundesliga veteran Martin Groth (right mid) from Hamburg and defender Jan Schanda from Braunschweig. All they want left is one backer and one striker. Coach in Lübeck is Dieter Hecking, a former attacking mid and striker, mostly home in 2.Bundesliga. He is 38 and Lübeck is his second coaching job (since 3/01) after SC Verl.
This does sound like its Connor's best option....kind sux that he got "offplan" this year (I think that injury end of last year did not help)....but hopefully he'll stay healthy and revert back to his form from last year, and importantly, get minutes... Lubeck German almost sounds like English...g...a good place for the Yanks to practice their language skills...g
If Conor wants to be in the Olympics next summer, he needs to get himself on a team where he starts regularly. Figure four forwards make the Olympic team. Donovan and Buddle seem like locks so if Quanranta, Johnson, Magee, Eskandarian, Jaqua and even Casey Schmidt are all getting regular minutes in MLS and Conor is riding pine or playing reserve team ball, he's not going to beat out all of those guys. After coming close to a medal in 2000, I'm sure Conor wants another shot at it, especially with the talent this team will have. So, if he wants to go to Athens, he needs to go somewhere where he can play, ASAP.
he may not be focusing on athens right now. he just needs a good team on which he plays regular minutes, and then it will be up to the team if they want to release him for the olympics. some teams don't even release their players for the olympics, and some players who leave have a hard time getting back their positions when they return.