Sural to Alanyaspor in Turkey is being reported as nearly done. He turned down an offer from NYC in December because he expected more money despite having barely played this season. Turkish league is still decent, but seems to be in considerable decline and that is not a good team. Frees up some salary space at Sparta though.
Parma want Barak on loan from Udinese. Barak never really regained his starting spot from the early season injuries, so might be worthwhile to get back to full minutes. It's also more or less a lateral move from a club prestige standpoint.
Plzen have a few youth players they are very high on, so they clearing roster space. As such they have offloaded a couple of their marginal players to international leagues: Martin Zeman is going to Israeli side Hapoel Ra'anana. Zeman had a few short promising stretches in his career, but has been invisible in Plzen for a while. Jakub Reznicek is going to Belgian side Lokeren. He's seen some minutes this season as a change of pace substitute, but it was clear he was surplus when they selected the younger Tomas Chory as starter after Krmencik got injured. I was hoping he'd get loaned back to Brno, but all things considered an interesting opportunity for him.
Cech also announced he will retire which I am sure all of us saw. Rosicky also posted a cryptic instagram post behind a desk saying new opportunity or something similar (cant remember off the top of my head).
Krmencik is still out for several more months with his ligament injury (although it sounds like he is back in light training if he was with Plzen in Spain for winter training), flew to Belgium to meet with Club Brugge. A bit lower than he probably would have been aiming pre-injury but a very good club and league level for him to get bigger league attention if he comes back healthy next season. Plzen already signed his replacement and nobody knows how he will be post injury, so I'm sure they are on board if it moves forward (though will probably have to settle for less than if no injury).
Simic goes on loan to Frosinone. It's going to be tough for him. They are in a relegation spot, and have conceded the most goals in the league. Will definitely get minutes, but it will be a hard job.
Lugano has paid Juventus 2 Million Euros to make Roman Macek's loan permanent. A bit surprised since everything I've seen shows he didn't play much this autumn and 2 Million is not an insignificant amount for an average Swiss club. They must see some potential still, so still a good move for him assuming it means minutes (which he was not going to get at Juventus).
Cardiff have made a loan bid for Schick, some also reporting that there will be a 30 Million buy clause included. I'm a bit undecided on this as Schick has finally shown some signs of life at Roma this month after a really dreadful first half of the season. Cardiff desperately need a striker though following the Sala's tragic death, and he'd get a chance to be the guy instead of Dzeko's backup.
That is interesting. Schick probably would do alright in the premier league, but Cardiff are a bad team. Warnock is a very old school manager so he'd be a target man with little service.
Odd time of year for transfer rumors, but an Italian website is linking Schick with moves to Everton or Leipzig. Everton could be a good move as their is a definite gap between Spain/England and Italy/Germany, but he would definitely need to toughen up. I'm not sure I see any benefit of a Leipzig move unless they say he's planned to be their top striker. That said, Roma now has Ranieri in charge and he seems to rate Schick higher than his predocessor, so not sure it would be the right time to leave (I guess there are few months to find out before the window opens).
Krejci is most likely leaving Bologna this summer, as he has agreed with the club to let him look elsewhere. From the last few times I saw him play, I do think his development leveled off young and he doesn't offer much beyond run (way to often into an offside position) and cross. As a result the pattern of his career at the senior level (Sparta, National Team, and Bologna) has consistently been start fast then be kind of found out by defenses... Shame because at the youth level he was often excellent. While that is critical, it's not to say that he is headed to career in the 2.Liga, he can probably do well enough to play at a mid-table Dutch side or a top Austrian side among options his agent mentioned interest from.
Simply awful news from Turkey this morning. Josef Sural died in an accident involving his team's minibus while returning from a match... He was only 28.
Wow RIP. Might seem dumb, but I loved using his fifa card last year. I had a ton of fun with my all Czech team and he was my star.
Understandable, video games are a big part of fan culture in the modern era. I remember in early FIFA/Football Manager games often using Olympique Lyonnais (a team I still support) for no reason other than I liked the name and crest, and one of my best players was Marc-Vivien Foe who died on the field in the 2003 Confederations Cup. I'm not from Lyon or Cameroon, but I remember this tragedy vividly because of the game connection... Sural is also of course very tied to Zbrojovka Brno, and his younger brother is a defender in our first team.
Incredibly painful news. Was lost for words upon hearing of it. Such a tragic incident that is all the more heartbreaking when he leaves a wife and two young daughters behind. I remember that goal he scored against the Dutch when he skipped past van Dijk to put us ahead 2-0. Crazy to think that was all the way back in 2015.. Least we can hopefully do is dedicate two important qualifying victories to him in June.
It's extra tragic because every update about the accident makes it seem so preventable... Alanyaspor, to their credit, has said they will help out Sural's family financially including honoring the remainder of his contract and they have also retired the #90 jersey that he wore.
I think it is generally agreed that the most likely big move abroad this year is Soucek, most rumors up until now were to Italy and a few random (and at times ridiculous) rumors like Fehnerbahce. The newest and best sounding rumor in my opinion is Werder Bremen. I think his game would suit Germany well and its a good club that already has 2 members of our national team that would help with adjusting. Not sure they will spend the amount Slavia is asking though (officially 10 Million EUR, but I think they would accept any move that Soucek really wants for ~8 Million).
Tomas Kalas has made it clear he wants to leave Chelsea, about 3 years later than he probably should have for the sake of his career prospects. Staying at Bristol may be an option, and apparently apparently Celtic are interested... obviously a famous club but not very exciting as the Scottish league is usually 7-10 spots behind ours in Coefficient rankings (7 behind currently). While no rumors current, Adam Hlozek of Sparta is now the world's 3rd highest valued player born in 2002 according to transfermarkt (I know this means nothing), but since becoming the youngest goal scorer in league history he has kept putting in good performances. Several big academies took an interest last year and if he keeps performing well in the first team I suspect Sparta will be receiving bigger offers by next winter transfer window.
Kalas needs to leave. He just keeps getting loaned out, but with Chelsea's transfer ban, maybe he would get some minutes there.
It's been a fairly dismal season for Czech players in Italy, but the last few weeks there have been an uptick in minutes for Krejci and Jankto. Krejci still has a foot out the door as he asked to be allowed to explore transfer opportunities, but has actually started getting minutes by playing as an attack minded left wing back for Bologna. Jankto seems to be holding the starting spot on the left for Sampdoria for now, but he still isn't quite performing at the level he did for Udinese.