Jaroslav Plasil is most likely retiring after 10 years with Bordeaux, receiving a big sendoff from the club. He may stay with the club in a non-playing role.
Man I forgot about Plasil. One of our most underrated players from years ago. I really loved watching him play.
Much of the commentary actually highlighted how much national team fans were critical of Plasil compared to his reputation at the club level. I was definitely critical at times too, especially around 2012 because he was a complete disaster at defensive midfield... although that leads to an important point in defense of Plasil's national team career, that he was frequently played out of position (Brueckner especially seemed obsessed with making him a winger). His club career was very good though, and 10 years with a single club is rare these days.
Plasil was never a DM. I remember his at LM which never really worked. He was always a slow player, but he had two great feet which made him desirable. He was a box to box mid.
Vladimir Coufal seems to be closing in on a move to Freiburg. He confirmed the offer and that at his age he would take the opportunity to play in Germany. Report is 3 Million Euros with another 3 Million in potential bonuses, which I think would be enough for Slavia to sell considering its probably more than Coufal is worth depending on the bonus conditions. They already seem to have a replacement lined-up with Holes from Jablonec.
A German media source says Koln has submitted an offer for Soucek, while they don't specifically say amount it does refer to Soucek as 10 Million Euro valued player. Somewhat surprised that a newly promoted team would even have that much to offer.Werder Bremen are also reportedly still very interested as well, but haven't submitted an offer.
A likely summer move that seems to be getting no attention in Czech media circles is Vaclav Cerny from Ajax -> Other Eredivisie club (most tangible rumor right now is Utrecht). Cerny did fairly well (10 goals and 12 assists in 22 matches) in the Dutch 2nd division after coming back from his ligament injury, but is no longer considered a first team prospect at Ajax. Not sure what his potential is at this point as there were some signs even before his injury that he was stagnating, but still only 21.
Needs consistent minutes and he will get better. Even if he moves to another club in the Eredivisie, that would be a good move for him.
Stefan Simic is moving to Hajduk Split in search of first team football after stalling at Milan the last few seasons (partly to injury)... I realize he is of Balkan ancestry and a fan of that club, but it would have made more sense to go to Czech team.
Yea that is a strange transfer. Not like the croatian league is much better than ours. The pay also is not any better. Must want to be near the beach.
Yeah its just a move without any ambition, with the only motivation being a childhood supporting the club. Croatian League is better than in the past but is still a couple of spots behind us (they are #15, we're #13), and would be even more so if you took out Dinamo Zagreb who have accounted for most of their rise. His family is from the region so he presumably speaks the language and knows the culture somewhat so shouldn't be too rough of an adjustment on that level at least.
It sounds like Kalas has finally found a real home as several reports saying Bristol and Chelsea have reached an agreement for a permanent transfer. Glad he will finally have some consistency after bouncing around his whole career. Also reports that Dortmund and Marseilles are interested in Schick, if he can move to Dortmund he'd actually be falling upward a bit from Roma as Bundesliga is fair bit better than Serie A at the moment. Not sure I see Schick in Ligue 1, but certainly a solid club. Also Tomas Hajek, who rarely even managed an appeance on the Plzen bench much of last season has apparently transferred to Dutch side Vitesse in a random transfer.
Dortmund would be a great move for Schick. I think he would suit the German league a little better than Italy too.
Mateju has permanently joined Brescia from Brighton. Don't think he really had much of a future with Brighton in what was a strange move to begin with anyways. This is a good step for him. Appears Cerny is close to joining Utrecht. I'm afraid he'll never quite meet the expectations he created a few years ago, but he certainly still has room to develop. The Simic transfer was odd I must say. From what I remember seeing of him at the U21 Euros in 2017, his ceiling is much higher than the Croatian league, but at least he can stand out and hopefully will make a wiser move to a better league in the future. Those three would be very nice depth options for the national team.
Suchy signed with FC Augsburg. He will finally play in the top 3 league, but that is not a good team.
Augsburg conceded a lot of goals. If Suchy can help them concede a little less, they should hopefully stay in the bundesliga. Not a bad signing for Suchy. If he does alright there and they stay up, I'm sure he might get a chance at another bundesliga club. BUT, if he doesn't cut it, Suchy will likely be signing for a Czech team in 1-2 years.
He's 31 so I doubt he'll move up unless he has a good season but Augsburg still get relegated. Still there is some unique development opportunities that come from being a team that is below the average of its competition. At Basel and even to some degree Spartak, his team likely spent most matches on the front foot.
While my main focus is on Plzen - Olympiacos, I did just see a not the Michal Sadilek is starting for PSV as they begin champions league qualifying against Basel.
Vaclav Cerny will start for Utrecht in their Europa League qualification. Be interesting to see how he does this season after so many pauses in his career the last couple of years. In more Sadilek news, he signed an extension with a raise at PSV, so he continues to be in their plans.
Slavia and Brescia are in advanced negotiations about a transfer of Zmrhal to Italy. Considering how many options Slavia has on the wings and how limited Zmrhal is this is seems like a win-win.
Not sure how Brescia wins in that deal, Zmrhal works hard and scores one great goal every 6 months, but in terms of actual talent is probably our 4th best winger. Can't see him as good enough for Italy. Good luck to him though.
I sort of doubt Brescia are either... they are newly promoted and I believe surviving the first year in top flight is quite rare in Italy.
I think Zmrhal would be fine for the bottom half of the italian league, but I don't watch Slavia enough to know how good he really is. Bottom half of the italian league is pretty bad to be fair. You don't have to be that great to make it. Zmrhal might suit the slower italian playing style and focus on defense.