Looks like Barak is moving to Fiorentina, reports are that it is a done deal. A step-up in terms of club prestige within Serie A, but I'm not sure how I see him in a 4-3-3. His pace/work-rate always seem to far lag his skill.
The good news is that Hlozek seems to be coming alive at Leverkusen this week, turning what were previously individual skill moments into actual assists (2 in the last 3 matches) and several chances created. The bad news is he is doing it as the central forward while Schick is recovering from a knock and overall Leverkusen are still playing with a complete and utter lack of confidence.
Feyenoord are reportedly interested in Ladislav Krejci (the younger one of course), either looking past his recent injury issues or seeing them as a potential bargain opportunity. If he does get healthy, I love everything about this potential move.
I'm still hoping Provod will find his old form. Krejci is one to watch for the future. I think he can turn into a decent player. Kral seems to be playing for Schalke again which is nice, but Schalke really suck and look like they can or will be relegated.
Hlozek and Bayer just had a potentially season changing match as they are 5-0 up on Union Berlin. Hlozek netted his first goal (in style no less), and also contributed an assist.
Hlozek and Cerny have both come back from winter break in good form. Hlozek has 2 goals and 2 assists in his last 4 starts and has been a part of Bayer's turnaround after a tragic start to the season (which he was also part of). Cerny has 3 goals and an assist of the same period, and most importantly seems to be fully 90 minutes fit as in the fall he still seemed a bit in need of match conditioning.
The first half rumor of Jurasek leaving Slavia is a link to Benfica, as Trpisovsky made an offhand comment about clubs starting to show interest then a more specific comment "that he could play with Bah next year" (Alexander Bah, the right back Slavia sold them a year ago).
Die Wölfe verpflichten den tschechischen Nationalspieler Vaclav Cerny! 🐺🔥Der 25-Jährige kommt vom FC Twente Enschede, wird bei den Grün-Weißen mit der Nummer 7⃣ auflaufen und hat einen Vierjahresvertrag unterzeichnet.Willkommen beim VfL, Vaclav!#VfLWolfsburg pic.twitter.com/5RBqwQzazN— VfL Wolfsburg (@VfL_Wolfsburg) June 23, 2023 Cerny to Wolfsburg is done. I hope he continues to stay injury free, and am still angry he didn't start or at least get significant minutes in the sleep-fest against Moldova.
David Jurasek completed his undisputed breakout player of the season with a 14 Million Euro move to Benfica in Portugal. They outbid Wolfsburg and Nice, and I think Benfica is probably a good move at this stage of his career.
With the exception of Jurasek's move to Portugal it seems like Germany is the place to be this summer. Tomas Cvancara moved from Sparta to Borussia Monchengladbach, which feels like about the right move after his great season last year. 10.5 Million Euro fee, I think Sparta will feel pretty good about too. Matej Kovar, after some successful loan spells has been sold (with a buyback clause) by Manchester United to Bayer Leverkusen, where he joins Schick and Hlozek. Kovar really has probably move up to our heir apparent keeper since the depth we enjoyed in previous cycles have been ravaged by age, injury and poor form.
Cvancara is really in form right now. 2 goals and very involved in his Bundesliga debut, including a high pressure penalty that Sparta could have used in champions league. He also had a big cup debut, but that was against a lower league side so people were cautious to read much into it. Considering how many hyped prospects have gone to Germany recently and struggled with confidence refreshing to see him adapting.
Ondrej Lingr to Feyenoord move looks to be progressing quickly, and Slavia have supposedly accepted a transfer fee offer (3 Million the rumor, if it seems low Lingr is in his last year of contract and clearly wants to try abroad as he is 24 and approachig his prime years). I think a good move all around. A less high profilem ove happening right now is Adam Gabriel (Sparta but on loan at Hradec) going to Danish side FC Midtjylland. Gabriel has a lot of good qualities, but there isn't a spot for him on a European competitive Czech side, so I think taking the smart choice of going to a strong club in a league of similar quality at a young age.
Vaclik's journeyman phase is now in full swing, and he's signed with the MLS side New England Revolution who just sold their young keeper to Chelsea.
This has to be one of the busiest summer transfer windows I can recall in recent memory. In summary: Jurasek (Benfica) Cerny (Wolfsburg) Cvancara (Monchengladbach) Kovar (Leverkusen) Kral (Union Berlin) Lingr (Feyenoord) *loan moves Vaclik (New England) Kalas (Schalke) Gabriel (Midtjylland) Suddenly our national team appears much stronger on paper with those first few transfers listed. An important club season ahead with the Euros already next summer. I like that move for Vaclik. A cool destination to add to what’s been a very respectable career for him. I think he still has a role to play at the international level for now. On the other hand, I think it’s time to move on from Kalas entirely at this point, but we know Silhavy usually keeps the door open far too long.
Saw Cvancara get a great goal+assist in 45 minutes of work today. He apparently wasn't full match fit, but was part of a halftime sub that changed the match around. He did miss a penalty that he earned. Was disappointed his form didn't carry over to the national team, but it's hard to judge performances when we are so tactically stale.
Lingr scored his first goal for Feyenoord over the weekend and then followed up by making his Champions League debut. I don’t expect him to become a starter just yet, but I think he’s well suited to be an impact sub anyways and can still have a fine career in that role.
Jurasek was back on the bench for Benfica in their Champions League match yesterday, so he appears to have fully recovered ahead of the October break. I believe Schick is close to returning to action sometime in October, but I doubt he’ll be called up and declared fit in time. In that case, I do hope it’s Cvancara playing centrally and not out wide (Priske can make it work, Silhavy can’t).
I was curious about Czechs abroad who are playing outside of Europe. Mexico - Daniel Villaseca (U17 international) is currently with Guadalajara U23 in the Mexican 2nd tier. He was previously in the Dukla youth system. Iraq - Jakub Yunis is with Erbil South Korea - Tomás Petrásek is with Jeonbuk Motors. He has 3 caps for the Czech Republic. Indonesia - Ondřej Kúdela is with Persija Jakarta. Canada - Tomas Hasal is with Vancouver Whitecaps USA - Tomáš Vaclík is with New England Revolution - Tomáš Ostrák is with St Louis SC
I think that I knew of most of these players except Villaseca and Hasal Didn't realize the Yunis actually went to Iraq (he's half-Iraqi), he was a squad rotation player for Sigma Olomouc several years. Big target guy that seemingly never scored goals. Michal Krmencik was also at Persija Jakarta for a season but is now in Cyprus apparently. Never heard of Hasal and in general he would be considered Canadian with Czech parents unless he got citizenship. To add. I'm fairly sure Filip Nguyen is playing in Vietnam now, he never earned a cap but was one of our alternate keeper options for a while. edit: Actually several Vietnamese Czechs play there, Mac Hong Quan (former Sparta prospect, actually a highly rated youth player that never made the leap), Tony Le (former Bohemians prospect), Luong Nguyen Bao. I sort of remember reading some years back that the Vietnamese national team was scouting the Czech league system for prospects among the local diaspora.
Martin Vitik is reportedly on the shortlist of Napoli who are searching for a central defender this window... I prefer Ajax of the teams that have. shown interest, and would rather he move in the summer.
I also hope Vitik remains in Sparta for the time being. Unless Napoli offer an absurd amount, I think Sparta are best to keep him for now. They genuinely need him for the title race this year and still have the Europa League playoffs too. Plus his value will skyrocket if he starts for us at the Euros this summer.
Other potential transfers to watch out for this window: – Zima and his agent are exploring options of a potential move. Injuries haven’t helped him this year, but he doesn’t appear to be in the current plans in Turin. – Jurasek could already be loaned out to Lens after having a rough start to his Benfica career. The reviews of him have not been particularly good and he was shockingly bad in the October qualifiers. – Pavlenka will almost certainly finish at Werder Bremen after this season (contract ends this summer), but having now lost his starting spot, he may look to leave earlier with the Euros in mind. Hopefully all three can find new teams this window, especially the first two who are still young and somewhat raw.
Vaclik has been bought out by New England and is now a free agent, again. This short spell in America was nothing but a disaster from start to finish and according to Vaclik, 2023 was the worst year of his career. Unfortunately, he joined the club at an awkward time and apparently was shunned by their new goalkeeping coach. A really unusual situation and rather unprofessional on their part. I think he has enough international pedigree to remain abroad if he chooses to and still has an outside shot of making the Euros if plays regularly this spring. We’ve definitely regressed at the goalkeeper position these past few years, although we do have a few young talents in the pipeline.
Appears Jurasek will be loaned out to Hoffenheim for the remainder of the season. A good move where he’ll play in a better league, albeit a weaker team, but get to play in a wingback role in their system which is probably more suitable for him. Worth mentioning that’ll he join forces with former international Kaderabek, who’s been in the news recently about the possibility of coming out of retirement for the Euros. The chances are rather slim (the player himself already stood by his decision), but I expect Hasek will reach out to him anyways. I would happily welcome him back to the team for the tournament.
It appears that Zima will be going on loan as well, also to Germany, but to either Hamburg or Hertha Berlin in the second division. Reports suggest that Hamburg is the more likely team to sign him. Not exactly ideal, but he desperately needs playing time right now and Hamburg are at least a strong candidate to finally return to the Bundesliga. As a short-term solution, I think it’s an okay move, but there’s still reason to be concerned with the direction his career has gone in the past two seasons.