Yesterday Sanneh was a topic in the weekly two hour soccer discussion show “Doppelpass” on German Sports Television DSF. Taking part in this round were: Rudolph Brückner (Moderator) Karlheinz Wild (Journalist, kicker, Munich) Jörg Althoff (Journalist, Sport Bild) Ralf Köttker (Journalist, Die Welt, Berlin) Udo Lattek (Fomer Star Coach) Edgar Geenen (GM 1.FC Nürnberg) That’s the full content of the Sanneh related matters. Brückner: Let’s talk about Tony Sanneh. Everybody thought “Premier League? Why doesn’t he go there?” Geenen: I was asking myself the same. Mainly because he had bigger trouble before the winter break – he wasn’t accepted that much by the attendance – despite of a good WC, but he couldn’t show these performances for us -, there was some conflict with a fan that had to be cleared by the police, and finally he not only told us but also several journalists that he would love to go to the island. Tony said “okay, if it was an offer of Manchester United, I’d immediately go”. Brückner: But are you maybe treating him wrong? I just read that he said “I’m no ware, they can’t sell me anywhere they want”? Althoff: I don’t know. You shouldn’t rate such sentences too high. If Nürnberg wanted to keep him and he had found another club, e.g. Manchester United, then he would have forced the club to an immediate decision and said “I got a million offer from Manchester United, let me go”. That’s the business that players are bought and sold. I think Sanneh’s problem was that West Bromwich Albion surely is no big address and they did not want to pay the money he was expected to earn in the Premier League. Brückner: And now you got to continue paying him. As top earner it would have been good for your financially weak club to… Geenen: That’s simple for a player to say “we are no ware”. One and a half years ago we were confronted with Blackburn Rovers interest for Nisse Johansson and we also could agree. And when a player gets an offer from a club he says “I agreed with this club, that’s my big sportive chance” or “I’m 29 or 30, that’s my last big contract” – then you are in a conflict as well. With Tony it was that we were always in a dialogue. He was in the USA over Christmas and we were talking to him and his agents - he hired several agents, who maybe were not always on the same level of information. We would never want to sell a player, for whom it doesn’t make sense. Brückner: But the effect to the public is odd. It looks like Sanneh would sit out his contract in Nürnberg now. Wild: Now he’s injured and obviously not only slightly. Geenen: Well, that’s not my fault. Wild: I’m not claiming that. But he’s injured, a not pleasant back problem that might last longer. What from my perspective as viewer was not good was that the Sanneh matter took more than half a year. At some point you got to say “either go now” or “okay, you’ll stay and we’ll support you”. Nürnberg’s attendance is an attendance that is known for supporting the own players, but this discussion was not helping Sanneh – I don’t want to protect him, for God’s sake, these gentlemen are crying very fast, but the discussion was too long. Brückner: You may not forget one thing: the WC was good, then he’s returning to you and you get the impressions that he doesn’t want to play for you, that it’s not fitting. Geenen: Tony really was injured, you can’t make this reproach to him. He always tries to show his performances. Other players taking part in the WC had the same problem. It’s surely difficult to join the team without major preparation for the season, he often was injured and played for the team despite of that. The way you were talking – that’s no reproach – can only be done by people, who are not confronted with the problems of the club. We have a very tensed financial situation. If we had the millions on a bank account, then I would agree and would have said “that’s it now – he didn’t leave after the WC, so now he has to stay”. What other possibilities did we have? We didn’t want to sell players the coach can’t do without regarding our current sportive situation. It had to be a player, who brings us money on the one hand, and on the other hand doesn’t weaken our team too much. That’s why only a journalist can come to this conclusion. Wild: No, no, Mr. Geenen. It’s about market value of a player. If someone is treated like Mr Sanneh in the media, then he’s losing his value. I believe that Nürnberg can’t earn lots of money with such a player. It’s not that we’re making ourselves an easy job with evaluating that, but if you want to sell a player, you got to treat him differently in the public. To the public Sanneh appeared like some junk ware, and then I can understand that the people don’t want him anymore. Althoff: We’re talking about a complete transfer. I thought you wanted to loan him for half a year. Geenen: After the WC there were one, two offers from England we were dealing with… Brückner: Why didn’t it work back then? Geenen: Often it is that you don’t just watch one, but two or three other players, and the clubs decided differently. Lattek: Did he maybe demand too much money? Geenen: No… Lattek: Can we reduce it to the point that you didn’t want to pay the money he earns and that he can’t earn the money he’s earning in Nürnberg in another club? Geenen: No, it wasn’t about that. Lattek: I can’t hear it if a player says “I want to learn a different culture, I want to change in a sportive way” – in the end it is all about money. Geenen: Sure. I don’t think it failed because of our demands. We spoke about it with Tony and it was his desire to go to England. We didn’t offer him in the public, West Bromwich Albion asked us. We also would have loaned him for half a year, we would have taken him back after the season. We all were convinced that it would have been the best for Tony. Now he’s injured, can’t help us in the championship, but sometimes I think that the problems of the club are not considered. Brückner: But the impression stays that the player wanted to go and did not make it – for what reason ever. Now the player is there – independent of his injury – costs money and at the same time he’s a type of which the team says “he doesn’t want to stay with us” when he returns to the team. Is this a problem or doesn’t it matter at all? Lattek: No, that of course matters. That’s depending on the personality of the player how he presents himself in the training, whether the team accepts him and thinks “that’s a good player, he wants to play with us” or he’s just fulfilling his duties. Brückner: The stupid thing is that something failed, of which both parties wanted that it succeeds. That’s the worst thing that could happen. Geenen: Absolutely right. For me a correct evaluation of the reasons why it failed is decisive. If I’m just evaluating “I would have done that, it would have been in the interest of the player”… Brückner: Why did the transfer fail? Did he worry to relegate in England? Geenen: I think that the address or the salary was not right – West Bromwich is on a relegation rank. My personal opinion is that the transfer would have been completed if they had fulfilled Tony’s demands, even if they had three points less. Köttker: I think the keyword ‘salary’ is the right one. I enjoyed Tony Sanneh at Hertha. He’s a great athlete, with playing soccer he had problems sometimes – and I think he exactly knows that he currently has a contract that gives him the financially best for his possibilities. Lattek: Why should he sign a contract for less money? Köttker: Exactly. Brückner: We can sum up that it’s good for Tony, but bad for 1.FC Nürnberg… Sanneh was part of another statement, in which the topic basically was Cacau, who leaves to Stuttgart as free agent at the end of the season. Geenen: We also extended contracts during this week and I think you don’t do a better job regarding the way of acting when signing players than in other contract negotiations. Sometimes there are things you can’t influence. Before Cacau came to the club as amateur player, we wanted to sign him longer. Brückner: Why didn’t it work? Geenen: Simply, we wanted to give him a two year contract plus two year option – as any amateur with perspective to make it to the pro team… The player came from D4 and they refused this contract, so that we could only sign a 1+1 contract. Then he had his debut in Leverkusen with two goals, and scored six goals in his first three games – already then we tried to extend the contract and made an offer we now could not even fulfil after the Kirch crisis. You can always talk about money, but there are things I would always refuse to sign, e.g. a not performance related contract, in which the player earns 80 to 90% even if he doesn’t play – Tony Sanneh e.g. just earns the reported sum if he’s playing 30 to 34 games in a season, otherwise it is just a part of it. The players need to sign performance related contracts and have to be aware to play in a relegation endangered club – if a player even is profiting from a relegation by becoming a free agent, then I got to say that this can’t be done with me. Even a buyout option is the beginning of the end. I rather get slapped in the public for not extending contracts than make the fans celebrate me for signing contract, but afterwards having a relegated club without players.
Good to see he is getting some support outside of the club, at least someone was asking the tough questions.
I never understood what the big deal or confusion was. Tony played hurt for Nurnburg, and so didn't do particularly well. WBA inquired about him, but didn't meet his wage demands. So why should he go to a lesser club and take less money? Duh.
Thanks for this. My favorite part: "West Bromwich Albion is surely no big address." Maybe with a a street, apartment number and postal code it would have been bigger.....
Thanks Olaf for your interesting and informative post. I have been a great fan of Cacau ever since I saw him play in Columbus, OH for Nurnberg last year. He has such raw talent and obviously has great speed as well. He is definitely going to be a great player unless injuries hold him back in some way. I was unaware he is headed to Stuttgart until now, but as a Stuttgart fan I am greatly pleased. Thanks again Olaf.
Interesting stuff. Basically saying that perception is reality, and the perception of Sanneh in the German media is so bad that his real transfer price is dropping. Hang tough, Tony.
olaf, great work. I learned alot, and want to emphasize what a valued member of this board you are. Man, I did not know that. I had no idea. To an American, it sounds very, very, very strange for a player's pay to get cut if he can't play because of injury. Even in the NFL, where the owners have completely overpowered the players in their collective bargaining, they don't do that. How standard is this? Most players in Germany? Most players in Europe? What?
That was a great transcription. Thanks! Although I was a little surprised that Lupica didn't interupt a couple of times to tell them all why they are wrong
Re: Re: Sanneh-Matter discussed on TV Sure you do. You hear this all the time. They're called "incentive clauses". The difference may be in how the contract is reported in the media. Around here, it tends to be "Contract of $1 million, with incentives that could double the contract" or similar. So over there, maybe they say, "well he's making $2 million", and don't bother to report the fact that it's incentive-laden. Or "performance-driven". It's all spin. But it's not uncommon in American sports at all. Don't think of it as a "pay cut". Think of it as "failing to achieve certain incentives".
IMAGINE IF, WBA would have signed Sanneh paying a transfer fee, and agree to his sallary demand, then have him on injured list, how stupid is that . aka Metrostars with Balboa. No question Nuremberg would be laughing now. It is a sad situation for both here, I just wish Sanneh would have played to everyones expectations, or at least look like he was giving 110%, but if he was injured and forced to play, then i don't know.
Thanks Olaf. Question about this show "Doppelpass"- it sounds like this is a panel of Media reporters questioning Geneen.Is this correct?How long was this discussion?Is this a regular part of the weekly show,if so,do they have a wide variety of players,managers,including from big clubs? I ask because I can't imagine many EPL managers coming on for such an extended discussion with reporters (who were being pretty tough) without eventually blowing up and storming off.If Bundesliga managers come on for this level of grilling,I have to respect them a lot.
Doppelpass is on DSF – Deutsches Sport-Fensehen – every Sunday. It’s a two-hour show featuring a moderator, a panel of journalists and one special guest – usually a coach or general manager – who stays for the whole show. They’re all pretty decent to each other and show the necessary respect. It’s actually quite informal. They also usually get call-ins from other important soccer personalities, e.g. Reiner Calmund or Uli Hoeness (two regulars). They’ll discuss the weekend’s action and overall situation.
The Sanneh part of the discussion was about 5 to 7 minutes I think. It's not that the journalists are aiming to provoke a GM or somebody else. The show is on every Sunday morning live from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and they simply discuss current topics of the Saturday games, the current situations in the clubs and of course focus to a large extent on the club of the guest. The show (has excellent ratings for a minor nationwide channel btw) is always the same moderator and always Udo Lattek as expert. They are joined by three sports journalists, almost always one of kicker and Sport Bild. One guest is always from Bundesliga, either coach or management. If Lattek is ill or can't come, then there's another expert, which is always a former player now working for the media (like Thomas Helmer or Michael Schulz). The range of people coming from the clubs is quite big, e.g. Uli and Dieter Hoeneß, Franz Beckenbauer, Michael Meier, Klaus Allofs, Felix Magath, Rudi Assauer, etc. (always one per week). In actual topics they sometimes also call others live in the show. Partially it's indeed coming to hot discussions, I remember Uli Hoeneß with an outraged phone call inmidst of the Daum drug discussion; or Uli Hoeneß in the show in an intense debate on moral with Udo Lattek (who claimed that Hoeneß has a double-moral); or a journalist provoking holy Franz Beckenbauer all the time.
Wow,sounds like a great show,the closest comparison I can make over here is some of Hockey Night in Canada's intermissions and post-game shows.