Question. Wolfsburg is making all these big moves, but how are they going to justify this with financial fair play? Is it possible they will incur fines? Restrictions will be even stricter next year than they were this year.
PSG have spent 50M on David Luiz while still chasing Greizmann, or Hazard as well as Pogba. Citeh are still chasing everyone under the sun. FFP is only a real concern if you come from a small league and are a small team.
All of the Uchida stories all over the place in the last day or two got me thinking...will we eventually reach a point where it is easier to just say which guys on this club AREN"T rumored to be off to Arsenal?
I think in your second point here you are illustrating what makes Gladbach so dangerous, they're not just doing a great job of picking guys up for cheap, they've got arguably the top coach in the BuLi, and that is a big factor. Plus the don't have the same debt issues as you guys have been dealing with, although they also don't have the same size stadium or sponsorship deal. So they are very different from where you guys have been. I also think they've bought brilliantly this window and if they cap it off with Schar and one more quality attacking player they'll be in a really good place to realistically shoot for a CL spot so long as injuries don't decimate their depth leading europa to drain them. As for you guys I agree that Keller likely won't be, although his use of Boateng, first as the false nine ahead of Meyer, and then in a linking 8 role, inspire some hope. That's also why I think you guys will benefit greatly from upgrading him to Tuchel if that happens next summer. I still think moving towards a 4-4-2 would be a mistake for you, even if Keller isn't going to innovate much since it is a step back for you. As for Jung and Schwegler that was a separate point that for some reason I wrote up in the same paragraph, upgrading Uchida and Neu to Jung and Schwegler at those prices would've been wonderful...and if you also moved to a strikerless plan B rather than a 4-4-2 the depth up front would be golden as well and no more buys would be needed.
PSG was fined $82m by UEFA and limited to 21 squad players for next years CL for violating FFP. Man City received the same punishment.
And it's doing ******** all to curb their spending. In fact I've read speculation that the inflated buying price on Luiz is purely so that they can also buy Hazard without violating the 60M per player cap that they supposedly have to deal with. Which would be a nice iteration on the monaco transfers of Moutinho and Rodriguez, although there it was a rival of the selling club who were having the finger stuck in their face, here it would be UEFA itself.
I'll believe that when I see it. Barca were supposed to have a transfer ban to. As long as it's just fines and paperwork annoyances I believe punishment will be handed down, but once it gets beyond that...well we'll see but I doubt very much we see UEFA acting against the big money clubs who can afford to hand over fat fine checks while also putting a lot of other money into their organization.
Barcelona weren't punish for FFP. They were punished for violating rules regarding U18 players. That's besides the point. I doubt VW will be happy paying 10s of millions in fines. On players? Sure, but not on fines.
VW. Wolfs will be increasing their income as well. They are not spending like PSG. Besides FFP allows certain losses excluding stadium and youth development investment. PSG, etc just flooded the market with too much money. Wolfs are doing it smartly. They spend 40M odd last season and have got a couple of cheap buys this season. I think they will be looking to spend 40-50M per season and buy 2 Top Quality Young Player at a bargain price like with De Bruyne. Their incomes will be increasing. 5th and 15th odd have TV money which will increase. They will play EL and are already getting more visibility which is likely to contribute to their match-day income as well. As long as they limit losses to around 20-25M per season, they should be okay. Next season they might get CHL Football which gives around say 25M odd extra season. If they get into CHL they will be difficult beast to contain. They are 1 CM, 1 ST, 1 GK away from pushing Schalke-Dortmund. They will get a couple of more good buys this season like De Bruyne Gustavo since they have already got Hunt and Rudy on the cheap Edit - I meant Jung not Rudy
Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't Barcas punishment just postponed due to their appeal? If CAS or whoever sides with FIFA Barca's punishment will come into effect, doesn't it? It is difficult to say anything about Wolfsburg's finances. German clubs are notoriously intransparent but most of them have at least to open their books to their members. Wolfsburg's (and Leverkusen's) finances are just buried in VW's (and Bayer's) financial statements and reports. But I can't see them spending 40-50m every year on player aquisitions if FFP works close to advertised. They get fewer TV money than Dortmund, Bayern and Schalke. Far fewer matchday and merchandising revenues and which won't come close no matter what they do. Their only advantage is sponsoring, because VW pumps up that budget but Dortmund and Schalke get 40-50m here, too. They have to massively overpay players to sign them. Basically all the money VW pumps into them so far is needed to just close the wage gap to Schalke and Dortmund, not even talking about Bayern who are on a completely different level. VW would have to give an additional 50m per year for that transfer budget. Don't know how much the stadium will help them. It wasn't all that expensive and has been built a couple of years ago. Investement into the youth setup shouldn't be all that much, maybe 10m if they really, really splurge. Schalke's youth budget, I think, is more like 3-4m, granted Barca's is 20m. Wolfsburg main advantage is the financial stability compared to Schalke and Dortmund. It doesn't matter if they qualify for the CL they can maintain their spending. Schalke and Dortmund are highly depended on their success on the football field. As long as they are successfull they are able to compete with Wolfsburg but woe if they fall off especially for an extended period. Just look at HSV to see what happens then.
But Wolsfburg is so far behind Schalke and Dortmund in the revenue department. Schalke and Dortmund hover around the 200 million euro range for revenue, which is about 100 million more than the next highest teams. VW, as is, must be contributing 50 million euros a year in addition to the value of the sponsorship just to pay the wages. They can't sustain transfer spending without seriously violating FFP and potentially destroying their chances at CL football. I don't think they're being smart at all. I think they're being overconfident. I think they see the grip of FFP tightening around Europe and they want to get some skin in the game and grow their revenue before it's too late. However, it already is too late. It will take a decade of success to reach the revenue range of Schalke and Dortmund, and by then FFP regulations will be in full force.
No, it won't take them a decade, it would take decades. Just look how successful Leverkusen has been in building a fanbase. It is a sloooooooooow process. Leverkusen has basically been the best team in the area for the last 20 years, still Cologne, Gladbach and even Düsseldorf, despite wasting years and years in the abyss of the German league system, are easily bigger draws than Bayer. Wolfsburg has a similar problem. Maybe less competition (only Braunschweig and Hannover) but also a far smaller population base.
All true. So Chandler replaces Jung at Frankfurt. Not huge news, since he was never a serious candidate to replace Uchida.
I guess my cynicism on the topic of FFP is just stronger than you guys as I have no expectations of it saving us from VFL.
It's not that I put much stock into FFP. There are too many loopholes for it to reasonably work. But even without the loopholes it will take quite some effort of Wolfsburg and Leipzig to close the gap to Schalke and Dortmund. We're no longer in the 90s when putting 10m per year into the club changed everything. Bascially it is at the moment a race for Schalke and Dortmund to make the financial gap so big that even VW wouldn't be willing to close it. Don't know if that is possible.
It sounds like we may be selling Hofmann, possibly with a buy-back clause. Kaiserslautern has been mentioned. Unfortunately, I haven't seen a worthy source yet.
I've read similar stories. Hamburg was also mentioned as a possible destination. Hofmann needs playing time above everything else. Don't think he will get that with Huntelaar and Szalai in front of him in the pecking order. It is also not sure if Hofmann really has the talent to play at the highest level. His progress so far was fueled more by his work ethic than by any natural gifts.
Hofmann to Kaiserslautern looks like it's done. http://www.sportal.de/philipp-hofma...zum-1-fc-kaiserslautern-1-2014060538570500000 Undisclosed fee. I'd guess it was around 1.5 million, but who knows.
Seems fair. We had to pay a penalty to get him back from Ingolstadt, so you figure the fee was larger than whatever the penalty was. I don't think we'll ever use the buy back option, but you never know.
http://www.ftbpro.com/de/meldungen/...mäniens-jüngster-nationalspieler-aller-zeiten 3 million for a player that will probably be playing with the U19s to start off? Wow.