Toppmoeller to Fulham - Does he go after LD?

But was Klaus ever really an LD fan? Olaf?

 

1. Donovan never played for Toppi, so I would doubt that Toppi has any great affection for him.

2. Indeed, considering the way Donovan refused to play for Bayer Leverkusen, Toppi has to ask himself: "Why would I want the headache of trying to recruit him?"

3. And, of course, we certainly have no reason to believe that Bayer is interested in selling him in the first place (and, one could imagine given his weird arrangement with MLS, that it may not be able to sell him or guarantee that he'll play to the team Bayer sell him to, but that's sheer speculation).

 

Watch him play!

 

My comment was not meant to knock Donovan's playing abilities. But, if you had tried to convince a player to come play for you, and he did everything humanly possible to avoid doing so, why would you repeat the ordeal? There are plenty of other talented players that would gladly agree to play for Fulham and Toppi.

 

Well . . . I don't know. Toppi started his head coaching tenure with Bayer on July 1, 2001; at that time, I believe Donovan was playing for the SJ EQs. I suppose it is possible that Toppi was involved in the youth/amateur set-up at Bayer before that and had a hand in recruiting/training/coaching Donovan (although if I had to, I'd guess that Rainer Calmund was the guy who "recruited" Donovan), but I doubt it, because I believe that Toppi was an "outsider" when he was hired to coach Bayer (e.g., he was not promoted from within like Horster this year).

 

I think Donovan was signed when Daum was coaching Leverkusen. Could also be that it was Völler as sporting director who wanted to have him, don't know for sure.

Toppmöller just had 1 1/2 years in Leverkusen. He was asked if he wants him back late last year and he first wanted to talk with Landon. No clue what happened behind the scenery, but it is very probable that Toppi did not promise Landon what he wanted to hear and because of that the loan was extended. Given that, it is very improbable that Toppi wants to have him in case that he signs with Fulham. And as wolfsburgh said, there is no indicator that Bayer wants to sell Landon anyway.

 

Agreed.

Add to that the fact that Fulham has neither a home ground nor Premiership-level support and you've got warning lights going off for any potential signees. Then add to that the fact that their owner has said he's tired of losing money on the club and is rumored to be selling 2 of their 3 best players (Finnan & Malbranque) and red lights, sirens, and a big sign in red letters saying "CLUB IN CRISIS" come to mind.

End of story.

 

Because you didn't ask him to come _play_ for you. You asked him to come sit on the bench for you for some undetermined period of time at which point he may or may not get a chance.

 

Just to add this:

Today Leverkusen fired Coach Hörster and replaced him with Klaus Augenthaler. Don't know if this affects Landon's position. Sure Sanneh had problems with Augenthaler, but it would be too far fetched to draw conclusions for Landon I think.