Mertesacker -> Bremen

German defender Per Mertesacker has completed his move from Hannover 96 to Werder Bremen for a reported 4,7 mil. €. Bremen's Frank Fahrenhorst joined Hannover as part of the deal. Depending on Bremen's success in the next two season Hannover could receive up to 1,5 mil. € more.

Where the hell is Chrissicross?

Interesting.

I also heard that Melzelder is available on the cheap too..

yeah where is chrissi, somebody chase him down and plead with him, and blut is back off hols too and no sign of him either

Werder seem to building a very good team, they will really push Bayern this season. Mertesacker from what I seen had a very repectable World Cup and handled himself well against some of the worlds top players.

The fee is the most interesting part though, only 4.7 for a young German INTERNATIONAL player.

In England you have to pay 9.0 for a young English defender with ZERO caps. (Curtis Davies)

Podolski (The German Rooney) cost only 7.0. For the German game it is good that players are reasonably priced, it means clubs can have a good amount of German players in there line up. This is where it is going wrong in England, the players value is overinflated. I would love to see more English players at Arsenal however only if the price is right.

Werder turned Bayern over 2-0 on the weekend, i think i went for them in the end of season preds, i don´t see bayern as strong as last season with no ballack, whereas werder are looking stronger imho

Yeh, Werder are favourites for the title IMO, when was the last time that Bayern didn't win the league?

think they´ve won it the last 2 years and werder won it the year before that

First of all, the prices in England especially but also in Spain and Italy are completely retarded.

If you count in the extra 1.5 mil. that Bremen might have to pay Hannover then Mertesacker is the most expensive transfer in Bremen's club history at a modest 6.2 million €. That's what Chelsea pays some of their stars so they can warm the bench...for half a season.

Something went very wrong in European football in the last 4 years. Well, at least the Bundesliga is financially "healthy". Guess that means no CL titles for a long time. But everything goes in cycles. And when our time comes it'll be even sweeter because we did it without the help of billionaires, shady real estate deals or shirt sales in China.

BTW, I agree that Bremen are favourites this year. I'd be happy if Bayern finish top 3. Bayern have many young players and will hopefully play a new system that leads to more attractive football. Really good teams have to mature. Maybe this is Bayern's chance to build something fresh and new. Or maybe this season really sucks and we get rid of Magath. That wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.

shady real estate deals ? who ?

------------------WIESE

Owomoyela Mertesacker Naldo Wome/Schulz

---------Frings------------ Baumann

----------Borowski -----------Diego

-----Klose ------------Klasnic


looks not bad

The-Frank-Tavern wrote:shady real estate deals ? who ?

Madrid

Tweedledum wrote:

The-Frank-Tavern wrote:shady real estate deals ? who ?

Madrid

i thought they were the chinese shirt sales mob, i assumed he was digging at three diff clubs

I have a special place in my heart for Real Madrid.

The ironic thing about this transfer is that many Werder fans aren't satisfied with the terms, they think that Werder paid too much (!), because Mertesacker could have left Hannover for just 1.4 million Euros next year due to a stupid clause in his contract. Furthermore, we lost Fahrenhorst in exchange, with him and Naldo we had the best defence in the second half of the last season, conceded less goals than any other club. Merte is still (slightly) injured, and will probably miss the first 1-2 Bundesliga matches.

As far as my personal view on this is concerned, I have no problems with this transfer from the financial perspective. I believe that Merte is one of the greatest talents for the central defence, actually a completely new type of 'modern' defender, still very young and very ambitious, and at this price he still is a real bargain. Nobody could have guaranteed that he would have moved to us next year for cheap.

But Werder does risk something by letting Fahrehorst move to Hannover in exchange. Merte and Naldo will have to gel first, that should take a while - Naldo and Fahrehorst were a stable, albeit not outstanding partnership. Pasanen can replace Fahrehorst well in the first matches, but we may not have enough time to integrate Merte. We want to win the championship, and can't afford to lose points at the beginning of the season. And most importantly, we need a stable defence in the Champions League.

Don't get me wrong, Mertesacker is definitely an improvement, he will help us greatly in the medium-term, especially in the Champions League. But in the short term, we are taking a risk.
Still, I'm glad that the transfer is finally done. Our squad, especially the first XI, looks very promising. I believe that this will be our first XI for the next season:

Code:


-----------Wiese------------
Fritz-Mertesacker-Naldo-Wome
----------Baumann-----------
--Frings----------Borowski--
-----------Diego------------
----Klose--------Klasnic----

Fritz vs. Owomoyela (RB), Wome vs. Schulz (LB) and Klasnic vs. Zidan (forward) - will be interesting to see how they will compete for the first XI, and who will win in the end.

Thomas Schaaf said that we will try to be more flexible tactically next season, after we lost Micoud, who is one of the very few classical playmakers left. Depending on the opposition, we might play in a 4-2-2-2 formation instead of the typical Werder diamond 4-4-2, which would look like this:

Code:


-----------Wiese------------
Fritz-Mertesacker-Naldo-Wome
----Frings-------Baumann----
-Diego-------------Borowski-
----Klose--------Klasnic----

Gr8 signing ,he can be a rock in the defence.
Hannover 96 will also be happy with the deal money plus Fahrenhorst.

@blutgraetsche
Werder for the title then or you are expecting more signings.

I don't expect more signings. We have a strong first XI, and for the first time in ages we have a lot of depth in the squad as well. Compared to the last few seasons, even the 2004 championship winning one, we can compensate losses of our key players much better now. Quite a few players in the squad are competing for the first XI. Only Bayern, as usual, is in a similar position IMHO. This fact is very important, because we will have to do well in three competitions simultaneously (Bundesliga, Pokal and Champions League).

So yes, I expect us to win this year, we have a great chance to do so. Minimum goal should be place 3 (Champions League qualification) with this squad.

The title race is going to be interesting this year.

Cesc-Fab wrote:
The fee is the most interesting part though, only 4.7 for a young German INTERNATIONAL player.

Well, it's not only 4.7 million. You have to add the transfer fee for Frank Fahrenhorst, which I think is about 2.5 million. Then we have to pay up to 1.5 million extra if Bremen reaches the CL or if Werder Bremen wins the German Championship and apart from that also 0.5 million severance pay for Fahrenhorst. So Werder Bremen have to pay up to about 4.7+2.5+1.5+.05=9.2 Million Euro for Mertesacker. When you consider Werder's biggest transfer ever was Diego for about 6.3 Million Euro, you can imagine how expensive he was for a club like Bremen...but nevertheless I'm very happy he plays for Bremen now...

But I'm also a bit unhappy about the fact Frank Fahrenhorst had to leave Werder Bremen...