Houllier to Wolfsburg/ McLaren to HSV

wow

according to the Daily Mail St Pauli are interested in signing

Sol Campbell

THAT is exactly the kind of signing that would help SPREAD the word

Isn't St. Pauli already the fav german club of most english people?

But i know what you mean

THIS is from 606

""
I think our Steve is going to have a tough time in Germany, even after 2 years he does not speak a word of Dutch ( in interviews anyway ) but he was fortunate because most Dutch people speak English,

in Germany however
most people DO NOT or WILL NOT speak English,

Anyway good luck to him, he will need it in the Bundesliga
""

It could be worse tbf

Have you ever been asked by an american, if there is electricity in Germany/europe and trying to explain to you how a vacuum cleaner works?

Ich nix verstehen. Türk müsün?

I seriously wonder if Englishmen ever visit this country. They could probably tell you the colour of the underwear of Eva Braun on her last days in Hitler's bunker, but present day Germany seems to be totally off the radar.

Antarion wrote:It could be worse tbf

Have you ever been asked by an american, if there is electricity in Germany/europe and trying to explain to you how a vacuum cleaner works?

True, true. But the USA is on the other side of the globe. Germany is just a €10 Ryanair flight away from the UK.

blutgraetsche wrote:

I seriously wonder if Englishmen ever visit this country. They could probably tell you the colour of the underwear of Eva Braun on her last days in Hitler's bunker, but present day Germany seems to be totally off the radar.

indeed

Germany is terra incognita for our English friends

a WHITE spot on the map

in which case I am surprised though that none of the great English EXPLORERS have made Germany their top priority

along the lines of

Deutschland: the last great FRONTIER to be conquered

Well I've never been to Germany

Places Tweedle has been:
- France
- Belgium
- Holland
- spain
- portugal
- italy
- switzerland
- poland
- russia
- iceland
- lithuiania
- latvia
- finland
- czech republic
- croatia
- hungary
- greece
- cyprus
- ireland
- slovenia
- scotland
- wales
- england

I think it's safe to say that Tweedle is an average Englishman, in every possible way.

q.e.d.

The 'average' englishman would only have visited england, spain/portugal and greece/turkey blut

McClaren looks very English (ginger) to me, and he has been around. He is going to be a trend-setter Tweeds, you'll be prefering the wonderful Lüneberger Heide to the French riviera in future...

blutgraetsche wrote:Ich nix verstehen. Türk müsün?

I seriously wonder if Englishmen ever visit this country. They could probably tell you the colour of the underwear of Eva Braun on her last days in Hitler's bunker, but present day Germany seems to be totally off the radar.

Plenty do, but mostly just to get drunk in Berlin or Hamburg.

blutgraetsche wrote:

With many foreigners in the team, and basically everyone speaking English these days, I don't think that the language will be that much of a problem. Time will tell, but I'll at least give him the benefit of doubt.

I fear , you underestimate the importance of LANGUAGE, blut

or, indeed

overestimate the ability of players to speak English

watch the Sommermärchen-documentary again

the scene where the hotel-hairdresser tries to speak English with KLOSE

the lad does not say and seemingly understand a word

I also liked the pictures of Klinsi's American-Mexican assistant coach trying to give instructions to Poldi or Borowski on the touchline

in his American English

again

they looked completely lost, the lads

a guy like Grafite speaks Portuguese and is now beginning to communicate in German as well

why on earth would he be able to speak English ?

Dzeko already speaks excellent German in addition to his own mothertongue

again, I doubt he speaks English as well

and if you think of the Italians that have been playing in Wolfsburg recently: well, Hitzelsperger just said that life in Roma was not that easy because virtually NONE of the Italian players could speak English

trust me, the whole McLaren story will end in tears

12 months tops

still: good for PR

here is an EXCELLENT interview with OBASI

TOP STUFF

he seems to have HUGE communication problems as well, by the way

http://www.spox.com/de/sport/fussball/bundesliga/1005/Artikel/chinedu-obasi-ralf-rangnick-tsg-1899-hoffenheim-nigeria-john-obi-mikel-wm-lars-lagerbaeck.html

@tweeds

you seem to have visited many/most European countries

why on earth

and, above all

HOW on earth how have managed to steer clear of Germany then ???

it's almost as if you are making a deliberate attempt not to visit the Vaterland

Stupid move by McC, unless he wants a new VW. Don't think he'll be able to do at Wolfsburg what he did at Twente (perform above expectations).

Ä wrote:@tweeds

you seem to have visited many/most European countries

why on earth

and, above all

HOW on earth how have managed to steer clear of Germany then ???

it's almost as if you are making a deliberate attempt not to visit the Vaterland

Well I keep meaning to visit Berlin but haven't got around to arranging it yet. And its been threatened that we'll be going to a stag do in Hamburg next year.

I've got nothing overtly against Germany but its very similar to England architecturally - Spain, Italy and France all offer something a bit different to that which I can feast upon in the UK.

otto, Klose's English has improved quite a bit since the Sommermärchen days, and I wouldn't say that Klose had a 'typical German' upbringing.

Sure, it always helps if the manager knows the language of the country he works in, but English these days is the universal language, most people (footballers included) know at least some rudimentary English. That's the advantage an English manager has over other nationalities.
And I expect McClaren to learn some German, the basics, which are not that difficult, especially if he worked in the Netherlands prior to that.

If McClaren fails in Wolfsburg, I don't think that it will be because of a language barrier.

The interesting thing is this: We have around 10 teams in the Bundesliga that could easily reach an international spots. Most of them would do very well at the Euro league (like the last years have shown) - but there are only 5 (6) positions for that.

So there are always big fails on the chart. Its a given.
Wolfsburg will have a very hard fight esp if Dzeko leaves. Not an easy job for any coach out there.

blutgraetsche wrote:
And I expect McClaren to learn some German, the basics, which are not that difficult, especially if he worked in the Netherlands prior to that.

I don't think he speaks a single word of Dutch...

A lot is gonna depend on his staff and the attitude of the club : if they recognize this as a possible problem and act on it, then I expect language won't be a problem......if they don't, then it'll be a major fiasco.

Tweesus wrote:Well I've never been to Germany

Places Tweedle has been:

- Belgium
- Holland
- poland
- russia
- iceland
- lithuiania
- latvia
- finland
- czech republic
- hungary
- ireland
- slovenia

@tweeds

stop talking nonsense

I understand why an Englander like yourself would prefer SUNNY climes

but the countries ABOVE do NOT fit that bill

you have A LOT of explaining to do

why you prefer countries like POLAND

much of which is ex-Germany anyway, to GERMANY HIMSELF

the "architecture is like in the UK argument" is

a) nonsense

b) in that case what are you doing in Central Europe ?

the TRUTH is

you are CLEARLY anti-German

+

and should be ashamed of yourself and lard

He'll probably be lose his best player before the season even starts anyway.

That's where part of the scutiny will be, if Wolfsburg get a big fee for Dzeko then chances are he will be given the bulk of that to strengthen his squad. At Middlesbrough he had money, but he would mainly work off the English market, here we get to see how well he knows the continent.

Wolfsburg will very likely sell Dzeko this summer, because he wants to move, not because they need the money. And even if Dzeko stays, which is unlikely, McClaren will have cash to spend, VW will make sure of that.

Even without Dzeko, Wolfsburg have a talented squad. With a proper coach and some additions to their squad, they could easily challenge for the CL spots or even the title, knowing that they won't play in Europe next season.