Barcelona agree terms with Klose?!

According to Marca:
http://www.marca.com/edicion/marca/futbol/1a_division/barcelona/es/desarrollo/963727.html

Apparently all that's left is negotiation with Werder Bremen. What's the news in Germany, is this true at all?

Fantastic signing if we can get him for 15million-ish or less.

I'll just repeat what I wrote in the Barcelona thread:


Klose to Barça? 20 m and we can talk. If there is a club other than Werder I'd like to see him play for, it's Barcelona. I'm sure that he could help you, he has all the qualities that are missing in your squad these days (one of the most dangerous players in the air, works very hard for the team, has a ton of assists etc.). And he is used to play for a very attacking team.
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Nothing in the German press about it yet though.

How long does Klose have left on his contract at Bremen? If he did leave, who do you think Bremen would bring in to replace him with?

I think he would be a good signing for Barca, although it is quite a lot of money for someone who will be 29 by the transfer window. They definitely need another proper striker at the club. We've seen the difficulty Barca have had replacing Eto'o when he has been injured.

Any chance this move affects Eto'o? With the problems between Eto'o and the club does Klose give Barca more options that they might def move him now?

No, no chance IMO. Etoo will always be top dog because he always produces the goods. Of course a quality signing like this will relax the rest of the squad when Etoo is injured/unfit, or when he goes to the African Cup for a couple of months midway through next season.

Contract is valid until 2008. And I absolutely have no clue who we are going to replace him with should he leave, we can't really replace him because he is important for this team in so many ways. Look, he had a rather bad season by his own standards, yet he still is the topscorer (goals and assists combined) of the league. He works hard for the team, has a ton of assists, is essential for our build up play, and he has a great character, he helps our other younger strikers to flourish as his partners.

That's why we are willing to break the bank for him, as I wrote in the Barcelona thread already. We offered him a new contract, he'd earn a record breaking sum of money by Werder standards. But he wants to move abroad, that's his dream, and I can understand that. Like I said, if he really leaves, I'd actually like him to move to Barcelona, or another big club with an attacking philisophy at least.

Help me understand something about Werder and the Bundesliga. I notice that the top scorers for the league aren't as high as other leagues. Is there a different strategy there than other leagues? I know the EPL is offensive driven while Serie A is more about defensive, low scoring games. But both those leagues have numerous scorers that have much higher goal totals than those for the Bundesliga. Why the disparity in goal scoring/top goal scorers?

Actually, the Bundesliga as a whole is more attacking than the EPL, it's one of the most attacking leagues in Europe, with the highest average number of goals scored of all big leagues. However, we have two teams less in the first division (18 vs. 20 teams in the other big leages), so therefore we have less matches. And we simply have more strikers who score a considerable number of goals, because the teams are more even, especially this year (just take a look at the table).

Last year, for example, Klose scored 25 goals in 26 matches, and had 14 assists. You rarely see strikers score more goals in the EPL, Serie A and La Liga.

Thanks for the explanation. Just seems the scoring is down from what other leagues. Apparently, the Bundesliga scoring is down from past seasons. Just curious as to why. Klose only has 11 goals this year in 25 games. That is a huge decline. Scoring overall seems to be down. Any guesses on your end as to why? Here is the top 5 last year vs this year (I realize there are still games left this year but still)

05/06
1 Miroslav Klose Werder Bremen 25
2 Dimitar Berbatov Bayer Leverkusen 21
3 Halil Altintop Kaiserslautern 20
4 Robert Vittek Nurnberg 17
Roy Makaay Bayern Munich 17

06/07
1 Theofanis Gekas VfL Bochum 16
2 Alexander Frei Borussia Dortmund 13
Mario Gomez VfB Stuttgart 13
Roy Makaay Bayern Munich 13
5 Kevin Kuranyi Schalke 04 12

With only 6 or 7 games left this year for most clubs, will it end up being about the same as last year? Even with that amount of games left, Klose still seems like he will drop off big time from last year. The same is true of others as the numbers just don't seem they will be as high.

Going back to my other question. If Klose does transfer to Barca, does this open the door for moving Eto'o?

Other thing is if Eto'o stays will Klose be content with a place on the bench?

jdbfs wrote:Going back to my other question. If Klose does transfer to Barca, does this open the door for moving Eto'o?

I don't think it would make any sense. Barca have struggled when Eto'o is out injured because they haven't really had a high quality striker to bring into the team in his place. With Eto'o and Klose they would have greater options and two very good strikers. I can't see them letting Eto'o go, he is (in my opinion) the better player and is also younger, and fits into their style of play. Letting him go would just leave them in exactly the same situation as this season, but with a different player.

jdbfs wrote:Thanks for the explanation. Just seems the scoring is down from what other leagues. Apparently, the Bundesliga scoring is down from past seasons. Just curious as to why. Klose only has 11 goals this year in 25 games. That is a huge decline. Scoring overall seems to be down. Any guesses on your end as to why? Here is the top 5 last year vs this year (I realize there are still games left this year but still)

05/06
1 Miroslav Klose Werder Bremen 25
2 Dimitar Berbatov Bayer Leverkusen 21
3 Halil Altintop Kaiserslautern 20
4 Robert Vittek Nurnberg 17
Roy Makaay Bayern Munich 17

06/07
1 Theofanis Gekas VfL Bochum 16
2 Alexander Frei Borussia Dortmund 13
Mario Gomez VfB Stuttgart 13
Roy Makaay Bayern Munich 13
5 Kevin Kuranyi Schalke 04 12

With only 6 or 7 games left this year for most clubs, will it end up being about the same as last year? Even with that amount of games left, Klose still seems like he will drop off big time from last year. The same is true of others as the numbers just don't seem they will be as high.

Not the scoring is down, the actual number of goals scored has remained more or less the same. But those goals are shared by a larger number of players, we basically have more players scoring a good number of goals, and less players scoring a lot. The Bundesliga is more even this year, and it shows.

Like I said, Klose had a rather bad year by his own standards. However, if you look at goals scored and assists combined, "scorer points", he is still leading the table with 11 goals and 12 assists:

http://www.kicker.de/fussball/bundesliga/scorer/saison/2006-07/

Sheffield gunner wrote:

jdbfs wrote:Going back to my other question. If Klose does transfer to Barca, does this open the door for moving Eto'o?

I don't think it would make any sense. Barca have struggled when Eto'o is out injured because they haven't really had a high quality striker to bring into the team in his place. With Eto'o and Klose they would have greater options and two very good strikers. I can't see them letting Eto'o go, he is (in my opinion) the better player and is also younger, and fits into their style of play. Letting him go would just leave them in exactly the same situation as this season, but with a different player.

I agree Eto'o is a great player. But I am speaking about his impact as far as team chemistry and his problems with the club. It seems he hasn't been happy so maybe the ineffectiveness of Barca goes beyond just his ability but also the chemistry of the team right now. With a trasnfer, Barca could get another quality player while improving their chemistry. Klose is a great piece that would make moving Eto'o easier now. Especially since Ronaldo signed his extension with Man U. Getting Klose opens doors to do something with Eto'o and improve team chemistry without completely killing Barca's attack.

Again, what do I know. I am just throwing things out there now that the Klose deal is a possibility.

blutgraetsche wrote:Not the scoring is down, the actual number of goals scored has remained more or less the same. But those goals are shared by a larger number of players, we basically have more players scoring a good number of goals, and less players scoring a lot. The Bundesliga is more even this year, and it shows.

Like I said, Klose had a rather bad year by his own standards. However, if you look at goals scored and assists combined, "scorer points", he is still leading the table with 11 goals and 12 assists:

http://www.kicker.de/fussball/bundesliga/scorer/saison/2006-07/

Thanks for the info and for giving me a different perspective.

Anyone listen to talksport today, around 21:50?

Graham Hunter was on there and he said that behind the scenes Barcelona made a swap offer to Man Utd, Eto'o for Ronaldo but Man Utd turned it down.

So maybe Barcelona will sell Eto'o in the summer for the right price.

Graham Hunter also said something about Eto'o criticizeing Ronaldinho, without actually saying his name, midweek on TV.

Etoo will not be sold. He does go over the top sometimes and thinks before he speaks, but the chemistry of the squad is fine. Better than 99% of clubs. The press just likes to look for drama.

And although career-wise it may not be best for Klose to come in as a backup, he will easily get 15 starts over the course of the season IMO, and countless substitute appearances. That's not great, but he is at a big club after all, so it's up to him to really prove himself. I'm sure he considered this when agreeing terms (supposedly).


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I was just thinking of another aspect to all this - this might not necessarily mean a transfer is in the works. Our board may be contacting as many players on their shortlist as possible to see if the player would be willing to come, and offer a hypothetical wage package. Then once they have narrowed their shortlist to players who they know will come, they'll go about contacting the clubs. As you can see in the difference between the numbers Blut and I are posting, this deal could easily break down.

I hope so. Klose, stay in Bremen and let us kick arse next season. Diego has played a season and fully settled in by then, we'll improve our squad on certain positions and will be ready to kick some serious arse in Europe.

If we manage to keep our key players like Klose and Frings, I expect a great next season. We'll most probably be in pot 2 next CL season, effectively avoiding groups of death like this year with Chelsea and Barça. Europe, here we come!

Blut, this will make you furious, but I just read the article again and Marca claims that we are not willing to play more than 5 million for him due to his contract status (bit exaggerated because I think we'll easily go to 10 million or more...or at least, we should, for a player of this quality and status)

5 m? You won't even get my grandma for that, and she is not even related to Emerson in any way.

Forget it, we'd rather lose him on a Bosman next year than accepting those ridiculous sums.

Lol, thought so. Can your grandmother play RB or DM by any chance?

She can cook a great Wiener Schnitzel, if that helps.

Bild has also created a new fairy tale today: Klose in talks with Bayern.

http://www.bild.t-online.de/BTO/sport/bundesliga/2007/04/14/bayern-klose/verhandlungen-angebot.html

But we have an agreement with him, not just talks

That agreement isn't worth anything. You need an 'agreement' with this guy first...

5m for Klose?

kas wrote:But we have an agreement with him, not just talks

I think Juventus already signed him twice this season, so they have the older rights.

Besides, Juve supposedly offered 10 million plus two has beens from their current squad.

blutgraetsche wrote:5m for Klose?

I think Klose came on fourth place in that Barça fans poll if I remember correctly. I think there were almost 20 thousand votes with Pizarro getting 36%, Henry 26%, Diego Milito 17%, and Klose on 11% or something like that.

Klose is a top forward, and I see him doing well at Barça as well.

Yes, please get Pizarro and make Puro happy.