Going, gone or just gossip - summer 2011 transfers

[Sean of the Shed]

Here's the first genuine one this season. Richard Brodie to Fleetwood on a season long loan. I mentioned it in the Conference thread but thought I'd bring it up to the wider football forum, because I'm surprised a bigger club didn't make a move for him. One factor that may have swung it for Fleetwood is the fact that they have stumped up the whole loan payment up front. Not that Crawley need the money either, though.

[Borracho]

Going, gone or just gossip - summer 2011 transfers

Nuri Sahin has already joined Real Madrid for €12m, the fool. I hope the rest of the Dortmund team stays together and manages to have a good crack at the Champions League.

Celtic are almost certain to lose at least one and maybe two of Gary Hooper, Beram Kayal and Emilio Izaguirre. I could see Izaguirre in particular being a huge success in a big league. He has everything -- pace, concentration, skill and courage.

Efrain Juarez has been a marginal figure for most of the season and it'll be no surprise if he leaves. O'Dea and Loovens will probably also go, as will the pointless Ljungberg, who most people now assume was signed only to model the new kit catalogue. Samaras has to be sold too -- his three or four good performances per season don't remotely compensate for the fact that he never actually scores.

The ongoing Lennon situation will surely make it difficult to attract new players. But a couple of centre-halves and a target-man are badly needed, and that's if nobody else of importance gets sold.

Lennon made a profit on his transfer dealings last year due to the sale of Aiden McGeady, so there should be a bit of cash available, though that doesn't necessarily mean the board will give it to him.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Going, gone or just gossip - summer 2011 transfers

Diego Forlan to Besiktas, contract expected to be signed this week.

Hamit Altintop to real Madrid, expected to sign with Nuri Sahin.

[ursus arctos]

Going, gone or just gossip - summer 2011 transfers

I don't get the Altintop thing at all.

Is Madrid hoping for a reverse Raul effect?

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Going, gone or just gossip - summer 2011 transfers

Sahin is just cashing in on being the latest sparkly player to catch real madrid's eye. There's no shame in going there and getting a lot of money, for a couple of seasons, and then moving onto another club having pushed up his wage level.

Sure he might have a good stab at the CL with dortmund, but but he might also break his leg, or more likely, he might lose some of his lustre and real madrid might be interested in someone else.

[Stumpy Pepys]

Going, gone or just gossip - summer 2011 transfers

The Awesome Berbaslug!!! wrote:

There's no shame in going there and getting a lot of money, for a couple of seasons, and then moving onto another club having pushed up his wage level.

'Another' club probably being Spurs.

Altintop's a decent enough player, but Real Madrid? He's not even a regular for Bayern.

[Crusoe]

Going, gone or just gossip - summer 2011 transfers

Nolberto Solano to Hartlepool.

[garcia]

Going, gone or just gossip - summer 2011 transfers

maybe they want altintop to be a sort of chaperone for their younger turks.

sahin looks really excellent from what i've seen of him, similar to fabregas before he was injured all the time.

[ursus arctos]

Going, gone or just gossip - summer 2011 transfers

That would be like signing Robbie Keane to chaperone yer young Irishmen . . .

[Etienne]

Going, gone or just gossip - summer 2011 transfers

Not sure why it seems to be universally assumed that Sahin is making a mistake going to RM. Neither Khedira or Diarra are better than decent, so he's got every chance of playing alongside Alonso - and with Xabi being 30 possibly becoming a long term replacement.

[Guest]

Going, gone or just gossip - summer 2011 transfers

The line I've heard spun by AS is that Mourinho is going for 'winners' rather than galácticos, and apparently Altintop is part of that. He has the same agent as Özil and Sahin, too, it appears.

[ursus arctos]

Going, gone or just gossip - summer 2011 transfers

Lodzu, you could win two titles in four years with Bayern.

[noj]

Going, gone or just gossip - summer 2011 transfers

Wednesday are being linked with Vance Sikov, a Macedonian centre back. This makes me childishly excited.

He's probably not all that, but it's certainly a sight better than Calamity Claude Davis.

In other riveting news, Miller and Hinds have been released and new contracts have been offered to J Johnston, Buxton and O'Connor. I'd like Buxton to stay but find it hard to get enthusiastic about any of the others.

[garcia]

Going, gone or just gossip - summer 2011 transfers

That would be like signing Robbie Keane to chaperone yer young Irishmen . . .

i'm guessing altintop doesn't drink as many pints as robbie keane.

[ursus arctos]

Going, gone or just gossip - summer 2011 transfers

Which just proves that Keane has more talent.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Going, gone or just gossip - summer 2011 transfers

well if real madrid signed faubert, they might sign robbie? They look like they have the comfiest benches to sit on. Recaro I think.

[Jimmy Bignutz]

Going, gone or just gossip - summer 2011 transfers

I think Altintop's a good player, he'd make a good squad member for a team like Real Madrid.

[double hipness]

Going, gone or just gossip - summer 2011 transfers

I think Demba Ba could be on his way from West Ham

[Guest]

Going, gone or just gossip - summer 2011 transfers

I've been on the bench at the Bernabéu, actually, and indeed they are very comfortable seats.

[Borracho]

Going, gone or just gossip - summer 2011 transfers

Etienne wrote:

Not sure why it seems to be universally assumed that Sahin is making a mistake going to RM. Neither Khedira or Diarra are better than decent

Sahin is a creative playmaker who will be competing with Ozil and Kaka for a place. Khedira and Diarra are defensive midfielders, albeit Khedira has the potential to do a bit more than that, but will never be allowed to do so at Madrid while Mourinho is there.

The pity of it is that it weakens a good young team who have the potential to make a serious impression on the 2011/12 Champions League. Instead, one of their best players jumps ship to a club that recently spent the guts of €85 million on two people who do more or less the same thing as he does (a creative role behind the forwards), and Dortmund don't even get a big transfer fee in any case.

[garcia]

Going, gone or just gossip - summer 2011 transfers

sahin plays deeper than that. he's not a dribbler like ozil. he's a stocky powerful midfielder who passes and shoots very well. they could complement each other. kaka doesn't even come into it.

[danielmak]

Going, gone or just gossip - summer 2011 transfers

garcia wrote:

sahin plays deeper than that. he's not a dribbler like ozil. he's a stocky powerful midfielder who passes and shoots very well. they could complement each other. kaka doesn't even come into it.

I have to fall somewhere between Garcia and ABII, although closer to AB. Sahin isn't that stocky or powerful. His position, like the rest of the attacking players' positions at Dortmund, shifted a touch when Kagawa got hurt at the Asian Cup. But basically the formation was Lucas Barrios up top with Goertze (sp?) and Kagawa behind with Shahin playing the role of the midfield general. When Kagawa got hurt, Lewendowski played up top with Barrios but Shahin more or less ran things from the midfield to the opponent's box. All of that is to say that he is somewhere between Ozil/Kaka and Alonso. But I think this is a huge mistake. Young players who still need to develop and are already with a CL-bound team should not be going to Inter, Milan, Real, Barca, or Chelsea. I know folks will say that Ozil would show that I shouldn't make this claim but if Kaka had been healthy, Ozil would have rode the bench. Whose place is Sahin going to take? He is not defensive enough to take Khadira's place and he doesn't have Alonso's range of passing yet. He should have stayed put with Dortmund. The only bright side from the standpoint of a Dortmund fan is that he won't be taking penalties for us anymore. I think he missed almost as many as he made, which were especially problematic in the second half of the season when BVB had way too many draws that should have been victories, allowing Leverkusen to hang around.

In the end, Sahin might take Khadira's spot at first, but a couple times looking fragile in the midfield from a defensive standpoint and Jose will be back to a more defensively gifted player and Sahin will be like the 18 year old rising starlet (Ganero? or is it someone else who had been captain of his side--maybe Zaragoza) whose career was stalled by Real money.

[Etienne]

Going, gone or just gossip - summer 2011 transfers

The vast majority of the games they play RM don't need Diarra or Khedira's defensive qualities, but do need the passing ability to prise open 10 man defences, which is where Sahin can contribute. Alonso and Ozil are the only decent passers in the club, so there's easily space he can find to play in.

Even if he was a similar player to Kaka, it's by the by as Kaka is off.

I fully agree with ABII that it's a shame for Dortmund and that it would be better for world football if he hadn't, but for him personally I don't think it's a bad move.

[Jimmy Bignutz]

Going, gone or just gossip - summer 2011 transfers

It's interesting that Sahin is assumed to be a tricky attacking-midfielder, isn't it? I guess it's because a lot of the prominent Turkish-German players that have come through lately have been: Ozil, Basturk, etc. A slight sterotype, albeit a fairly innocent one.

[Etienne]

Going, gone or just gossip - summer 2011 transfers

danielmak, Canales was 18, I think, when he made the move to Real Madrid. Sahin is 22 now and will be 23 when the season starts. He's coming to his peak years.