Bowen’s BundesBlog: A Busy Week For Business in the Bundesliga
Considering the season has only just finished, transfers are being confirmed thick and fast. With only a few teams failing to register a single signing; this transfer market looks like it will be a busy one.
Starting with the champions Bayern Munich and knowing early on that Niklas Süle and Sebastian Rudy were joining from Hoffenheim as well as Kingsley Coman making his loan permanent, it’s hardly unlikely that a few names would be linked away from the club. Renato Sanches and Douglas Costa have been largely linked with a move away and considering that both have struggled for game time, it’s not surprising. Whether these moves go ahead or not is another question. With the retirements of legends Xabi Alonso and Philipp Lahm, Bayern also confirmed the departures of Holger Badstuber, whose contact expired and Mehdi Benatia, who join Juventus Permanently.
Leipzig continue their transfer policy and have signed two young players to bolster their squad. In comes Yvon Mvogo from Switzerland side Young Boys and young goalkeeper Philipp Köhn from Stuttgart. Rani Khedira also leaves the club after his contract expired.
Dortmund also announced some signings early with Mahmoud Dahoud and Ömer Toprak confirmed before the season ended. No doubt they will both add to the squad. Despite BVB currently being managerless and with a new appointment imminent, their transfer dealings haven’t finished. Dan-Axel Zagadou signs from PSG and the young defender comes with expectations that he will hit the ground running like fellow countryman Ousmane Dembele. Adrian Ramos is the only departure leaving Dortmund for Dangdai.
Apart from the two mentioned earlier who left for Bayern, Hoffenheim have so far had a quiet window. Florian Grillitsch is the only arrival so far coming in from Werder Bremen.
Hertha Berlin knew following the inconsistencies of last season they need goals. So both new signings should offer something going forward. In comes Mathew Leckie from recently relegated Ingolstadt and big Davie Selke from RB Leipzig. Departures from Hertha are Sami Allagui who has left for St Pauli and Florian Kohls, Alexander Baumjohann and Mike Owusu as all had their contracts expired.
Freiburg look to improve on their stunning return to the Bundesliga by making top scorer Florian Niederlechner’s deal a permanent one from Mainz. Pascal Stenzel also comes in from Borussia Dortmund.
Werder Bremen make Ludwig Augustinsson their first signing along with Jerome Gondorf from relegated Darmstadt. Whilst Clemens Fritz and Santiago Garcia leave the club, retiring and contract expiring.
Borussia Monchengladbach make young Mickael Cuisance from Nancy a prospect signing whilst they aim to fill the boots of Dahoud by bringing in the talented Vincenzo Grifo from Freiburg.
Schalke need big improvements on this past season as it will go down as a huge underachievement in their eyes. The only business they have done so far is make two loan signings permanent ones. Yevhen Konoplyanka from Sevilla and Nabil Bentaleb from Tottenham. Lots of departures though, mainly getting rid of the deadwood, something the fans would like to see. Dennis Aogo, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Sascha Riether all out of contract. Whilst Timon Wellenreuther moves to Willem II, Phil Neumann goes to Ingolstadt and Sead Kolasinac’s much anticipated move to Arsenal has now been confirmed.
The DFB-Pokal runners up Frankfurt have been busy signing Sebastien Haller from Utrecht, Danny da Costa from Leverkusen and Gelson Fernandes from French side Rennes. One big news for the club though is Haris Seferovic has moved to Benfica.
Leverkusen have been quiet so far, considering their disastrous campaign, you’d have thought action would be taken. So far only Dominik Kohr from Augsburg (who as of yet have made no transfer business) has come in, whilst Toprak, da Costa and Roberto Hilbert leave the club.
No one has arrived at Hamburg as of yet but a few have left the club; Rene Adler, Johan Djourou, Ashton Götz are all out of contract. With the side flirting with relegation for a number of years now, they could face a struggle if they don’t improve what is a very weak squad.
Mainz have also done nothing to in terms of improving the squad; all loans have returned to their parent clubs. However the club made a swift decision to dismiss Martin Schmidt and have quickly replaced him with under 23’s boss Sandro Schwarz. So you can excuse any dealings until Schwarz can assess his needs.
Wolfsburg have been busy since their relegation playoff last week and have bolstered their squad with big John Anthony Brooks from Hertha Berlin. Marvin Stefaniak also joins from Dynamo Dresden and this could be the start of a transfer influx at the VW.
Out of the two promoted sides, so far Hannover have been the busier of the two; making three signings Michael Esser from Darmstadt, Matthias Ostrzolek from Hamburg and Pirmin Schwegler from Hoffenheim.
With the transfer window only just opening so much has happened already. Week by week you can catch the latest deals here in the weekly roundup. Before we know it the Bundesliga will return.
