There really hasn’t been much to report on since the last post (and by the way, I am putting out an APB for co-blogger Evan–I haven’t heard from him in weeks. Seriously, I hope his pic isn’t showing up on milk cartons in Auz. . .), until yesterday and I decided to write two posts rather than one.

What happened yesterday? HSV finally completed the transfer of center back David Rozehnal from Lazio. The deal would have been done a LOT earlier except Lazio’s batshit-insane owner Claudio Lotito wanted a bigger transfer fee than was previously agreed to. The two sides finally settled on €5million. Rozehnal did not travel with the side to Denmark and will likely make his debut Monday evening versus Fortuna Dusseldorf on August 3 in the opening round of the Pokal.

Randers FC are based in–you guessed it–Randers Denmark, and finished fifth in the Danish SuperLiga in 2008/09. They qualified for the Europa League via UEFA’s Fair Play rankings Here’s how that business works:

The three highest placed national associations in the UEFA Fair Play ranking will each automatically gain an extra qualification berth for the First Qualifying Round, providing they have exceeded the threshold of games played, and have a minimum average score of 8.0. These berths will then be allocated to the highest placed club in that association’s own Fair Play league that has not yet qualified for either the UEFA Champions League or the UEFA Europa League.

Randers have advanced by defeating Northern Ireland outfit Linfield FC 7:0 on aggregate in the first round and FK Sūduva of Lithuania 2:1 (agg.) in the second round.

Here’s the likely starting XI for tonight’s match. Don’t worry if you don’t see a new name or a familiar name–I’m getting to that.

Rost

Demel    Boateng    Mathijsen    Aogo

Trochowski    Jarolim   Ze Roberto   Pitroipa/Castelen

Guerrero    Petric

First, I hope that Romeo Castelen gets the nod over Jonathon Pitroipa tonight–dude has been through a shitload of rehab and hard work to get back to playing condition following successive knee injuries.  Eljero Elia bruised his knee and will be out for three weeks.  Marcell Jansen is hurt, too (his ankle), and did not travel with the side. Marcus Berg is just getting to match-level conditioning and was left home as a result. All, with the exception of Elia, should be ready for the Cup match on Monday and the return leg against Randers next Thursday.

SWAG prediction: Make it 3:1 HSV, with goals by Guerrero, Ze Roberto and Trochowski. Who knows–I haven’t seen any of the matches so far. . .

Quick hits:

-David Jarolim was retained as captain; Joris Mathijsen is the deputy.

-Tonight’s match was not going to be televised in Germany; now it is (on HSV TV–go to the club web site).

The sticking point of the negotiations was the transfer fee. Orginally, Twente demanded €12m for Elia, while HSV were only offering €8m. Twente lowered their demands to €10m, but HSV initially wouldn’t budge on the €8m offer. Ultimately, HSV did pony up €9.1m and the deal was done. Elia was also pursued by a number of Premiership sides including Chelsea, Man City, Spurs, Bolton, and Wigan, as well as Ajax. Elia would never move to Ajax though, as he was dismissed from the Ajax youth academy when he was 13. He was re-discovered by ADO Den Haag two years later and after showing rapid improvement, he was pursued again by Ajax. Pfffffffft!  Get bent! His family jokingly threatened him with bodily harm this time around if he even considered BMJ and Ajax. Elia says he’s met with fellow Dutchmen Nigel de Jong, Khalid Boulahrouz, Rafael van Der Vaart and phoned Joris Mathijsen, and to a man, they all told him to come to HSV.

There’s a report today in Bild (I know, I know. . .) that Die Rothosen are back oogling Sweden international and Groningen striker Marcus Berg. Berg’s price is a bit higher than it was earlier this spring; he positively starred at the recent UEFA U21’s, bagging 7 goals in just 4 games. Groningen have set his transfer fee at a cool €10m. Which is all well and good. Except that we also have eyes for an interior defender, who happens to be Swiss international Philippe Senderos of Arsenal. Senderos spent last season on loan with AC Milan, but the Rossonerri chose not to exercise their option to purchase Senderos at the end of the loan. Here’s the rub:  HSV doesn’t want to pay for both, and they prefer to add another striker.  OK–seems to make sense to me, because up front we have (in no particular order): Petric, Guerrero, Tunay Torun, Elia, Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, and by making this move, it would seem that the front office are preparing to move Guerrero this summer or in the winter instead of letting him walk for nothing in 2010, á la Ivica Olic. BUT, I just have a strong, uneasy feeling about the depth at the back, which has been a theme of mine for some time. Labbadia is moving Alex Silva back to central defense next to Mathijsen. That makes Jerome Boateng the perfect sub as he can play both right back and, as he showed with great aplumb at the U21’s, central defense as well. That looks really great, but again, I would prefer to see another warm body for the back line.

Based on Bruno’s stated preference for a 4-1-2-1-2 formation, here’s what the squad (as it is currently comprised) may look like whent they take the pitch on 8 August versus Freiburg:

Rost

 Boateng (Demel)     Alex Silva     Mathijsen     Aogo

 Jarolim

 Trochowski (Zé Roberto)                         Jansen (Pitroipa)

 Zé Roberto (Trochowski)

Elia/Guerrero     Petric

What do you think?

•HSV play Wacker Innsbruck tonight in a friendly. This is the last friendly that we play before the first round of the DFB-Pokal and Europa League qualifying.

•Former HSV defenders Thimothee Atouba and Bastian Reinhardt are on the radars of Ajax and Hertha, respectively.

Die Wölfe have made a €9 million offer for Petric, he of 20 goals in 41 matches this season.  This is all necessitated by Milan’s flirtations with Edin Džeko.  Naturally, Petric, his agent, and HSV management all replied “Fuhgeddaboudit.” So far.

But what happens when Wolfsburg comes back with an offer of €14 or  €16 million, or more? They have that kind of cash to splash around now that they are in the Champions League next fall.  Didi Beiersdorf was a bit more coy when that question was posed to him. His response? Let’s see the offer on paper before we decide what we are going to do.  Wolfsburg, for their part, have a second option lined up:  Luca Toni.

Petric was a key acquisition for HSV last summer, and with the departure of Olic, I would find it very difficult to believe that HSV would let one of two remaining strikers on the roster be sold. But I thought that about Vincent Kompany and Nigel de Jong, too.

There’s a great story in the online edition of Welt today detailing all the known goings and potential comings of each of the 1. Bundesliga clubs this summer. So what’s the HSV angle to this story? On the known goings, there’s not much new–we all know that Ivica Olic is gone to the Bavarians, that all of the winter loaners were given back (No thank you!), and, oh, we have a new trainer. Among the players leaving the club that I haven’t (and neither has Evan) touched on are Thimothee Atouba and Bastian Reinhardt. Atouba was offered a contract extension this winter (at his current wages) as he was rehabbing his torn achilles; he rejected that offer presumably because he thought he could get more money on the open market. Well, there isn’t a huge demand for petulant defenders who are recovering from major injury, and bottom line–Atouba had no takers. Reinhardt is a bit more of a sticky situation. Basti is among the all time club leaders in matches played and is certainly a fan favorite (in stark contrast to Atouba on both accounts), but seemed to have slowed a step in the 2008 Rückrunde. Basti split time with Alex Silva in the Hinrunde this season, and negotititaions with the club on a contract extension at that time not only stalled, they ceased.  

Weld lists Alex Silva (back to Brazil, AC Milan, Sevilla), Marcell Jansen (Juventus), Mladen Petric (Wolfsburg), Piotr Trochowski (everybody) as potential exits. To a man, the Hamburg management have said no way Jose, nobody’s leaving the club this summer, which we all know means unless the price is right. Let’s face it–last summer, would you have thought that Nigel de Jong would EVER leave HSV? Me either. What I read about Alex Silva was that he wanted out because Jol was playing him in the midfield and that he would never get a look for the Selecão if all he ever played was midfield–he wanted back in central defense. With Reinhardt’s and Michael Gravgaard’s departures, I look for him to move back into defense, and be happy.

Predictably, what interested me is all of the potential newcomers listed by Weld:  Niko Kranjcar of Pompey (who was rumored [there's that word again] to be on his way last summer), Kostas Katsouranis of Benfica (almost a sure thing he’s coming),  Tim Borrowski of Bayern (on the outs with Munich management), Eljero Elia of Twente (who is now reportedly on his way to Ajax since BMJ flew the coup), and Hamburg native Ivan Klasnic, now that Nantes have been relegated to Ligue 2. But the REALLY interesting names are Alexander Hleb of Barca, our beloved Rafael van Der Vaart of Real, and Kevin Kuryani of Schalke. And FYI, our transfer budget this summer is about €16-18 million.

Hleb is not coming to HSV; but are VDV and Kuryani?

Another fun little bit on the Weld web site is a reader poll to determine the greatest HSV player os all time. Here’s the poll in German, because it’s pretty self explanatory. My vote went to Uwe Seeler. Coincidentally, he’s the leading vote-getter right now.

De Jong did not return with the team to Hamburg following the conclusion of the training camp in La Manga, Spain (he travelled to Manchester for a physical) and did not play in yesterday’s 3:0 victory over Hansa Rostock. And as a complete aside, has there been a more precipitous fall in recent memory than Rostock? Two years ago they were in the 1. Bundesliga, then were relegated after last season, and now are in danger of being relegated from the 2. Bundesliga. Yikes.

So our attention now can turn to three topics: 1) New transfers; 2) the DFB-Pokal match versus 1860 Munich on Tuesday; 3) the Bayern match on 30 January.

For new transfers, there have been a number of rumors reported in the comments of the last post regarding players from Belgium, notably Steven Defour of Standard Liege and Lucas Biglia of Anderlecht.  In today’s online edition of Kicker.de, the name of Stade Rennes defensive midfielder Stephane Mbia was bandied about and HSV are reportedly negotiating a transfer. From what I found on the Rennes club website, I like this Cameroon international. Mbia is 22 years old and is under contract with Rennes until 2012. Mbia has been capped 12 times scoring 3 goals, and his national coach says he is the real deal/next big thing/all that and a bag of chips/etc. He is also being scouted by Newcastle (who isn’t?). Christian Paulson and Demy de Zeeuw are still rumored to be in the mix.

As for the Cup tie with 1860, Ivica Olic still does not know his status following the red card in the Hoffenheim “friendly” last week. A suspension looks likely, but since the match was a friendly (and not a DFB sponsored contest), there is some speculation that only a fine to be donated to charity is in the offing. Mladen Petric sat out the Rostock match with a sore calf, but is expected to train and play versus 1860 Munich.

That’s all well and good, but what should HSV do with the dough? I’d love to hear your comments on:

•Replacement for De Jong. The name we continue to hear is Mark van Bommel of Bayern, but lately we also are hearing Christian Paulsen of Juve, *and* newly trialed Marcel Ndjengs (formerly of ‘Gladbach). The old Demy de Zeeuw rumor from the fall doesn’t appear to have any legs, so I don’t know what to make of it. Personally, I’d love to see Van Bommel.

•Replacement for Olic. My good friends at the Abendblatt say that Serb striker Milan Jovanovic of Standard Liege would be a good fit and is available for around €7M. I have *no* idea on this one.

•Any other moves before the 30 January match at the ‘Bank with Bayern. I think we need some additional depth on defense. When Alex Silva comes back, he may take De Jong’s spot (he was outstanding there while De Jong was rehabbing his knee) and we may be looking for more defense. There is another rumor swirling around that Rafael van der Vaart may be coming back to the fold, but it wouldn’t be until this summer.

Bear in mind that Alex Silva is out until approximately the first week of February and that Atouba is done for the year.

MoPo opines that De Jong and Hamburg should take the money and run.  I am really confused about how I feel about this. For one thing, I think we’ve got a side that can challenge for a CL posiition–seriously, Hertha is only ahead on goals, so any slip up by them and we are in the qualifying spot, and how will Ibisevic’s knee injury affect TSG’s chances of hanging at the top? For another, I am just getting over VDV’s and Kompany’s transfers (and now Olic’s)–I don’t know if I could take it if De Jong leaves too (he has always been one of my favorites). BUT, the money the Citizens (rather, the sheikhs) are offering is almost as much as the fees paid for Kompany and VDV combined.  And HSV have already targeted Mark van Bommel (what is this Dutch roulette?),  Christian Paulsen of Juventus, and old target Demy de Zeeuw as a potential replacements, and have already trialed former ‘Gladbach midfielder Marcel Ndjengs. Not too shabby. Could HSV qualify for the CL with either MVB or Paulsen manning De Jong’s midfield spot? Probably.

Quick Hits:

•Yesterday was BMJ’s 53rd birthday. Cheers!

•If you haven’t heard, Olic and Carlos Eduardo got into a fight in the friendly versus TSG (HSV won 2:0). Seems Eduardo took offense to Olic’S very hard charge when he was without the ball near the touchline. Both guys were given straight reds and now are left waiting to see if the DFB will suspend them.

•Alex Silva’s hernia surgery was successful.

According to stories in the online editions of both Bild and the Hamburg Morgenpost, HSV sporting direct Didi Beiersdorfer has quietly met with Uli Hoeness and the Bayern management in Dubai regarding Podolski. One of the deals being floated is a trade–Ivica Olic immediately (Olic has already agreed to a new deal with Bayern beginning this summer) and €8M for Podolski. Hamburg recently renewed their shirt deal with Emirates Airlines, to the tune of €7M per season, so the transfer fee is in theory covered by the new deal. Beiersdorfer, to his credit, refuted the details of the meeting today in a story here.

Me? I say we do it. And we’d better do it quickly.  Köln reportedly offered the Bavarians €7M to get Poldi back, and Bayern balked.  And that has sides such as Roma, Spurs and Manchester City hot on the trail of the German international. Stay tuned–this is getting good.

Olic has indicated that he would like to stay with HSV, but has grown increasingly frustrated with the pace of negotiations with Hamburg, and recently instructed his agent, Gordon Stipic, to open negotiations with other clubs. It was thought that there would be no suitors from the Bundesliga, mostly due to Olic’s perceived high price tag, but Bayern publicly expressed interest, and according to the Bild story, interest has turned into an offer. Said story indicates that Olic has agreed to a 3 year contract with a one-year club option. Financial terms of the contract were not leaked. 

Despite the dubious source of the story, there are many details in the story that make it seem legit, to wit:  Olic’s German wife, Natalie, has no desire to leave Germany (thus excluding clubs like Liverpool, Valencia, and Juventus); Bayern have a place in the starting XI for him and $/€ with the impending departure of Lukas Podolski; Olic’s desire to play Champion’s League football; And, the fact that this would be a completely free/gratis transfer for Bayern.  As Jan wrote in the comments of the original story last week, this may be an attempt by Stipic to force HSV at the bargaining table, but it’s looking more and more like Olic will be plying his trade elsewhere come August.

Olic’s current contract expires in June, and he is free to sign with a new club during the January transfer window. To date, the negotiations have stalled, and other clubs have been circling, notably Liverpool, Juventus, and Valencia. According to a story today in the German football paper Kicker, Juventus and Olic have come to terms and Olic has agreed to a 4 year contract at “more than €3.7M per year”. Olic’s agent, Gordon Stipic, stated that nothing has been agreed to, and no contracts have been signed.  Olic has publicly stated that his first choice was to remain in Hamburg (he and his wife built a house in Hamburg and have made it their permanent home), but recently told Bild that he is now open to offers from other clubs.

Wow. On the one hand, HSV have had it coming by not getting Olic re-signed sooner. On the other, the silly season is upon us nigh, and this may be the first load of BS that we see on this subject.