Catching up

By: Chris | July 29th, 2008

Lots of going on to report on, especially since I have written in a couple of weeks.

•The Rafael van Der Vaart transfer saga may be concluding with a whimper, rather than a bang. The latest twist had Real put a paltry offer of €6M for VDV last week. I say paltry because VDV’s transfer fee was reported to be in the neighborhood of €20M during the last 12 months. Realistically, HSV should be able to bank on €10-15m for him. Here’s my take that I posted on the Real Madrid Offside late last week:

I am hoping that nothing happens, because the longer this drags out, the less our chance of replacing him before January with a quality player. I feel that HSV are willing to go into the season with VDV and grab one of the CL spots in the Bundesliga and then let him walk, hoping that they make more from qualifying for the CL than they would with VDV’s transfer. A big gamble, to be sure, but in that case everybody wins–VDV gets a fat payday because he carried a side like HSV to the CL on his back, and HSV gets the CL money. And if they don’t make it, he will likely be viewed as having failed to carry them to the CL and his value on the market will be zip anyway, so the club doesn’t lose a lot of money in that case.

According to the HSV web site, “The Madrid club told HSV per fax that their interest in van der Vaart is now ended.” New reports have Real upping the offer to €13M; conflicting reports then say that Real have not made a new offer. The final chapter in this story may come this weekend, as Hamburg, Real, Arsenal, and Juve(I *love* writing that name; in America “Juve” is slang for Juvenile Hall, which is the part of our justice system set up for youth offenders) meet in the Emirates Cup in London. Ironically, HSV play Real in the first match of the tourney on Saturday 2 August at–you guessed it–Emirates Stadium in North London. Their second match is against Juventus on Sunday 3 August. All games of the Emirates Cup will be broadcast live in the US on GolTV (WOOHOO!). The HSV games are both at 9AM EDT in the US.

•Another rumor we missed on was the transfer of midfielder Nigel de Jong, he also (besides VDV) of superb play for Holland in the Euro. Lots of gossip about him going to the EPL. A report in The Sunhad our lad Nigel on his way to Newcastle to play for former HSV star Kevin Keegan. De Jong quickly dispelled the rumor and swore his allegiance to HSV.

•Paolo Guerrero suffered an contusion on his tibia (that was originally feared to be a fracture) during the friendly with Czech side Liberec (HSV lost 1:2). Fortunately, his recovery has been swift and he is back training with the squad.

•Vincent Kompany was finally released to play for Belgium in the Olympics. He will play the 2 games in London this weekend then fly to China for the Olympic tournament. Belgium are in a group with Brazil, China, and New Zealand, and the top 2 teams from each group advance. Ol’ Vince may be gone longer than expected. . .

There’s a whole lot more to cover but that’s all the time I have for now. I will crank out another post and cover some of the training camp battles, the friendly versus Manchester City from Saturday past, and another new kit (which is awful).