De Jong to Citeh?

By: Chris | January 16th, 2009

As first reported on the Manchester City Offside, City have made an offer for another young HSV star, this time Nigel de Jong. The transfer fee is reported to be €15M (OR €16.5M, depending on the source), and this is not a tactic employed by Nigel’s agent to squeeze more money out of HSV during negotiations for a contract extension. According to both Bild and MoPo, De Jong’s agent has notified the club (HSV) of the offer.

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.