Transfer News and Rumors

[Bundesliga Offside]

This forum has a dedicated transfer rumor section, but I thought that not all football fans on this board would care whether e.g. Timothy Atouba finds his way out of Hamburg or not. So maybe a separate thread for the Bundesliga forum could be useful, even if it's just for the purpose of collecting links to the latest news and rumors. I also think that such a news collection thread complements the blogs very well, as I don't really think this board should aim take too many discussions away from the blogs...

[Bundesliga Offside]

To kickstart this thread:

http://www.fluminense.com.br/FlufcNoticia.asp?idn=5933

Fluminense's official homepage seems to announce Thiago Neves' transfer to Hamburg. I don't know any Portuguese but Google Translate makes me believe, it's the club's announcement of Neves move to Germany. So, no last minute hijacking of the transfer by Atletico or anything.

[diana]

No last-minute hijacking? Jan, the last I read (this coming from the Hamburg Offside), Chris reported that there are rumours Atlético Madrid are to hijack the transfer.

Now the whole Dimitar Berbatov transfer saga has just gotten, a little more interesting. Now Bayern are being dragged into this. Or so Bild's English website is saying that the club is to prepare to beat ManU for the deal. This is according to the report, from Bild's sources in England.

http://www.bild.de/BILD/news/bild-english/sport-news/football/bundesliga/2008/08/29/bayern-munich-set-to-beat-man-u/in-shock-move-for-spurs-striker-berbatov.html

[Hamburg Chris]

According to Abendblatt, which is as credible source there is, Atleti haven't spoken to Neves' agent in some time, and don't even know whether he has signed for HSV or not. This looks to be a case of the agent twisting Hamburg's arm for a little more $$, since he is the mysterious third-party investor that retains Neves rights (b-t-w, I think the EPL have it correct in that the league by-laws prohibit 3rd party ownership of players. The B'liga need to do something similar.).

My point is that if Flum's own website says the deal is done, it probably is. There is no announcement of the deal on HSV's web site as of Saturday morning (US time).

[diana]

b-t-w, I think the EPL have it correct in that the league by-laws prohibit 3rd party ownership of players.

Yeah. Back then when Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano went to West Ham, the whole issue being put in the spotlight. Then things start to get complicated as to how both of them went to West Ham (even I myself back then wondered how did it really happened) and all that admin details that has to be sorted out after both guys went to different clubs in the EPL. No mystery 3rd party ownership again.

[Bundesliga Offside]

Ajax got 20% of vdV transfer fee, so Hamburg basically only bought 80% of the transfer rights of the player back then. The same is the case with Neves. I think it's only problematic when a 3rd party holds the majority of the rights to a player (51% or more), as this would allow the 3rd party to decide about a potential transfer, instead of the club. This was actually the case with Neves and Silva, as the clubs only owned a small percentage of the tansfer rights any longer.

I think it's just important that a club stays in control of the player and his potential transfer.

I also think that sell-on clauses aren't forbidden in the EPL either. Wasn't the problem that MSI owned the majority or all of the rights to the players back then?

[Bundesliga Offside]

http://www3.hsv.de/index.php?id=24236

You can't make it any more official than that.

This concludes a very silly season for Hamburg.

[diana]

Ah. Jan, you are actually faster than the usual places I read. You know I was flipping through the Teletext when I woke up today, it has the news on Neves heading to Hamburg. By then, it has been many hours since the transfer deal was done.

[diana]

No more new transfers coming in at Bayern. This is according to chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge on Premiere. So I suppose Massimo Oddo is the last new face coming in.

http://www.bundesliga.de/en/liga/news/2008/index.php?f=105281.php&fla=1

[diana]

Sorry for the non-stop posts here today. I'm posting this news with Hamburg Chris in mind.

Apparently according to Goal.com, Michael Bradley will be heading to Borussia Mönchengladbach. It said that both Heerenveen and Mönchengladbach have reached an agreement regarding the transfer fee. Bradley heading to Germany after all?

http://www.goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=842730

Edit: The kicker website confirmed the news - http://72.14.235.104/translate_c?hl=en&langpair=auto%7Cen&u=http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/bundesliga/startseite/artikel/382458&tbb=1&usg=ALkJrhhs09N188MMZlGAES5Lp2OuHzZbRA