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After having Bayern and Dortmund fight for the german championship three years in a row and even facing off in the Champions League final, it's time for a new season of German Bundesliga action.

But first of all, congrats to Bayern winning their fith CL title.



So, now lets get to the new Bundesliga season.





Bayern Munich are the Champions and will have a new coach, Pep Guardiola, and some new players like Mario Götze.

Incoming:
Mario Götze(Dortmund)
Jan Kirchhoff(Mainz)

Outgoing:
Anatoliy Thymoshchuk
Mario Gomez?



Borussia Dortmund had a great year internationally and was pretty much the only team that could hurt a concentrated Bayern squad during CL play.
This season they'll have to rebuild a bit, given that Götze will leave.
Though, they've stated that they won't let Lewandowski leave and rather let him walk on a free transfer next summer.

Outgoing:
Mario Götze(Bayern)
Felipe Santan(Schalke)
Moritz Leitner(Stuttgart/loan)

Incoming:
Sokratis(Bremen)
Christian Eriksson(Ajax)?
Bernard(Atletico Mineiro)?



Schalke will be playing champions league qualification, hoping to make it four Bundesliga sides in next years champions league.

Outgoing:
Christoph Metzelder(career ended)
Raffael(Kyiv)
Ibrahim Affelay(Barca)

Incoming:
Felipe Santana(Dortmund)
Christian Clemens(Cologne)
Leon Goretzka(Bochum)?



Bayer Leverkusen will play champions league again and will try to not look as bad as they looked two years ago when Barca ran them out of the stadium.

Outgoing:
Andre Schürrle(Chelsea)
Danny Carvajal(Real Madrid)
Michael Kadlec(Fenerbahce)

Incoming:
Heung-Min Son(Hamburg)
Robbie Kruse(Düsseldorf)
Konstantinos Stafylidis(PAOK Saloniki)
Giulio Donati(Inter)



Freiburg was one of two sensations last year and will have to gel pretty quick, given that they've lost quite a few of their players.

Outgoing:
Johannes Flum(Frankfurt)
Jan Rosenthal(Frankfurt)
Max Kruse(Mönchengladbach)
Daniel Galigiuri(Wolfsburg)
Cedric Makiadi(Bremen)

Incoming:
Felix Klaus(Fürth)
Mike Hanke(Mönchengladbach)
Vaclav Pilar(Wolfsburg/loan)



Frankfurt was the other surprise, qualifying for the europa league qualification the season after they ware promoted from the 2nd Bundesliga.

Outgoing:
Karim Matmour(Kaiserslautern)
Heiko Butscher(Bochum)
Martin Amedick(Paderborn)

Incoming:
Johannes Flum & Jan Rosenthal(Freiburg)
Felix Wiedwald(Duisburg)



The team with the 2nd highest transfer fees last summer only made it to 8th place and therefore my club, Borussia Mönchengladbach, hopes for a better season.
The team struggled offensively and hardly created any chances and therefore invested on offense.
Defensively we were able to get back to the old ways of the 11/12 season after about 10 games into the season, but there might be another position to fill within a year, given that Barca seems to want Marc Andre ter Stegen within the next 12 months.

Outgoing:
Igor de Camargo(Hoffenheim)
Mike Hanke(Freiburg)
Matthiew Leckie(FSV Frankfurt)
Tolga Cigerci(Wolfsburg)

Incoming:
Max Kruse(Freiburg)
Raffael(Kyiv)
Christoph Kramer(Leverkusen/loan)


Also, the new fixtures for the upcoming season were released today.

Bayern Munich will open the season on August 9th with a home game against Borussia Mönchengladbach.

Here are the fixtures of the first round.


Bayern vs. Mönchengladbach
Mainz vs. Stuttgart
Hoffenheim vs. Nuremburg
Schalke vs. Hamburg
Leverkusen vs. Freiburg
Hannover vs. Wolfsburg
Augsburg vs. Dortmund
Braunschweig vs. Bremen
Hertha Berlin vs. Frankfurt

All transfer activities can be looked up right here.

BTW: I hope it's OK with me opening the thread. If not, I've got no problems with Foye or anyone else having that privilege or being rewarded the editing options to this thread.

Can't possibly let Foye take credit for this post Thanks for making this.

Great Thread Man!!

GO DORTMUND!!!!!!!

I'll be watching this season and I'll especially be monitoring the performances of my Bosnian countrymen: Ermin Bicakcic (Braunschweig), Sejad Salihovic (Hoffenheim), Vedad Ibisevic (Stuttgart) Sead Kolasinac (Shalke) and possibly Miralem Pjanic who Dortmund are looking at (they made a 14 million euro bid today). Hoping these guys stay injury free ahead of the World Cup in Brazil next year.

Well done Det.
I have no critics other than that you forgot this picture....

Foye wrote:Well done Det.
I have no critics other than that you forgot this picture....

Done.

I also updated Leverkusen's transfer of right back Giulio Donati from Inter.

Champion Bayern.
/last message of the topic

Massimo wrote:Champion Bayern.
/last message of the topic

So what? Serie A Juve, Süper Lig Galatasaray.

After seeing Mainz 05 transfers 13/14 I have to revert my claim that we have a good management.

Polter and Okazaki are supposed to replace Szalai? You've gotta be kidding me Christian Heidel. Go f*ck yourself until you manage to buy a real striker.

Foye wrote:After seeing Mainz 05 transfers 13/14 I have to revert my claim that we have a good management.

Polter and Okazaki are supposed to replace Szalai? You've gotta be kidding me Christian Heidel. Go f*ck yourself until you manage to buy a real striker.

Well, it's not that easy for a team like Mainz.
They've got some resources but aren't yet able to compete with teams in the middle tier(Stuttgart, Gladbach, Hannover, Hamburg etc.) financially and so they've got to hope to find a golden nugget hidden somewhere.

Polter does have some potential and Okazaki is a pretty mobile guy, which fits the intense style Mainz plays.
Though, they probably need Parker to take the next step and grow into an even better striker fast.


BTW: It seems like that ter Stegen to Barca rumors might actually come true, given that "their" newspaper's reporting again about him being bought for around 15 mil euros and loaned back to Gladbach for the upcoming season.
He could therefore still grow while playing at Gladbach and replace Viktor Valdez next summer, after the current captain leaves.

We are getting 8 mil. € for Szalai...I'm sure for 8 mil. € or even 6 if we don't want to reinvest all of it you could find better replacements than Okazaki and Polter.

I don't mind Polter as backup striker and Okazaki is ok, too. But they are average players. Buying average players as replacements for your best players is never a good thing to do. Especially, when you have already played a bad 2nd leg of the last season.

Guardiola is finished his first press conference in German right now. He wasn't perfectly fluent, but quite understandable.

He gave some news about what he is planing with the team. He said that Bayern already has a great team and that he don't has to change much. Some minor changes and he likes to play attacking football.

Pep already speaks better German than Ribéry

What? Ribery is very good in speaking German. Check a couple of videos on youtube, you will find quite a lot of interviews with him in German.

that was quite nice. he's really a charismatic person, even when speaking broken german. there were around 250 journos, 30 cameras, it was broadcasted live in 12 countries, it was his first presser for the reigning champions of europe, he "had" to do it in german - and he was just relaxed. charismatic, open-minded, optimistic, patient.

really wondering what this team can achieve in 13-14. the squad will be even stronger (götze...). and pep should be on fire after his sabbatical.

quite interesting quote for all the "let's try a 4-3-3/4-5-1/-3-4-3/4-2-3-1"-guys:
'the system doesn't really matter'.

Lucas Barrios wants to return to the Bundesliga. Come on Christian Heidel...if we are going to lose Szalai...a good alternative is up for grabs...just have to be the first who makes a solid offer.

Former Bayern coach Van Gaal just made some mention about Pep's arriving at FC Bayern Munich. The creator of the Ajax, Barca, and Bayern system mentioned that while he and Heynckes preferred to play with a 10, Pep likes a player a bit more beyond. Furthermore he said, that Schweinsteiger would be the perfect man for this position.


Ribery------Götze------Müller // Shaqiri, Mandzukic, Robben
---Schweinsteiger----Kroos--- //
-----------Martinez--------- // Gustavo
Alaba-Badstuber-Boateng-Lahm // Contento, Dante, vBuyten, Rafinha
----------Neuer------------

Actually this might be a system fitting the team. Götzes positions could be played by Mandzukic and Müller, while the offensive midfield positions could be played by all of Shaqiri, Müller, and Ribery. Obviously at least one offensive midfielder would be missing (if they don't plan with Emre Can and/or Pierre-Emile Höjbjerg). This would explain the rumors around Thiago Alcantara

Foye wrote:Lucas Barrios wants to return to the Bundesliga. Come on Christian Heidel...if we are going to lose Szalai...a good alternative is up for grabs...just have to be the first who makes a solid offer.

Yeah, but Barrios is currently making about four times what Szalai earns and certainly won't be willing to play for a lot less.

And you also just got "your wish" as your Mainzer team bought Okazaki from Stuttgart...

Det the Threat wrote:

Foye wrote:Lucas Barrios wants to return to the Bundesliga. Come on Christian Heidel...if we are going to lose Szalai...a good alternative is up for grabs...just have to be the first who makes a solid offer.

Yeah, but Barrios is currently making about four times what Szalai earns and certainly won't be willing to play for a lot less.

And you also just got "your wish" as your Mainzer team bought Okazaki from Stuttgart...

From his.former Dortmund days Barrios must know that nobody in Bundesliga will pay him even half as mzch as he is currently making....but he still wants.to.return.

Barrios must choose between money and success. He should go back to Buli, he was pretty good prior to his injury