Contracts: Total Crap

By: Abby | March 12th, 2008

And yes, every football fan knows that. Contracts are constantly broken in football and if they’re not (and the player leaves on a free transfer) the club is doing something wrong. But even so, this one is a bit surprising.

Malik Fathi is gone. Not going, gone. Left. Because, you see, the Russian transfer window closes tomorrow and Fathi’s been sold to Spartak Moscow. The last time I wrote about Fathi (it was the last blog post, from Monday) I was reporting on how his contract was extended last week. And, uh, I guess all that means is we get a bigger transfer fee?

Which had to have been the reasoning. Dieter Hoeness said there was a bid of 1.5 million Euro, which was raised to what is believed to be four million. So Malik’s new contract and doubled salary are off to Moscow. Perhaps he’ll even be ready for the start of the Russian season on the 16th. Once our transfer window opens again Hansa Rostock’s Marc Stein will be taking his place, but until then we’ll have to make do.

Normally at this point I would call for Marko Pantelic’s salary to be raised with the money we’re saving, as is my custom with just about every transfer, but apparently he and Lulu are not happy with each other. Or mostly, Lulu’s not happy with Pante. C’mon, boys. Don’t make me choose.

Category: transfer news

Tags: transfer news

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• Jan |  March 12th, 2008 at 1:48 pm

  
  
  

  This came out of nowhere. I didn’t even know Russia had different transfer deadlines than the rest of Europe, although it makes sense.

  Funny how Fathi just recently posed for Hertha’s image campaign and extended his contract and now he’s gone. There are hardly any original Berliners left at Hertha now.

  But the financial angle is interesting. According to the internets Hertha invested an estimated €17m in new players and earned around €18m. So they actually turned a profit without even having to touch any of their transfer funds (if Hertha had any to begin with). A player like Gilberto leaves room in Hertha’s wage budget. And they didn’t have to touch any of the €10m from the Sportfive deal yet. Looks like it’s going to be a summer packed with transfer rumours.

  Posted from United States

  

• Abby |  March 12th, 2008 at 2:26 pm

  
  
  

  Totally out of left field for me too, Jan. I was happily posting he’d extended and then wham, I read this in Kicker. Very surprising. (Does Patrick Ebert count as a local boy? He’s from Potsdam…)

  Huh. Interesting. I wonder who’s running the transfers now- is this part of Lulu’s restructuring or has Dieter Hoeness gained a clue? Sell high, buy cheap. The summer will be interesting.

  Posted from United States

  

• Jan |  March 12th, 2008 at 2:56 pm

  
  
  

  Yup, Ebert counts as a local boy.

  Posted from United States

  

• Juliet |  March 13th, 2008 at 8:19 am

  
  
  

  I’m going to quietly sit in the corner and pretend that contracts mean something, since Ribery just said he’d be delighted to see out the end of his in 2011 at Bayern. :p

  Posted from United States

  

• Jan |  March 13th, 2008 at 3:03 pm

  
  
  

  The transfer deadline in Russia is the 16th of March. Both Hertha and Bayern have a Hoeneß running the club. So I wouldn’t be surprised to see Bayern announcing a shock transfer of Ribery to Moscow or Petersburg in the next few days. Time to get nervous Juliet.:-)

  Posted from United States

  

• diana |  March 13th, 2008 at 7:58 pm

  
  
  

  Jan, if it’s true, I know where I read it first. Imagine how many will be surprised.

  Like what Abby has said - Contracts: Total Crap. True.

  Posted from Singapore

  

• diana |  March 13th, 2008 at 8:10 pm

  
  
  

  Yikes. Give the wrong link to my blog in the previous comment. This one I am posting is the correct one.

  Anyhow Abby, not sure if you had read about Hertha had appealed for Lulu’s one-match ban and the 15,000 euros after his behaviour in the match against Borussia Dortmund last week. The DFB disciplinary committee had initially handed out the punishments and Lulu’s being given a reprieve.

  I was actually reading around my country’s local version of Yahoo! (Yahoo! Singapore, by the way) and saw the report (and to my surprise, I thought I was seeing quite an unflattering photo of Lulu accompanying the report even) - http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080314/tsp-fbl-ger-sui-hertha-47c0590.html

  Posted from Singapore

  

• Jan |  March 14th, 2008 at 4:00 pm

  
  
  

  The interview with Lucien Favre is online:
  http://www.dw-world.de/popups/popup_single_mediaplayer/0,,3191146_type_video_struct_8293,00.html?mytitle=The%2Binterview%2Bas%2Bvideo%2Bon%2Bdemand

  Posted from United States

  

• Juliet |  March 16th, 2008 at 8:22 pm

  
  
  

  Wheew! We’re safe for now, Jan.

  Posted from United States

  

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