Great. Just Great.
By: Abby | July 4th, 2008Signs were pointing to it, but the optimist I am, I chose to ignore it. Recent quotes, though, say that Marko Pantelic wants to leave. SkySports says that Bild says that Marko says “there is hardly any chance of me staying,” and while those are not exactly two of the most reliable sources in the world, actual quotes from the player in question have me inclined to believe it.
Not exactly the best of situations. Marko Pantelic is, essentially, our offense. We scored 39 goals last season- Marko scored 13 of those. That doesn’t count all the goals he helped set up. Without Pante, we look extremely toothless.
So what are our options now? Well, it looks as if we’re keeping him for at least the next season, which will be useful as we attempt to get past the group stage of the UEFA Cup. But eventually, we’ll have to replace him. But with who?
The one with potential at the team is Raffael, the Brazilian we signed from FC Zürich last season. He’s talented, has an eye for goal, is Lulu’s favorite and has already replaced Pante along the side of Hertha’s official website. But he can’t do it himself. One option may be Ivan Saenko, one of those oh-so-delightful members of the Russian Euro 2008 team. Currently with relegated Nuremburg, he might be a very available signing.
There’s also the seemingly never-ending saga of Mohamed Chermiti. Hertha and his current club Étoile du Sahel have had an on-again off-again wrangle for his transfer. Rami over at Tunisia World Cup Blog thinks it might actually be settled soon after ESS’s cup final tonight. He also assures me that he’s very good and we’ll enjoy him. However, Chermiti is still very young and I don’t think a 20-year-old can be fully relied upon to replicate Pante’s influence.
There’s been continuing rumors around Thiago Neves, of Fluminese, although he’s a bit more of an attacking midfielder/playmaker. He’s also apparently way too expensive for us right now, with Flu quoting something like 10 million Euro for him. Lulu is very keen on Chilean Jorge Valdivia, also currently playing in Brazil, but we’re not the only ones- Benfica might be interested as well.
Brazil is the theme right now, it seems, especially as Lulu’s taken off there for a scouting/shopping tour. Sounds like he’s having a good time- let’s hope that he finds something better than my normal overseas souvenirs (although my Pope bottle opener is still awesome).
Category: transfer news
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Comments
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Dreadful. I recall reading on the old bundesliga.de a while ago that Hertha have not won a game in which Pantelic hasn’t played in since 2006 or something daft. So by that theory it’ll be potential derbies against Union Berlin next season. As the optimist at least that’s something to look forward to..!
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United Kingdom
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Last season Marco was there for every victory. While it is a bit much to say he is responsible for every one of them, him being on the pitch does seem to help.
Goodbye Lima, goodbye Mineiro – 2 huge underachievers. Brazilians tend to fall into the category of being bloody brilliant or completely overrated. Looks like we are in for another season of mediocrity!
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