New Year, New Funds?
By: Abby | January 2nd, 2008Greetings from the new year! I hope you had a good one. I did. And then I learned an important lesson about the red wine that comes in a jug-shaped bottle. Fun while it lasted, though.
Anyway, time now to think about the important things, namely, what Hertha is going to do now that the transfer window is open. I’ve been writing in the past few posts about possibilities (Raffael, Kavlak, Arguez). As far as the Brazilian goes, things continue to drag on. FC Zürich and Dieter Hoeness keep going back and forth on his price. Possibly, this will end by the end of January. Possibly.
We’re also interested in 19-year-old Serbian midfielder Ljubomir Fejsa, which would continue on Favre’s youth-development preference. He’s supposed to be quite talented. There’s also some talk about Czech-Greek defender Loukas Vyntra of Panathinaikos, who would set us back €1.5 million.
And how are we going to pay for all these new players? By agreeing to a new financing deal, of course. Hertha are in talks to extend and improve the deal they have with sports marketing company Sportfive. The deal would be worth €25 million, with a larger chunk (€15 million) going to service Hertha’s debts. However, that would still leave another €10 million to go to player transfers, which is a substantial increase in what we can spend. Both sides are being quiet about it, but it seems as if the deal is almost set. With Hoeness and Favre looking to improve the squad, it looks as if new players will be in place by the time the Bundesliga resumes in February.
Also, apparently my favorite ludicrous transfer rumor of the summer (Jens Lehmann to Hertha, for those keeping track) may have actually had some truth to it, as Jens says he talked to Dieter Hoeness. Not that there was ever really a chance, and I’ve been pleased with Drobny this season, but I do love Mad Jens and it would have been really entertaining to see him in a Hertha shirt.
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Comments
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Yes, mad jens would be an nice show for us. But I really don’t think that this will happen. Ljubomir Fejsa may be an interesting player, but Favre ist so cautios about signing players, that this chance is nearly gone now.
About the signing fee from sportfive: Hertha has debts about 45 Million Euros. They shold be paid back before Dieter can sign new players, But we all know that sport managers are seldom financial pros…
Posted from
Germany
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I would rather see Jens end up alongside Captain Friedrich than over at Dortmund, but since he came from there to begin with…
Aren’t transfer rumors bliss? They sure keep us all guessing until the last minute.
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United States -
No, I don’t think it’ll happen either, Easyfunk. I didn’t think it would happen when it was more realistic for it to happen (last summer), but that didn’t stop me from wanting it to happen. And it still doesn’t. I have a deep love for Mad Jens and it just would have made me irrationally gleeful. And I agree with you re: the Sportfive money, too- the debts should be repaid, but the squad should also be replenished if it’s feasible. The 10/15 split made sense, although I’d prefer it if we didn’t have to spend the whole 10 million so it could go towards the debt. But I don’t trust Hoeness to make a good deal in transfer negotiations.
Angela: Transfer rumors rule. But you’ll probably have some exciting ones, unlike us…
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United States -
I’m not so sure about the Sportfive deal. It could be a great way to get Hertha back on track financially, but that depends on the contract details. Sportfive surely want something in return for that signing fee. From what I’ve red the current Sportfive deal includes a clause which says that 20% of the TV money goes to Sportfive until 2009. It was part of an earlier - much more desperate - deal (again involving a signing fee to help Hertha’s finances). If this clause still expires in 2009 with the new deal I don’t see much of a problem. Sportfive will continue to do the marketing and gets 20% of that income. Ideally Sportfive manages to score better contracts than Hertha could have gotten alone…
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Germany -
[...] Dieter Hoeneß tries to get his hands on some money to burn - to fill the gap left by the money he already burned. (Hertha Offside) [...]
Posted from
United States
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