Isegrim

https://observer.co.uk/news/sport/article/mystery-of-indy-kaila-transfer-gossip-rumour-account

He’s a forward but not an old fashioned central striker. Rather similar to Isak.

Would be nice for the transfer failing because of Liverpool not getting the paperwork done in time.

Stuttgart were very pissed of because of the way Bayern acted with bids way below the asking price. They told them last week that a sale to them wouldn’t happen anymore so they likely had good reasons not to get them on the table, too. The best/worst that could have happened would have been Bayern matching our offer as this is exactly what Stuttgart were demanding. Starting a bidding war on an inflated fee would probably have Stuttgart look unprofessional and greedy. They got what they wanted and were able to make Bayern look like fools. A total win win to them.

People are mostly quite happy about the huge amount of money and that they did stand up to Bayern. We are certainly paying an very inflated fee but nothing else than Bayern were quoted. When you then look at the fees of Ekitike and Sesko as well as those of Nunez and Hojlund in the past and the asking prices of Strand Larsen and Wissa the fee does rather look like a going market rate.

Woltemade apparently has a clause in his contract entitling him to a share of 10 percent of any profit Stuttgart make from a sale. They got him for free last season. This did probably help convincing him as well.

Local press is saying that our approach was made on Tuesday. If Woltemade watched the game it might have made an impression. I watched it with English commentary so don’t know what people did say about the Isak situation. Seems that the club had a plan to act fast after having to have talks in parsletongue on Monday. Details got finalised between clubs when meeting in Monaco today.

I refrained from posting that I consider Woltemade as the most perfect replacement for the Swedish rat because I thought there was absolutely no chance of signing him. I am still absolutely baffled about this. I wonder what the local press will say about it.

https://www.vfb.de/de/vfb/aktuell/neues/profis/2526/freistellung-nick-woltemade/

I wondee what all the Stuttgart fans at work will have to say. I will have to use my Newcastle coffee mug.

Luque tbh. Woltemade does have all the right attributes and his old manager (the nephew of Bayern president Howneß) is very similar to Howe in style and approach. With his career only coming to life last season there is obviously some risk, but coming back to Howe I do think we have got the right manager not to hinder his development.

I don’t mind. I am quite happy that I was totally wrong.

How to look like an idiot.

Sesko got ranked 10th btw.

The leading German football magazine is ranking players at the end of every season. That’s the recent ranking. All outlets in Germany reporting it now. PIF got involved yesterday evening. Player already said goodbye. Bayern got totally blanked.

Signing Woltemade looks very similar to the signing of Isak in many ways tbh.

A couple of weeks ago Reuben’s plane made a stop in Stuttgart coming from Milan (likely after talks about Thiaw). We made have laid the groundwork in case a transfer to Bayern doesn’t materialise. Looks like the Tonali deal that went under the radar as well. They will report on it on German tv in about ten minutes.

Despite his height he is rather agile.

It was probably listening to Kroos podcast that made it happen. He is apparently on the way to having his medical. His career has progressed rather slowly but his last 18 months have been fantastic. From the prospect better value than Strand Larsen for about the same money. People on Sky are absolutely shocked as well as it came totally out of the blue.