The Bundesliga - Post-winter News
Posted by Pete in Bundesliga | 9 February 2006
With the second round since the winter break over, it's business as usual in the Bundesliga. Despite Bayern dropping two points at Hertha last night, Bremen's inability to score in Stuttgart and Hamburg's loss to Hannover means that the Munich team can sleep easy in their beds tonight. While their lead isn't quite of Chelsea-like proportions, like the Blues, they've only lost one league game all season, and you can't really see where they might slip up.
Unlike the rest of Europe, the lifting of the transfer ban didn't bring much excitement to Germany. Bayern signed Peruvian international Julio dos Santos, while Lucio and Sebastian Deisler have both signed three-year extensions to their contracts. But, enough Bayern news for now.
Elsewhere, for reasons only known to themselves Hertha swapped the ineffective Nando Rafael for 'Gladbach's equally ineffective Vaclav Sverkos, while Leverkusen signed the very un-Czech sounding Michal Papadopoulos from Banik Ostrava. According to Rudi Völler (remember him?), he's just the sort of striker they've been looking for. Which is lucky frankly, as otherwise they've just wasted a large six-figure sum of money.
Meanwhile, the bull-ish Ailton has returned to Germany (along with his attitude), although it remains to be seen whether Hamburg will get as much out of him as Bremen did two seasons ago. More on him soon though, as it's only a matter of time before he storms off in a huff.
The big story that never happened surrounded Germany's young hope Lukas Podolski and where he would move to? Bayern, Hamburg, Werder and Schalke were all in there with a shout, although when the boy himself admits "everyone knows that Bayern are the best club" you have to suspect that there'll only be one destination. Surprisingly none of the above had a bid accepted (if they made one), but expect a move after the World Cup.
