If there's one thing that even the World Cup can't stop, it's the never-ending churn of the transfer rumor pool. In all of this noise, there's been one great forward that has somehow managed to avoid being roped in to the nonsense. That is until now.
Arsenal, Liverpool reportedly want Klaas-Jan Huntelaar; Schalke would be foolish to let him go
The Hunter is once again a target for English clubs.
Sascha Steinbach
De Telegraaf is reporting that both Arsenal and Liverpool are bringing Klaas-Jan Huntelar to the lonely island in the North Sea. It seems as though Arsenal has been sniffing around Huntelaar for the last decade. The Liverpool interest stems from the rumor that they’re going to sell Luis Suarez for around €90 million to Barcelona.
As for Huntelaar, he is under contract with Schalke through next summer (2015). He told De Telegraaf that he would “speak to Schalke first” when he returns from holiday after the World Cup about extending his contract before considering any other offers. As he is turning 31 in August, his next contract is likely his last big money deal and possibly his final deal. So, the obvious thing for Huntelaar to do is to take the money.
The question that we will ask here today is “What should Schalke do?”
Taking everything into consideration, Schalke must consider offering The Hunter whatever it is that he wants. Over the last four seasons, he’s been the one guy that they could count on to score goals. Huntelaar has scored 91 goals for Die Königsblauen in all competitions. The next closest is Jefferson Farfan with 31 goals. He’s the only “sure-thing” goalscorer that the club has had for years now.
Next season, the competition for one of the Bundesliga's four berths into the UEFA Champions League grows. While Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund are more than likely locks for two of those spots, the remaining are very much up for grabs. As of now, Schalke's competition appears that it will once again be Bayer Leverkusen, Borussia Mönchengladbach, and Wolfsburg. These teams have been improving their squads in the transfer window, yet Schalke has one weapon in their arsenal that neither of the other three can boast. That weapon in Huntelaar.
However, if the end of the transfer window begins to creep closer and no deal with Huntelaar has been reached, Schalke must move quickly if they intend to sell him in the summer. They would suffer greatly if they sold Huntelaar too late in the window to make a solid replacement purchase. The club has basically swapped back-up forwards with Adam Szalai leaving and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting joining, but they aren’t good enough to lead the line of a club hoping to compete in the Bundesliga and Champions League.
Schalke have been quietly building a squad ripe with young, extremely talented players. However, losing Huntelaar would severely hamper any aspirations held by the club of joining the “elite” of Bayern and Dortmund, at least for the immediate future. Supporters have been struggling for years with Schalke’s, at times, absentminded transfer policy but securing Huntelaar’s future in Gelsenkirchen would go a long way towards securing the club’s future as a regular in the Champions League.
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