The 2011 Summer Transfer Window finally slammed shut on August 31, and clubs in Germany ceased their activities after a busy transfer window. Players were bought, sold and loaned out all across the planet. Here you can find a review of the winners and losers of the transfer window.
Bundesliga Transfer Window Winners And Losers
The 2011 Summer Transfer Window closed, and we’ll review the winners and losers. The clear winners are the reigning champions Borussia Dortmund.
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Winners
Borussia Dortmund: It has to be said that last season's champion came out as kings at the closure of the window. Since January there was speculation at whether they would be able to retain their talented team. The likes of Shinji Kagawa, Mario Götze, Kevin Großkretuz, Mats Hummels and Neven Subotic are staying in Dortmund. The only loss to speak of is Nuri Şahin heading to Real Madrid. Jürgen Klopp brought in İlkay Gündoğan, Ivan Perišić and Chris Löwe on transfers and Moritz Leitner returns from his Augsburg loan. I don't think you can say their summer was anything but a success. Bringing in those players as reinforcements to their current stars will aid this club in their title defense and their first foray in to the Champions league.
SC Freiburg and 1899 Hoffenheim: Papiss Cissé and Vedad Ibišević are staying in the Bundesliga for at least another season as proposed moves to anywhere in the case of Cisse and Blackburn for Ibišević fell through. For Freiburg this is a move to help them avoid relegation this season. Cissé expressed interest in leaving several times throughout the summer, but he’ll keep his goal scoring boots in Freiburg for another season. Ibišević is still out with an injury he suffered in the preseason, but once he returns to the Hoffenheim side it’ll be needed depth to their front line.
Schalke 04: Ralf Rangnick's stated goal this summer was to drastically reduce size of the squad that had become bloated under previous manager Felix Magath. The club saw 15 players leave by either transfer or loan. The big loss was Manuel Neuer heading to Bayern Munich for €18m. The transfer fee makes Neuer the third most expensive goalkeeper transfer. They replaced him with Eintracht Frankfurt goalkeeper Ralf Fährmann who returns to the club of his youth. The reason I consider them winners is for the two players brought in from Mainz 05. Lewis Holtby returns from his season long loan after an outstanding campaign. The other was a signing to strengthen their defense in Christian Fuchs. I like Schalke and expect big things from them this season.
Borussia Mönchengladbach: Gladbach is a winner, because they still have the amazing Marco Reus in their side. Have you seen this kid play? He’s spectacular.
Bayern Munich: This summer they focused on strengthening their main weakness: defense. Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer and defenders Jerome Boateng and Rafinha were brought to the club to help bring the championship back to Munich. With the improvement of Holger Badstuber through the first four matches of the season, things look to be heading in the right direction among the Bayern back line. We do know that Bayern will only go as far as a healthy Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery can take them. They decided that they did not to sign any coverage for the two of them, and it's a very risky decision to take.
Losers
Hannover 96: I am only including Hannover in this group, because I feel that they didn’t build any quality depth with their moves this summer. I like the signing of Henning Hauger in the midfield but I don’t think it’s enough. This season the club will be battling on three different fronts in the Bundesliga, the DFB Pokal and the Europa League. The Europa League group stage alone is an additional 6 matches, and I think the club can be expected to advance beyond the group stages. Their depth will be tested, and they’ll have to hope that this squad is strong enough to do battle.
Nürnberg: Der Club made a few euros this summer selling defender Andreas Wolf to Werder Bremen and midfielder İlkay Gündoğan to Borussia Dortmund. They also saw Julian Schieber and Mehmet Ekici return to their clubs after their loans expired. While the signings of Tomáš Pekhart and Timm Klose are quality, it’s not enough to replace the players that they lost. After a sixth place finish last season, I don’t think you can expect that type of form to be replicated again this season.
Kaiserslautern: Just like Nürnberg, Kaiserslautern appears to have sold too many players that helped them succeed so much last season. Croatian forward Srđan Lakić was sold to Wolfsburg, Czech midfielder Jan Morávek returned to Schalke 04 with the completion of his season long loan, and Croatian midfielder Ivo Iličević was sold to Hamburg on the last day of the window. They currently sit second from bottom with no real hope in sight. Am I supposed to believe that Itay Shechter is going to come in and score enough goals to keep them from relegation?
Augsburg: The newly promoted club really did themselves no favors with a rather weak summer. Moritz Leitner returns to Borussia Dortmund with the completion of his six month loan, and they sold Ibrahima Traoré to Stuttgart. I’m not sure if I saw a single preseason prediction that had anything other than Augsburg being relegated back to the 2.Bundesliga. This transfer window did nothing to convince me otherwise.
And finally...
They Saw So Much Turnover That Good Things Have To Happen, Right?
Wolfsburg and Hamburg: There wasn’t a single team more active in the transfer market than both Wolfsburg and Hamburg.
Wolfsburg has shipped out Fabian Johnson, Grafite, Diego and Simon Kjær while bringing in Marco Russ, Sotirios Kyrgiakos, Christian Träsch, Hasan Salihamidžić, Thomas Hitzlsperger, Srđan Lakić and Alexander Hleb. This is not that surprising, because Felix Magath buys a ton of players everywhere he goes. Wolfsburg biggest problems have been defensively and in communication between the defenders and midfielders. As talented as he was in Serie A for Palermo, Kjær could never get his feet under him in the Bundesliga. He put in one of the worst defensive performances in some time against Borussia Mönchengladbach earlier this year. Magath is going to have to work some magic to get them back to the top of the table.
Hamburg named Frank Arnesen sporting director earlier this year, and the man has been busy. This summer the club saw the departure of Frank Rost, Joris Mathijsen, Ze Roberto, Eljero Elia, Piotr Trochowski, Jonathan Pitroipa and Ruud van Nistelrooy. Being a former Chelsea man, Arnesen went and raided his old clubs. He didn't go after any established stars but the kids. Michael Mancienne, Jeffrey Bruma, Gökhan Töre and Slobodan Rajkovic are making the move from London to Hamburg. Arnesen also brought in Per Ciljan Skjelbred from Rosenborg and Ivo Iličević. Regardless of the moves made by Arnesen in this window, the general feeling is that the club won't turn things around until Michael Oenning is replaced as manager.
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