Season thread for all things Bundesliga! Supercup is in 10 days and week 1 is 6 days after that.

MIA SAN MIA!!

In reply to Legal Custodian Thanks for starting a new thread.

Wild transfer season for Leipzig, with record fees for both outgoing (Gvardiol) and incoming (Openda) players. Pretty sure they're also blowing away their records for total gained and spent in one season. Probably for net profit too. So much movement and they're supposedly not done.

I'm sad to lose Gvardiol and Szobo, but happy with the fees and think it was good business. I'm kinda glad to see Nkunku go… he was checked out last season since he already had a verbal agreement with Chelsea and was just biding his time for a release clause to kick in this summer.

Yeah that Gvardiol deal seemed like a no brainer. I think this season will be really interesting.

I'll probably still predict a Bayern title but it ain't gonna be easy

Also, looks like we might be selling Goretzka

Not sure how to feel about us buying Harry Kane. But it's gonna be nice playing with a true #9 again after last year.

But could you imagine the jokes if somehow Bayern doesn't win again this year?

Well apparently now Kane might be wanting to stay at Tottenham. At least according to the latest reports at Sky Sports.

In reply to Legal Custodian I feel like the price is insane for a 31 year old on his last year of a contract.

So selfishly I hope this goes through

In reply to deadbq03

deadbq03 said:

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I feel like the price is insane for a 31 year old on his last year of a contract.

So selfishly I hope this goes through

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I agree, and looking at our recent history majority of our big ticket transfers haven't really panned out over the past 6-8 years.

Big Transfer Fees ($20m or more)
2023 - Min-jae Kim - $50m (too early to tell)
2022 - Mattijs de Ligt - $67m (so far worth every penny)
2022 - Sadio Mane - $32m (terrible signing)
2022 - Mathys Tel - $20m (too early to tell)
2021 - Dayot Upamecano - $42.5m (not off to a good start for us and as of now probably isn't the starter)
2020 - Leroy Sane - $49m (wish we could get rid of him, just super lazy and inconsistent, not worth $49m)
2019 - Benjamin Pavard - $35m - (good LB)
2019 - Lucas Hernandez - $80m (flop)
2017 - Corentin Tolisso - $41.5m (Never a high end starter for us)
2017 - Niklas Sule - $20m (Decent player for us for sure)
2017 - Kingsley Coman - $21m (Really good player for us)
2016 - Mats Hummels - $35m (Quality player, but never for us)
2016 - Renato Sanches - $35m (Nah)

Small Transfer fees or free agents ($19.9m or less)
2023 - Konrad Laimer - Free
2022 - Ryan Gravenberch - $18.5m (off the bench sub)
2022 - Yann Sommer - $9m (good GK but a big dropoff from Neuer)
2022 - Joao Cancelo - Loan
2022 - Noussair Mazraoui - Free (young prospect)
2021 - Marcel Sabitzer - $15m (Hardly played for us, sold for $19m)
2020 - Marc Roca - $9m (not bad but seemed to always be injured)
2020 - Bouna Sarr - $8m
2020 - Jamal Musiala - Academy Free
2020 - Choupo-Moting - Free (starting 9 last year)
2019 - Perisic, Coutinho, and Cuisance - $5m,$8.5,$8m
2018 - Alphonso Davies - $14m (no message needed)
2018 - Leon Goretzka - Free (no message needed)
2017 - Sandro Wagner, James Rodriguez - $13m
2017 - Serge Gnabry - $8m
2016 - Joshua Kimmich - $8.5m

Our starting Forwards and Midfielders last year cost a total of $37.5m! And that's if you include Muller too.
Our starting back line last year cost $158.5m!

And what was our biggest issue last year? Defense. Our bread and butter is our academy and our scouting department. We've gone away from that big time in the last 5 years and I don't like it.

Kane to Bayern

In reply to Legal Custodian Thanks. I think the scoreline flatters Leipzig but I'll certainly take it.

I missed the first half, sadly, and I certainly wasn't comfortable watching even with a 2 goal lead.

Y'all looked noticeably worse after Kane came on… super hard debut for him and IMO they should've waited a week to give him some time to gel despite the fans' calling for him. He was lost out there.

Really shocked how tight the top of the table is 5 matches into the season. Loving it!

Didn't realize we had a new thread for the year.

Serhou Guirrasy and Stuttgart have to be the story of the season early on. The man is on fire

Leverkusen is legit. They've beaten Leipzig already and drawn Bayern in Munich. Will be really interesting to see if Real Madrid decides to call Xabi Alonso up mid-season. It's a foregone conclusion he's the heir. If they can keep him all year, I could see Leverkusen winning this year.

Leipzig-Bayern will be must-see this weekend. Bayern are gonna be looking to avenge the Super Cup loss, and Kane will undoubtedly be way better than he was that day having just stepped off the plane the day before.

In reply to deadbq03 Leipzig scares the crap out of me. And I agree, Leverkusen is a really good squad this year.

Dortmund, for whatever reason, just does not scare me this year. I think they've been buoyed by an amazing talent or two the past 5 years and it's gonna catch up to them this year.

I have to think it'll end up being:

Bayern
RB Leipzig
Leverkusen

at the top in whatever order. I'm a little shocked at Union Berlin's struggles so far this year with 3 straight league losses to Leipzig, Wolfsburg, and Hoffenheim.

I'm really shocked that Mainz is at the bottom of the table. Their one point came with a draw to Frankfurt at home. Mainz has been a really solid club the past 2 years but they have struggled mightily against middle of the table clubs so far (Augsburg, Werder Bremen, etc.)

Bayern are about to poach another director from Leipzig.

Has there ever been a case in the past 2 decades where a Bundesliga club pulled a player, coach, or executive from Bayern that Bayern really wanted to keep? The league (and country) is such a one-way street.

In reply to deadbq03 Don't hate us cause you ain't us

True story

What a wild game. Draw is probably fair, though I feel Leipzig probably had a few more dangerous opportunities in the game. Especially at the end - Leipzig squandered a couple of really nice opportunities.

Penalty was unfortunate but washes out the bad corner call that led to a goal. (Sidebar - that's my #1 complaint with VAR. I think Freekick-Corner decisions deserve to be reviewable. It's too big of a difference in outcome to get that wrong and it's a super clear cut call to make.)

I cannot figure this Bayern team out. Lose in the Pokal to a 3rd tier team and then come out and absolutely drub Dortmund.

Is this the least exciting Bundesliga season in the past 4 years or something? We have barely posted on this thread compared to seasons past.

Crazy how Leverkusen has dominated the 1st half of the season. We'll see if Neverkusen rears their ugly head in the second half.

Big match today for Bayern vs a decent club in Hoffenheim.

RIP Beckenbauer

In reply to deadbq03 Why did RB loan out Werner?

In reply to Legal Custodian Openda is a better 9 than him, and Leipzig use their fullbacks for width so they don't need him as a winger and he's not creative enough as an AM.

So he doesn't really have a firm spot in the starting 11 anymore - and yet IIRC he's the highest salary on the team (or at least top 3). I'm not really all that sad to see him go to be honest, but I wish him the best and I'll be rooting for him.

In reply to deadbq03

deadbq03 said:

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Openda is a better 9 than him, and Leipzig use their fullbacks for width so they don't need him as a winger and he's not creative enough as an AM.

So he doesn't really have a firm spot in the starting 11 anymore - and yet IIRC he's the highest salary on the team (or at least top 3). I'm not really all that sad to see him go to be honest, but I wish him the best and I'll be rooting for him.

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Fair enough. What a fall from grace he's had, I blame Chelsea.

Fun match day so far. That Augsburg/Leverkusen finish was intense.

0-0 with Leverkusen having about 90% possession the second half. Augsburg had about two goals called back for offsides. And they were not giving Leverkusen any decent chance. Just hanging on before Palacios finally broke thru in the 90+4'. Seem like the team of destiny this year.

Gonna be a funny story line about Harry Kane if Bayern somehow doesn't win a trophy this year.

Frustrating for me. Yet another game where Leipzig totally dominated every stat but the most important one.

"Team of destiny" might be right.

In reply to deadbq03

deadbq03 said:

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"Team of destiny" might be right.

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Yeah that was a tough one buddy

Bayern loses to Werder Bremen 1-0.

In reply to themissinglink

themissinglink said:

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Bayern loses to Werder Bremen 1-0.

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Yeah our defense is ***** Harry Kane came to this team that has averaged damn near 2 trophy's a year and this'll be the first time we don't win one in 10+ years.

I've seen this train coming ever since we hired Tuchel. He needs to go tomorrow

Plus our academy has turned to **** too and no development is happening like it was 7-8 years ago. Outside of Musiala

Also I think it's more than mere happenstance that die Mannschaft look truly awful over the same span. Those guys aren't playing well together.

Tough game so far for Leipzig. Didn't realize Stuttgart has never beaten RB before

This team sucks after the break.

I hate Tuchel