Oh Magath, Hamback to the Nord

[Imparator]

Hamburg SV

View attachment 358557

2015/16 Season Preparations

View attachment 358555

I'll show the transfers we made in the next update for August at the end of the transfer window, but a lot of players left and a few new faces came, so a lot of players are not familiar with club tactics. Spent the month of July getting everyone ready for the season ahead and familiarising the new players with my tactics and formation.

German Super Cup

View attachment 358553

We went down to a hard-working Gladbach squad. We had more of the chances but the newer guys failed to make too much of an impact in their first professional outing for the club. I'm not too concerned with the result and just wanted to get run into the legs of the new guys.

Transfers

Although I will leave the transfer update for Hamburg to the next post, I will show the activity of other teams in the market.

View attachment 358551
FC Bayern Munchen Transfer History

View attachment 358550
Borussia Dortmund Transfer History

View attachment 358549
Schalke Transfer History

View attachment 358548
Wolfsburg Transfer History

View attachment 358547
Bayer Leverkusen Transfer History

​

 

[simoo88]

When is the next update? I'm really curious to see your transfers.

 

[Imparator]

When is the next update? I'm really curious to see your transfers.

Typing it up right now.

 

[Imparator]

Hamburg SV

View attachment 357907

Summer Transfer Window

View attachment 357906

A flurry of activity in the transfer market for us as we bring 9 new faces to the club, 2 who had signed on loan deals in our first season in Johan Djourou and Ouasim Bouy.

View attachment 357905

Craig Dawson was the first transfer we completed, joining on a pre-contract in January last season and finally making the move from West Bromwich. We pick him up as offers come in for Bellusci from Italy, and as an English defender, he adds strength to the squad. I'm a big fan of having teams that are centred around players with impressive physical attributes in attack and defence, and tactical flair in the midfield. Dawson is the ideal signing for us at Centre Back and I'm hoping for big things from him this season as he partners with the ever-improving Jonathan Tah.

View attachment 357904

Leonardo Capezzi was the next signing, also coming on a pre-contract negotiated to the latter part of last season as Inter Milan would not settle on a deal for Marco Benassi. He has the technical attributes we need in the middle, and a lot of room for growth.

View attachment 357903

Our first signing of the new season. Ouasim Bouy was on the transfer list at Juventus, and being somewhat familiar with the clubs style and philosophy, as well as already having made friends at the club, he seemed like a great deal for the price and wage demands as cover for midfield. He has great creativity, first touch and technique. All the attributes I look for in my playmakers.

View attachment 357901View attachment 357899

With Davy Propper unsettled and wanting to leave the club, Thorgan Hazard comes in as back-up to Hakan Calhanoglu. Chelsea had him listed and for 875k he was an absolute bargain. One of our problems last season was the lack of depth in attack and it hurt us against Shakhtar during the Europa league Ro32 fixture. So Christian Atsu comes in to provide cover for Tom Ince, as well as being the only natural LM in the team, opening up options for a 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1 in the future, and at only 3m he was also a considerable bargain.

View attachment 357896

I wasn't going to offload Diouf after his wonderful spell last season, however Schalke came in with a tantalising bid of 12.5m, 10.5m upfront with 2m spread over the next 24 months. This meant we needed a striker who could rival Diouf, if not outperform him as a DLF. Rooney was on the transfer list but his wages were too high, and Aston Villa settled for a deal worth 19m with Liverpool for Benteke, rejecting our advances for the young Belgian centre forward. I decided to look outside the box and made several offers. A deal was negotiated for Benzia for 12m, giving us a promising replacement for Diouf for 500k less than his outgoing fee. Benzia will need to be trained for the DLF role, but he's still very young and will adapt to the team quickly.

View attachment 357895

7 million may seem like an outrageous price to pay for a winger who is 'unproven' at the highest level, however Kasper has the potential to be our starting winger on the right, and his value immediately rose from 1.3m to 10.5m after the transfer. He has all the necessary attributes to fit into the team, and with the right training and guidance looks to be a future star at the club.

View attachment 357891

Santiago Arias was a late inclusion to our transfer expenditure, as Vasilis Torosidis asked to leave the club, and Dennis Diekmeier got injured. He was available on the cheap with low wages. Will just be back-up player, and I don't have ambitions to include him in the starting 11 for a while unless he improves drastically.

So we had a total expenditure of 26.5m, receiving a little over 21m in fees from our sales. The squad is a lot stronger now, and for the first time since I took over we have players signed on permanent, long-term deals.

We also received offers for Jonathan Tah and Hakan Calhanoglu, but they were nowhere near their true valuation, with Real Madrid offering only 25m for Hakan, and Barcelona offering 20m for Tah.

I'll provide a separate update later on for the August and September fixtures, as well the Champions League group draw.​