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Transfer Hot Stove: Colonization of ‘Gladbach? Marshall to Germany Too?

December 8th, 2008 | By: Carter Daly | 8 Comments »

Even in only the second week of December, the January transfer window talk is already starting to heat up. And it all seems to be coming from the same place: Germany.

While we already have one Yank, Landon Donovan, on loan (and possibly signing?) in Deutschland with Bundesliga super club Bayern Munich, others could be heading over on the same ticket.

Although Michael Bradley has already established himself pretty well thus far, newly promoted side ‘Gladbach continue to struggle into the winter break. Luckily, Mike could have some familiar friends on the way to help pull his squad away from the relegation zone and into safety for another year.

It was rumored today that soon to be out of contract defender Oguchi Onyewu could possibly be lined up for a January move to join his US Men’s National Team teammate. But that’s not all. For good measure, ‘Gladbach might as well tack on FC Dallas striker Kenny Cooper as well to help in the scoring department, right? Possibly, according to the aforementioned story.

I don’t know what kind of Fulham Germany project is going down here, but it does sound quite intriguing. Even so, I think better offers await Gooch in the coming months, such as the previously rumored move to French side Merseille. Gooch is a pretty high in demand defender with only one year on his contract. He is seen as a bargain buy to some bigger clubs in Europe where he can see Champions League or UEFA Cup action every year. For this reason it’s hard seeing him wanting to be the savior of the fleeting ‘Gladbach back line.

A Cooper move to ‘Gladbach, on the other hand, would be a dream scenario. There had been prior talks about Rosenborg and Cardiff City being in for Cooper in the last window, but a move to any Bundesliga team, even ‘Gladbach, would soundly trump both of those possibilities. If Kenny wants the chance to build off his recent performance for the USMNT against Guatemala, a move to Germany would be the perfect way to continue that momentum. And of course, you have to know there is no better way to get recognized by the manager than by suiting up next to his son, right?

But the German adventure doesn’t stop there. Reigning MLS Defender of the Year Chad Marshall is also looking for a heftier pay day and a move abroad. According to the German club’s website, Marshall is currently on a trial with Mainz 05 of the Bundesliga 2. While you may scoff at the idea of lower league football, it is still one of the most competitive second divisions on the continent, and Mainz 05 looks like it could very well earn promotion for next year. If the offers don’t get any greater for Marshall, and he is truly serious about returning to his glorious form from his youth playing days with the Nats, this seems like a pretty good fit for the Columbus Crew center back.

More to come on the Hot Stove tomorrow, including Michael Parkhurst, Marvell Wynne, and more.

Tags: Chad Marshall, Group E, January, Kenny Cooper, Mainz 05, Michael Bradley, Oguchi Onyewu, Transfer Rumors, Yanks Abroad

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Comments

By Nordecke Luchador | December 9th, 2008 at 8:02 am

The Marshall Plan: Rebuild Germany after the war. The Chad Marshall plan: triple your salary by leaving the top MLS team for a second tier German club. The Crew Management Plan: Exploit the workers until they leave the factory for better pay and working conditions. Columbus Till I Die.
http://nordeckeluchador.blogspot.com/

By Nick | December 9th, 2008 at 8:37 am

There’s a certain risk/reward there. It would suck to have Cooper and Bradley both in the 2 should ‘Gladbach not make it out of the relegation zone.

(Chad Marshall being elevated to the Bundesliga wouldn’t be much of a consolation in my book considering he’s not one of our A list national team members.)

Posted from United States

By Nick | December 9th, 2008 at 8:38 am

Ohh…and I’m assuming Gooch doesn’t go there. Like you say, there are better options (please let there be better options.)

Posted from United States

By Carl | December 10th, 2008 at 8:40 am

Hi folks,

I’m tracking several US-football (I know, but I can’t use the s-word) blogs for quite a while now, looking out for one name. And all I found was one mention like “played the whole game” between dozends of other informations of field-time for US players playing abroad.
Hello?
The player I’m talking about is: Neven Subotic!
No.1 Bundesliga-Defender for the first half of the season and one of the hottest prospects of the league (today is his 20th birthday).
Although he has made some matches for the U17 and U20 US-teams, he is free to choose the country he will play for in the A-squad. This choise is between Bosnia, Serbia and the US (he already turned Bosnia down). If he was able to play for Germany and was in this situation, you bet that Löw would have contacted him already. But maybe the US-team doesn’t need an extraordinary defender, who astablished in an anstonishing way in a european top-league. Even if Onyewu is as good as thought, which remains to be seen (he doesn’t matches the big ones in the Belgium League), there is still another inner defender needed.
I mean, it is all about LD (other topic – won’t comment that here), Adu (81 minutes this season), Altidore (229 minutes this season), Onyewu (Belgium League), Bradley, etc.
And on the other hand you do have an absolute diamond, who is proving week for week, that he has got what it takes to make it on the top level – and it seems to me, that he is absolutely ignored by everyone over there.

Sorry for the length of the post, but I just don’t get it.

Best regard from Germany

By Nick | December 10th, 2008 at 9:16 am

Neven has been the subject of many posts here and at other blogs. (I think this site is searchable and posts are tagged so I’d start there.)

Re: The coverage, there was a bunch early on in the Bundesliga season and more around the time that it was rumored he had chosen Serbia (which proved to be false,) but you’re right, coverage has seemed to have cooled of late. Maybe it’s because we’re still hesitant to invest time in following his career as we’ve been on the losing side of these national allegiance battles lately.

Regardless, having Neven available for 2010 would be amazing (if not realistic.) The thought is that we could slide Bocanegra to LB (a position of weakness currently.) Additionally, Nevin is really good in the air so we’d go from a good set piece team to a great one, IMO.

Posted from United States

By Carl | December 10th, 2008 at 10:51 am

Thanks for your reply.
And yes, you’re right. There are several posts that escaped my notice. I’m sorry for that.

But why wouldn’t it be realistic to have him for 2010? Sure, maybe his family would vote for Serbia (we have the same issue here with many players of turkish descent), but from the point of career planning the US would hold some trumps, too.
Why doesn’t he just get an invitation to the NT? Or is there something prepared behind the scenes? I miss action.

By Nick | December 10th, 2008 at 12:09 pm

Carl,
Maybe it is realistic to have him in 2010, but I’d think we’d want to get meaningful playing time from him in qualifying if we’re going to shuffle the lineup (ehh, what am I saying? Yeah, we’d make him available in a heartbeat. So I take that line back ).

As far as I know, he has an open invite to the National Team, he just hasn’t accepted the invite.

http://tags.worldcupblog.org/neven-subotic/

Posted from United States

By Juliet | December 11th, 2008 at 10:11 am

“Fulham Germany” — Love it! Borussia M’gladbach is a team with a proud history, though that storied time is fast receding. :/ Still, they’ve got a good team and I’m genuinely surprised they’re in the relegation zone. I think they’ll manage to pull them selves out by the end of the season. It’d be great if we had more Americans playing in the Bundesliga — both the first and second divisions enjoy tremendous attendance and support, and the level of play is high.

Mainz was in the first league two seasons ago, so it’s not unthinkable they’ll get themselves back up.

Carl, from what I have read, a U20 coach really offended Subotic several years ago and the rumor is now that he will never play for the U.S.

The following article discusses the situation:
http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/1614/americans-abroad/2008/11/15/966243/rongen-defends-subotic-comment

Posted from Hong Kong