Silly Season Part 1

June 10th, 2011 | by: aron |

The silly season posts on this blog will focus mainly on what has actually taken place and will not be a continuous rumor mill for fan boys drooling over their prospective future starting elevens. As is clear from the blog title, it will also be about Swedish players and not just any Swedish players, but the ones most likely to be playing for the national team either now or in the near future.

I start with Johan Elmander, who has plied his trade at the Bolton Wanderers for the last three years; he has signed a contract that takes him to Galatasaray football club in Istanbul. There isn´t all that much to add to this. Of course the football quality is not as high as in the Premiership, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad league either plus Galatasaray is a team that regularly expects to play in the Champions League, which Bolton was never going to do. Rumors have continued to circulate linking other Swedes with the Turkish giants and more specifically Kim Källström who is currently a member of Olympique Lyonnais. I somehow doubt that Källström is going to jump ship though as he seems to be sitting on a good contract and gets a decent amount of playing time he might just stick it out for another year or so.

Örebro’s Michael Almebäck has made the move to Club Brügge. The up and coming central defender wasn’t going to stick around ÖSK for the rest of his life and that had been clear for some time now, however I still have the feeling he could have done better somewhere else. Brugge has also signed former Sweden defender Fredrik Stenman. Stenman has not been a regular in the national team for quite some time and I imagine that things are likely to continue that way in the near future.

Markus Rosenberg, the man without national team motivation (and remember that Gerndt scored in his absence), is headed back to Bundesliga side Werder Bremen after a decent loan spell at Racing Santander. There were rumors that other Spanish Liga teams were looking at him but that he likes Werder enough to give it another shot. I expect him to give it a half season at Werder and then move on if he can’t get enough playing time. Whether we ever see him in the national team again is up for debate: for me I wouldn’t mind having him along but then again he hasn’t really shown anything above ordinary in some time.

Speaking of the bundesliga, there have been some rumors circulating for a while now that German titleholders Borussia Dortmund are out to get Albin Ekdal who is currently at Bologna. While I think this could be a fun move for young Ekdal, its probably not going to happen for several reasons: first he is still unproven and secondly there is his capacity for easily getting injured and I am not sure that would work in Germany. I expect Ekdal to finally have his breakthrough in Bologna and the national team in the fall and then move on to some bigger club just before the Euros next year. Still Dortmund would be a lot of fun with Klopp and the boys as well as a role in the Champions League.

Up and coming player John Guidetti of Manchester City is joining FC Twente in the Eredivisie. If and when he was to make the move, it would make him teammates with Emir Bajrami for the next season. I think this move would be a good one for Guidetti who just is not getting the playing time he needs at Man City due to all the superstars on the roster. If he wants to develop as a player he needs to go to a club like Twente where he will get a real shot at the starting eleven. Mark my words; this could be the start of something big.

There has been plenty of talk surrounding Mikael Lustig and some of it was even big enough to include AC Milan. I don’t think for one second that Lustig is on his way to Milan and on top of that I don’t even know if he could make it in Serie A: I don’t think his defensive attributes are strong enough. What about the Bundesliga though or maybe France? Those would be two good places to try his luck.

Keeping with the Bundesliga theme, I am waiting for the news to come through now any second that Oscar Wendt is being presented by Borussia Mönchengladbach. This move away from FC Copenhagen has been expected for some time and while Wendt always looks good in the Danish league, I think its about time that he gets to ply his trade somewhere where he can continue to develop as a player.

There have been rumors the last couple of days about Mervan Celik after his fantastic season start at GAIS and his recent goal scoring for the U21 national team but I am not sure anything is really going to happen on that front for now. I am also curious as to whether or not Alexander Gerndt sticks around HIF for another season.