Here's the thread for all things Bundesliga this season!

Supercup between Leverkusen and Stuttgart is on the 17th.

I think this year will be a much tighter race and will see Bayern come out on top once again! Will be a fast start for Bayern until teams catch up to what Kompany is doing then it will be hard for him to recover.

First league match is Leverkusen vs 'Gladbach on Aug 23rd.

Mia San Mia!

Thanks for starting a new thread!

Ought to be an interesting year, with both Bayern and Dortmund having new, largely unproven coaches (but popular players) at the helm. I feel like it's setup for
Leverkusen or Leipzig to get the title this year, but who knows?

It's probably just wishful thinking on my part, but I think Bayern have 1 more year of drama in them. New coach and a lot of high-profile transfers all at the same time. Theyre playing with fire… they might be cooking, but they might burn the house down. I get the sense that they need a board shakeup - get Hoeness and maybe some others away from the organization.

Leipzig has had a relatively quiet transfer window so far. We're loaning Xavi Simons' punchable face again, which is objectively a good thing for many reasons, but he is a beating to watch when things don't go his way. It looks like Olmo to Barca is just a matter of time, which sucks because I really like him. I hope we can sign a midfielder, but largely I think having a settled squad with minimal changes is a good thing this year. Rose will have no excuses… I want to see us start strong for once… several seasons in a row where if we started the fall in the same vein of form we had in the spring, we'd have been challenging for the trophy.

Yeah, who knows when it comes to Bayern. I have to think that they're gonna need some stability and will give Kompany enough rope and grace to do what he thinks will get him on top. The 3rd place finish last year will hopefully give Bayern the cover to make some big changes and revamp the system. I think Kompany will get a full 2 years and if doesn't win one of those years he'll be out, but if he gets one league trophy they'll give the start of a 3rd season.

I'll be curious how Leverkusen does to follow up their invincible season with a target on their back all year. Those 4 teams you mentioned seem to be the class of the Bundesliga this year, but it feels weird leaving off Stuttgart who finished 2nd.

Bayern
Leverkusen
Leipzig
Dortmund

is my prediction

Hopefully, Alonso can get Leverkusen rolling again. Would love to see a multiteam battle late into the season.

I'm not 100% sold on olmo as a done deal. Barca have to spread out the payments for their spending ratio but that doesn't help Leipzig at all to replace him. I think this one goes late into the window if it happens and I wouldn't accept future money from a club who tried to mortgage future CL revenues a few years back.

That's fair; I'm probably being a bit too pessimistic. Barca's first offer was hot garbage and Leipzig rightly turned it down. And supposedly they've turned down a 2nd offer too.

Leipzig has shown a willingness to act a bit more like a big club and play hard ball in recent years. A couple years ago they made Laimer wind down his contract and leave on a free rather than sell him to Bayern for far less than they thought he was worth.

That said, I think Barca will sell their kidneys and find a way. Which seems crazy because it seems like they have bigger positions of need if they're gonna splurge. This just seems like they irrationally want to bring a La Masia academy Spanish international back home, just for the sake of honor/pride.

Well looks like I posted too soon. Deco headed there soon to finalize as they've met Leipzig's terms, per Spanish press.

I do think Barca have bigger needs but perhaps oft injured pedri and back from major knee surgery gavi, combined with the need for cash probably making de jong more expendable are playing into the thought process here. Gundogan is 33/34? too so there's the future to consider.

Yeah, it's "here we go" confirmed.

🚨🔵🔴 EXCL: Dani Olmo to Barça, here we go! Verbal agreement in place after key mission in Leipzig for Barça director Deco.

€55m guaranteed package plus €7m in add-ons, main part difficult to reach.

Olmo agreed on six year deal valid until June 2030 and he wanted Barça move. pic.twitter.com/Y3aZHyf9iF

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 6, 2024

Good point on Gundogan. He's well past the age where he could drop off quickly with almost no notice.

I'm not sure how Olmo would do as an 8. I'm pretty sure Leipzig only played him as a 10 and an occasional false-9. But Leipzig rarely use a traditional 8, but rather two 6's in a double pivot, so he's never had the opportunity. (Alternatively, Leipzig almost always had 2 10's on the field, so he got gobs of time there). Given how much Leipzig required him to press as a 10, and his high football IQ, I'm sure he's at least pretty good as an 8. He can also fill in as a winger, if needed, so his versatility makes him good depth. He has the skills to do every role that plays forward of a 6.

I look forward to seeing how Barca do under Flick and will definitely continue to root for Olmo there. Great player with a great attitude. One of my favs and sad to see him go, but I do think Leipzig got a pretty good price for him considering his injury history.

Barca doesn't have one pivot right now, let alone two. My assumption was that he'd play as an 8 but I suppose he could play higher with de jong and gavi healthy.

Olmo replacement signed!

🔴⚪️🤝🏻 Official, confirmed. Antonio Nusa joins RB Leipzig on five year deal from Club Brugge.

Package in excess of €21m plus add-ons.

Replacement for Dani Olmo, sorted. 🌟 pic.twitter.com/eynisaNjk6

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 13, 2024

Just from initial googling it looks like he's mainly a LW. Is he going to be a plug and play for Olmo's spot?

It's intriguing. He'll definitely do things differently. Olmo was a wizard who beat people with ball-skills and high football IQ. Seems like Nusa is a speed demon… I saw a scout's opinion that (when healthy) his best comparison is Monaco-level Mbappe. High praise, if true.

But the more I read, this seems like a big risk, too, due to injury concerns. Brentford almost signed him for 35M Euro in January, but he failed his medical. Palace wanted him to replace Olise earlier this summer and were going to pay around 29, but backed out due to the injury concerns (I don't think they actually got to a medical phase themselves but going off his history). Leipzig getting him for just 21M makes it seem like even Brugge has to admit he's a risk.

But he passed Leipzig's medical, and Leipzig's front office isn't known for crappy deals, so maybe he's better now? Or maybe that Barca money is just burning a hole in their pocket.

Nusa scored off the bench in the Pokal game today against minnows. I didn't get to watch though.

Also… Leipzig debuted a 16 year old Viggo Gebel in the closing minutes. He's an academy product who went on the US tour with the senior squad and impressed the coaches.

Looking at other action… Was Goretska not even on the bench for Bayern yesterday?

Dude fell off hard after Flick left.

Leverkusen winning it in the 11th minute of stoppage because of course they are.

My Bayern buddy texted saying the fix was in for Leverkusen already

Undeserved perhaps, but I'll take it and refuse to give it back.

will be interesting to see how Leverkusen react now. do they stumble or rally.

Exactly how everyone drew it up so far

Lennard Maloney still doing a thing on the most underrated team in Bundesliga.

Top shelf bangers in this match so far. Bayern look good and ought to be winning, but that was a fantastic goal against the run of play to open the scoring. Fun game to watch as a neutral.

🚨 Jurgen Klopp joins The Red Bull Group as new Global Head of Soccer, coordinating all the clubs including RB Leipzig, Salzburg and more.

Klopp will advise all the clubs on transfers/strategy from January 1, 2025.

“I want to develop the incredible soccer talent that we have”. pic.twitter.com/RTq4TpC2Iy

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) October 9, 2024

Sounds like a great match.

I'm excited, but also very surprised.

I always thought he'd coach at Dortmund or Mainz again. In fact, I've long thought that Dortmund's coaching change this summer was merely a 1 year caretaker role.

Guess he really was tired. This doesn't preclude him from coaching again, but it's definitely gonna be less grind. It's also interesting from a standpoint of how Leipzig is seen amongst Bundesliga traditionalists. His reputation amongst some in Germany will certainly take hit.

For some reason this thread dropped off my watchlist.

Very interesting season so far. My prediction for Bayern is holding true with a hot start followed by the rest of the league figured out what Kompany is doing and hitting a lull. 6 teams within 3pts of Bayern and RB at the top of the table.

Maybe he'll lose the respect of some, but this is not really a coaching gig, so I doubt it would preclude him from getting just about any job in the nation that he wants if he ever decides to go back to it.

Also, this leaves open the opportunity of him being in the States on occasion, which means I might could finally get that hug.