Owomoyela to BVB

The tale of a player leaving a successful squad in search of the elusive beast of “Regular First Team Football” is an age old one. In fact it has become an annual tradition at clubs in the business end of the table who often make long cup runs and forays into Europe. It’s simple really. To maintain a strong showing on several fronts, you need a large squad. Until they change the basic rules of the game, each team can only field 11 players and throw on a few substitutes. As a result, you have a population of good players who sit behind great players in the depth chart and just don’t play that much. And footballers want to play football. Crazy, I know.

Within the last 10 months, Christian Schulz left for Hanover as last season began and Leon Andreasen found his way to Fulham during the winter transfer window. Schulz had a solid season and was always a first choice player for Dieter Hecking. Andreasen featured often for the Cottagers upon his arrival, but his playing time dwindled to nil as Fulham’s Great Escape was completed. And let’s not forget that Daniel Jensen was repeatedly very close to leaving as well, looking to play more.

Well, Patrick Owomoyela is the latest player to leave Werder and sign with a club that promises more playing opportunities, namely Dortmund. Although limited to just 12 total appearances in 07/08, Owo has played in 50 Bundesliga matches for Werder, in addition to 30 appearances in European competitions. He has been a fine steward for Bremen over the last three years, being able to lineup in the back or in the midfield. Even though his passing and field vision leave a lot to be desired, he is an above average marker of men and rarely commits defensive errors. As the Klopp-ening of BVB continues in earnest, he’ll have a good shot at starting on the right side come opening day. Werder really didn’t want him to go, but despite the persuasions of Allofs and Co, he’s off to the Ruhr.

Every team that carries a large roster of quality players must continually deal with these inevitable departures. Some players you can convince to stay, others will leave regardless. Bremen have two major strikes against it however - the lack of huge sums of money and the lack of sexiness.

Smaller clubs will no doubt cringe at my claims of relative poverty, but when compared to their direct competitors for talent, Werder typically can’t compete. They haven’t traditionally paid out large transfer fees and they keep their player wage expenditures in check. Fiscally responsible clubs will be around for a long time, but have a harder time in convincing unhappy players to stay.

And despite their commitment to positive, attacking football, Bremen remain a fairly unglamorous club. The consistent presence in the CL is a recent (5 year) development, the city is relatively small not remotely flashy, and there are less endorsement/sponsorship possibilities. Most modern footballers care about these things and would look for them in a potential employer. And they definitely contribute to players wanting to leave (although not always).

Some serious shopping needs to be done to replace these role players heading for the exits. As the injury ravaged 07/08 season showed us, without a deep bench, you stumble out of the gate in the league, crash out of the cup in the early stages and get hammered by weaker sides in the CL. At home. A bench of Vranjes, Niemeyer and Schindler didn’t exactly instill confidence, nor will it ever.

Category: Team News

Tags: Team News

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