A Horse Named Stranger

For the record. Last second tier team to win their play-off game. Düsseldorf 2013 against (Hertha) Berlin. But honestly speaking neither Union nor Paderborn actually deserved to win promotion. The race for promotion alongside Köln has been so utterly pathetic this year, this was really a lower quality version of the EPL race for the CL spots (alongside Liverpool and City). I am just happy mordor did not luck out and have to stay down for another year. Hopefully they'll feel the cuts to their budget.

Which war do you mean? Their internal war over Europe is over. The dingbat fraction around Mogg has won that one. The burned and hollowed remains of Ken Clarke don't really make much of a difference in that respect. Their war against reality, yeah, that one is still ongoing. Semi-related to that, their internal war of succession, which has thus far kept May in office, yeah, that is also still going on. That will presumably end after their leadership contest in October. Too lazy to add a spoiler tag, I am gonna spoil anyway. All hail King Boris, Fat of his name. Just remember how not two months ago a Polish gentleman urged the UK not to waste anymore of the time that has been given to them? That was so cute, it was like watching him begging an ill trained dog not to crap on the carpet, while trying to remember the number of the vet. You kinda have to feel sorry for Ian Dunt. You can almost hear him banging his head against his desk.

So Bundesliga has ended as expected. Bayern trhashed Frankfurt convincingly after the latter dared to score the equalizer. Also Robben and Ribery, who were brought during the second half each scored a goal on their final appearence for the club. Ribery's goal was particularly lovely; 5-1 the final score. Frankfurt were temporarily out of the European places until... Hoffenheim have failed to win another game from a winning position. They were up 2-0 against Mainz only to collapse in the second half and lose 4-2 there. Interesting, that Mainz of all teams kept their rivals Frankfurt in the EL. Note that Mainz was really not playing for anything in particular, aside from pride and a decent goodbye from their fans for the summer. Leverkusen totally dismantled Berlin. Bayer like Bayern won 5-1 in the end. Nice goal from Brandt btw. Thus Bayer climbed into the CL spot. Courtesy to Bayern and Dortmund doing their bits in their final games. Another 5-1 was the result in Freiburg vs. Nürnberg. Freiburg decided to put in a good performance as a goodbye for the summer present for their fans. Nürnberg was really not present, and it could have easily been the most embarassing performance of the day, were it not for Augsburg. That was just utterly pathetic. In the end they got mauled 8-1 by Wolfsburg. Yes, Wolfsburg were still playing for the European qualification and Augsburg was playing for nothing, really. At least they played like it. Bremen beat Leipzig 2-1 in a last ditch effort to qualify for the EL. It just wasn'T enough due to the sheer patheticness of Augsburg. Gladbach lost to Dortmund with 2-0. The controversy about DOrtmund's first goal was mentioned in the previous post. Thus they crashed out of the final CL spot. Ah, right. Düsseldorf also beat Hannover 2-1. Thus they won the game I could not give a toss about trophy. The other game in that category Schalke - Stuttgart ended with a fitting 0-0. Tomorrow Bundesliga 2 will have its final matchday. Since my team is playing away, and is among the teams that really is not competing for anything anymore (apart from palcement and tv money), there are really not many interesting games there. Basically four games are somewhat relevant. The fight for the second promotion spot vs. the play-off thrashing against Stuttgart. Second placed Paderborn play in Dresden, while third placed Union Berlin play in Bochum. The other two games of interest concern the play off spot wrt relegation. 16th placed Ingolstadt play in Heidenheim (5th) and 15th placed Sandhausen play in Regensburg (8th). Sandhausen have two points and three goals on Ingolstadt, but are on a horrible run. Comedy game of the day is of course. Ha-Ha-Ha-HSV vs. Duisburg. After they effectively killed their promotion bid last weekend, I just hope their fans demolish the bloody stadium tomorrow. Some facts why this game is so funny. The game was advertised for the entire season as the promotion party for them. It was really supposed to be just a run out with a good atmosphere and stuff. So they also charged a (top game) premium on that top game against a side that is relegated, while they really can't win promotion anymore (three points 21 goals) - yes, it is all really hillarious. Their fans are not really big on dignity and stuff. So this has the potential to be really funny. Come on orcs, burn down Mordor. Do it!

VAR is pretty busy today on the final match day of the Bundesliga. Bayern is on course, they lead 1-0 against Frankfurt, totally dominating performance should've added a couple more. VAR ruled a possible 2-0 correctly offside. Atm Frankfurt are on course of crashing out of European football altogether. They are bringing on Haller for the second half. He was really sorely missed due to injuries. Ok, 1-1 now, Haller. Freiburg is on course of ending their season with a win. Really pathetic performance by Nürnberg, who claimed they did not want to go down as bottom last team. Streich will be happy, since he was not too fond of his team's recent performances. Yes, they are saved Dortmund had the VAR moment thus far. Dortmund's lead. It looks like the ball might have been out of play before Reus set up Sancho for the goal. The ref took a good look at the screen. Since he can only overturn his decission, if he is 100% certain, the goal stood. Which also has consequences for the race for the 4th place. With Gladbach and Frankfurt losing, Leverkusen can snatch the final CL spot from them, and they are on course. Might be an important argument, if they want to convince Brandt, Havertz and Tah to stay. 2-1 up against Berlin. Bremen also have the lead. 1-0 penalty after VAR review. Wolfsburg also lead, which puts them into European football for next season. Not the worst way for Labbadia to leave the club. But it was a truely abysmal performance by Augsburg, they are really already at the beach.

But the milkshakes are literally the only thing worth buying there. Anyway. "Police, freeze! You are charged with the illegal sale of dairy products." @BigFatCoward I bet you have waited all your professional life to say those words, infact I believe this is the only reason you became a copper in the first place.

The least bad option I see, hold facebook (and all the others) legally accountable. Treat them like a newspaper. If they can't keep their newsfeed accurate make them subject to libel suits. If that multi billion dollar company is too cheap to spend on a team of journalists to work as editors, make them spend more in courts. Also hold them accountable for all the hate speeches spread there. Yes, I know making a company the guardian of free speech/censorships is not ideal. However people treat facebook as a news source, and facebook benefits financially from the undermining of our liberal democracies. This is imho neither acceptable nor sustainable.

That one might actually be based somewhat on reality, if that means not understanding all the implications and consequences when they cast their votes. Yep, that was comedy gold. She is not entirely wrong on Labour being split, between membership and leadership, however her own party is arguably in worse shape than Labour. But reality is catching up with Labour and their silly constructive ambiguity nonsense.

Oh, the irony...

And as somewhat expected Kruse has announced that he will not sign a new contract with Bremen. Apparently it's still unknown where he will go. I am really curious where he will end up. I think the most likely outcomes are him signing his last bigger payday at a bigger German club likesay Gladbach, who will need a replacement for Hazard, or which I think is equally credible, he will go to the MLS to be closer to his son.

Not growing, they were ever present. Just that this time around they found enough gullible people to support them. FWIW and at the risk of sounding like a grumpy old man (which is only 50% true; I am not that old). I blame the internet, and (anti-)social media for a lot of the most stupid and outrageous shit happening atm. You know, there used to be a time when every village had one idiot. Which really did not cause much of a problem, as they were pretty isolated and could be easily ignored. Now they are conencted globally, enhanced by facebook (and co) and its stupid algorithms, which create this huge echo chambers and suddenly pop those idiots are into the mainstream; and boosted by trolls and morons around the globe you find enough gullible fools to believe them. Be it Anti-Vaxxers or post-truth politics ala Trump or Brexit. [Grumpy rant ends here]

On unlikely rumours. Rumoredly there are again some clubs interested in signing Lewandowski. He is still a very good and complete forward. The interesting bit is, which clubs are interested. PSG and United. United would make zero sense. Lewandowski wanted to depart for Real for the last couple of years. Not because of the bigger pay cheque, but becauase he really wants to have a better shot at winning the CL, which is something United is not really offering. And whether they will get there within 3 years is questionable at best. Add to that, Lewandowski still has a few years left on his current, and would thus not come cheap, if Bayern were really to be convinced to part with him. The arrival of Werner could generate somewhat movement there I guess. PSG would make from that angle somewhat more sense. But their top priority should still be midfielders, midfielders, midfielders. And a voodoo doctor to make Neymar injury free.

Arya will try to kill Dany. Arya will fail. Dany kills Arya. Jon kills Dany as a result. The end. Fill in Dany intending to kill her last remaining enemy (Sansa) somewhere if needed to push Jon to the point of killing her.

Grujic has been pretty good for Hertha. However I think he is 1-2 years away from being good enough for Liverpool. And besides, he is not an attacking midfielder (at least that's not what he played this season). He would be an addition to the 6 (deepest lying midfielder position).

Pepe won't make too much sense imho, and like I said, last thing I heard is United are frontrunners there. Whether they actually need a winger is a good question. Werner is a somewhat more consistent rumour with regards to Liverpool, but he is also heavily linked to Bayern. I believe the latter being the safest bet. But he would make somewhat more sense than Pepe for Liverpool. However the most likeliest outcome I have heard with regards to Liverpool is, that they are happy with their squad as is. So there'll not be a major transfer action this summer. Assumigng none of the star players want out. The only thing they want is a back up for the fullbacks. LB in particular. This looks credible particular if Clyne leaves (likely).

To move back to the lighter side of things. Transfer stories. Hazard moving to Dortmund is confirmed, they are haggling over the fee. Thorgan Hazard obviously. The question is just when. Gladbach demand 40m €, Dortmund are not willing to pay that much, but would rather wait a year to sign him on a free transfer, as Thorgan has said he will definately go Dortmund, either this year or next. Salihamidzic has confirmed that Bayern are still in the market for another winger, be it Pepe, CHO or Sane. Although their priority target Pepe is rumoredly United bound. They will probably also be looking at some fullback optiosn, as their veteran back up Rafinha is leaving the club, too. Oh, right, there's also still the rumour of Bayern wanting to sign Schalke's Nübel to groom him as a successor for Neuer. At Bremen Kruse is possibly leaving at the end of the season on a free. Destination unknown. He wants to play European football, and Bremen failed to qualify. At least that's what both club and player have been communicating since before the start of the season. He will stay if Bremen qualifies, otherwise he might very well leave. Lerverkusen's Brandt is rumoredly Dortmund bound. Gbamin also wants to take the next step and leave Mainz. Leverkusen or Dortmund would be fine for him, or some EPL team. Rumored fee around 30m€. Rumoredly both United and Liverpool were interested in him last year. Also Napoli rumoredly turned down a 100m€ offer for Coulibaly.