January 2025 Transfer Primer: TSG 1899 Hoffenheim | OneFootball

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim

Estimated Autumn Transfer Balance = -€27 million

There may be no more hyperbolically overused word in footballing journalism than that of "crisis". Such a description gets thrown around so sloppily that a two-match-losing streak often constitutes one. When one considers the case of this club, however, it's certainly not an exaggeration. Essentially everything in Sinsheim burns as ugly as a tire-fire. The totally unexpected sacking of long-time sporting director Alexander Rosen late in training camp exposed the TSG board for what it was; a disorganized ramble of competing interests seeking to gain more control in the vacuum left by the internal administrative shifts.

Rosen's dismissal was followed up by an unabashedly careless clumsy and careless end to the Summer transfer window in which the front office threw some €60 million after largely irrational buys. The lone stabilizing force in the team - highly competent trainer Pellegrino Matarazzo - was sacked just prior to the November international break. New head-coach Christian Ilzer quickly proved he was nowhere near ready for prime time. After a comeback victory over RB Leipzig enabled Ilzer to commemorate a win in his debut, the team has gone winless in seven matches since.

No experienced German football reporter can write a piece on Ilzer's personnel management choices without wincing. The former Sturm Graz trainer clearly maintains little clue of how to sort through the unbalanced and overstocked roster he inherited. In Ilzer's defense, it happened to be a rather big ask in the first place. Rosen certainly wasn't the most circumspect in picking up players in line with squad's needs. Matarazzo himself often made matters too complicated by re-training players out-of-position whilst building needlessly convoluted tactical constructs.

As imperfect as the likes of Rosen and Matarazzo were, one always had the sense that they kept a much-needed lid on a highly explosive situation. The Kraichgauer narrowly avoided the drop under Matarazzo in the 2022/23 campaign. Last year, the Italian American trainer at least helped take advantage of the historic coefficient situation that enabled nearly half of the German top flight field (and tons of substandard teams) to qualify for Europe. Now it's back to the relegation battle. Let there be no doubt that this team will continue to struggle mightily.

Dead-Weight Ledger = Robin Hranac (CB), Attila Szalai (CB), Florian Grillitsch (DM), Finn Ole Becker (CM), Dennis Geiger (CM), Florian Micheler (CM), Max Moerstadt (CF)

The three UEL matches under Ilzer - along with the recent league losses against Mainz, Wolfsburg, and Gladbach - proved painful to watch as it remained patently obvious that several players weren't even trying. Ilzer's highly questionable personnel choices lead straight into one of the biggest traps any footballing front office can get mired in. Namely, can the "Dead-Weight-Ledger" even be compiled at this point? Which players offer the ability to contribute to the team's overall success? Answers are hard to come by in this case, if not downright impossible.

The first two names listed above (Robin Hranac and Atilla Szalai) happen to be the only two players that unreservedly qualify as "dead weight". The others find themselves stranded in a limbo between the two coaching regimes. Matarazzo - for better or worse - would have made use of them. Ilzer, in some cases, declined to even try. Hardly anyone trying to bring order to this chaos on the TSG administrative team deserves sympathy. The curse of Dietmar Hopp's bottomless cash infusions left no one associated with the club capable of running a reasonable and responsible balance sheet.

Expiring contracts =  Luca Philipp (GK), Marco John (LB), Pavel Kaderabek (RB), Diadié Samassekoú (CM), Tom Bischof (ATTM), Jacob Bruun Larsen (LW), Andrej Kramaric (CF)

The instance in which star striker Andrej Kramaric opted to reverse course, affirm his commitment to the club, and sign a surprise contract extension a little over two years ago genuinely seems like an eternity ago. For all this young club's problems, one at least had the feeling that - in players like Kramaric and Sebastian Rudy - a few identification figures that liked building their careers in Kraichgau. Keeper/captain Oliver Baumann and the injured Ihlas Bebou are the only club men left now, and one legitimately wonders how much longer Baumann wishes to serve as the bridge between this team and its discontented fan-base.

After navigating his own spat with the TSG supporters late last season, Kramaric shows no interest in renewing. There aren't even any reports of new top personnel administrator Andreas Schicker making any overtures to valued veteran Pavel Kaderabek or the once-promising Marco John. Ilzer placed Schicker in a difficult position by suddenly forcing the issue with players like Diadié Sammaseekoú and Jacob Bruun Larsen. When and how will Andreas Shicker find the time to fulfill his hope of convincing Tom Bischof to stay? He won't. All get set to abandon a sinking ship here.

Further Needs =  LB, CB, RB, LM, RM, LW, AM, SS, LS

No writer, not even a sports journalists, likes repeating themselves. With a sigh and a hefty dose of chagrin, the author here laments the fact that - in six consecutive years of writing this primer - one of the "needs" sections always begins with the phrase "No, that isn't a typo". Every year, at least one team possesses needs everywhere. Hoffenheim qualify for that distinction this year; perhaps more so than any other team in any previous year.

To make matters even more ridiculous, this team harbors needs in areas in which the roster suggests that it's already full. German journalists working the TSG beat know full well what is about to happen next. The club will shell out more untold millions in the coming window, vastly overpaying players to join this project. Somehow, a little bit of quality will stick. Regrettably, that means we'll all be stuck with this team in the top flight again next year.

Rumored Links = Omar Haktab Traoré (RWB), Tim Lemperle (LS), Gift Orban (CF), William Bøving (LM)