Reactivate my blog which has been unused for about 2 years.

From now on you’ll (hopefully) find my thoughts about the two loves in my life who are both colored in red and white.

Due to the ongoing winter break there is not much playing action right now in Cologne. After returning to Cologne from a training trip to Portugal we played a friendly against Alemannia Aachen from 2nd Bundesliga. Followed by quite an amount of fans the red and white team from Cologne won 2-1 with a line-up mostly of youth and back-up players.

According to the people who actually have seen the match the new Swedish signing Mikael Ishak played a good match. Very good as well was the match of the Albanian youngster Odise Roshi who is called “Mutenroshi” (the one from Dragonball) by me and my friends in the stadium. This time he and his Jindujun made his way to the goals quite frequently as he assisted both of the Cologne goals of the evening.

As there is not so much happening on the pitch, the press is getting into his usual winter boredom where they love to write strange stories about upcoming transfers. Well actually that is more like it was. Since Volker Finke took the job as the new sporting director last January and since the retirement of president Wolfgang Overath and his two fellows NOTHING goes out into the public anymore. Its really strange because normally the papers knew about transfers before even the player knew. Additionally there are just no transfers. Although Cologne was able to expand their sponsoring deals with REWE and IMG our financial situation is still worrying. So there is just no money for any transfers left. Instead of signing players we send them away.

Normally this would not be good thing as the squad gets smaller and smaller, but in those cases the players are young and need some playing time or the players are some  we have been taking with us for seasons because no one wanted them. Since last Wednesday there were 5 departures from the club. Defensive player Tomoaki Makino was loaned back to Japan for one year.  A transfer destination I did not really understand. Makino was having a hard time in Cologne and never really adapted here but I think he should have stayed in Germany if we really want to use him once he comes back.

Alexandru Ionita went back to Rapid Bukarest on loan for the rest of the season. He is one of the sad developments. When we signed him we were  all hopeful but then there was a mixture of the player being left alone by the club too much, the player not getting any chances by the coach to prove himself and his relationship to the press, who got his enemy right after his first interview where he said that there are no beautiful women in Cologne. In the end it seemed more like he really did not have the potential for Bundesliga.

Additionally Midfielder Adam Matushyk goes on loan to the forbidden city of Düsseldorf to get some playing time. This transfer is quite understandable as Adam is not playing a good season but needs playing time for the Euro 2012 which he wants to play for Poland. Not loaned, but sold was striker Sebastian Freis. He is going to Freiburg. He is definitely one of the players I won’t cry about. He surely is a nice guy but his quality is just not enough for 1. Bundesliga. I remember dozens of chances he missed. That guy can’t pass, can’t shoot, he can’t even run without falling over the ball. I remember one goal he made in a friendly against Sampdoria Genua in 2010. It was an amazing goal! It really was. But everyone in the stadium knew: He’d never do something like this again. And last but not least youth player Kialka is going to Jahn Regensburg in 3rd division. As the player never really made it into the first squad it is also an understandable transfer.

The only topics the press had to talk about was a) Lukas Podolski‘s ankle and b) Franz Josef Wernze.

Lukas Podolski had injured his ankle over the Christmas days while playing football with some friends. He was not able to play any of the friendlies or the test matches and had to make an individual training in Portugal. It was quite questionable if he would make it for the upcoming match against Wolfsburg, but it seems like he is all right as he was able to train normally today together with the also returned Milivoje Novakovic. That will surely calm everyone down.

But as it is never fully quiet in Cologne Franz-Josef Wernze, a multi-millionaire and close friend of ex-president Wolfgang Overath came out with a story for Express. Due to our financial situation Wernze invested money into transfer rights of Podolski, Pezko and Geromel helping the club in his financial situation to sign players. Now as the club has expanded its contracts with REWE and IMG it seems like we don’t need some help offered by him. There was something about a unsigned contract and the expand of his rights on Geromel, It was quite complicated.

That guy is in the end an investor. He is not giving us money if there is nothing in it for him. He seems to be a character who needs the spotlight and the appreciation of the fans and everyone around him. Being friends with the ex-president he liked to use the opportunity to say how good the work of our ex-president was (and it was not!) and that he’d think about his activity without the president.  This whole thing made the members of the club vote him into the so called Verwaltungsrat which is an official board of the club.

This is democracy. I wouldn’t have voted for him (as I’m no member i can’t vote) but the people did. You can think about this whole thing  what you want,  BUT there are some things which are absolute No-Gos.

And one of those things is a member of one of the clubs controlling organs to go to the press selling his story there publishing things that were not meant for public.

But then something strange happened. The transitional president who is leading the club until the next elections sent an alternate view to the members via E-Mail and had it posted on the website explaining everything. This would never have happened with the old president!!!

Every day that passes I’m more content with that guy leading us at the moment and I’d love him to continue as there is something happening right now we haven’t seen here for years. They are working calm, professional and with an objective! They do have a plan! They act like professionals would do and not like the next-door Gardeners club.

It makes me look hopefully into the future that lies in front of the club. With Stale Solbakken we signed a coach I’d go to second division to. The man is professional, likeable and knows how to handle the press. With a new professional leadership for the club we’d finally be on the way to a professional football club. The only thing we need for that are results and the missing 19 points which would make us stay another year in Bundesliga.

From the one club on the way to the professional structure 2000 kilometers south west to the other red and white club in my heart: Atlético Madrid.

For them the winter break has already ended and there have already been two matches with the new coach Diego “Cholo” Simeone. The press seems to be swimming on a wave of luck praising him to be the new man who will make everything better and solve all our problems. Don’t get me wrong, I like Simeone and I appreciate the fact that he wants to give some character to the team and make them identify with the shirt and the club. Its a right thing to communicate more with the players. Thats a thing which is very important, but I just think its too early to judge him in a good or bad way. We’ve just seen two matches with him. A 0-0 draw and a great 3-0 victory against Villareal. We’ve seen improvement, yes. But who knows how this will develop?

While the first match was not so much fun to see, the match against Villareal was a good one. Every player did well. Even those who are always critizised. Juanfran, who made me grow gray hair at the age of 26 with his defensive activities in some matches, for example played a really decent match. Diego showed signs of the old Diego everyone remembers from his times at Werder Bremen. I was delighted to see Arda and Adrían back in the squad and they both showed what Simeone missed in the match against Málaga.

We dominated the match and played an excellently. Although the referee oversaw the few centimeters of offside in the first goal and gave that non-existent penalty there is no question about it that Atleti deserved that win. Villareal had 2 shots on the goal in the whole match. But that’s what makes me hesitate. Did we really play that well or was it just the opponent who was incredibly weak? Will the secure defensive line hold when there are teams who are actually attacking? What will happen it the opponent minimizes the spaces in the midfield?

We’ll just have to wait some more matches to see in which direction we are going. I’m reminding myself of the fact that we played a 0-0 against Osasuna in Manzano’s first match in La Liga and had two great 4-0 victories in the Calderón afterwards. But I know what happened afterwards so I just want to wait and see.

The only thing that made me sad about the match was the absence of Mario Suárez in the squad. He was left out of it due to tactical reasons and although he is my favorite player I have to say that this is maybe what he needed. We all know from his performances of last season what he is capable of. But this season he was totally inconsistent and out of form. Maybe he needs the competition with Tiago, Gabi, Assuncao and Koke as Manzano seemed to never doubt him. As Tiago will be suspended due to yellow cards he’ll maybe get his chance in the match against Real Sociedad the upcoming weekend.

Interesting to see was that Atleti seems to have the same Capo Problem like we have in Cologne. You we’re able to hear that guy during the whole match and if my Spanish was better I would’ve even have understood what he said so loud was he. At least he did not sound (like the one in Cologne does) as if you have ripped of his  balls but it was quite annoying.

Also quite funny was Alvaro Dominguez tweeting from the stadium as he was suspended, complaining about the state of the pitch. And he was right about it. It looked awful and reminded me of that pitch I was playing on once for our school team showing my non-existent talent. I don’t know if it was about the weather or if there was a concert or anything like that in the stadium that damaged it but it should be looked at because it is not only disturbing the match, it is also an injury risk.

At Atleti there seems to be just as much transfer activity as in Cologne: No players signed just one off board with Reyes who chose to return back to Sevilla. I have to say that I was never a friend of Reyes. And the respect I had for him for his performances from last season faded on instance, when I saw the scene in Glasgow where he started to smile at guys who wanted the coach to be dismissed. As we all know that Karma is a bitch, he got eliminated in the Copa del Rey with Sevilla as well. Speaking of the Copa del Rey. Although it was bitter to be eliminated by a team from 3rd division I think now its a good thing we’re not in that cup anymore as the players now have full training weeks with the coach. Something we barely never had since July because of the Europa League Qualifiers.

The next match up for Atleti is the away match against Real Sociedad which originally was the first matchday and got canceled due to the player strike in Spain. It will be a decisive match once again, as we desperately need three away points. Our away statistic is a catastrophe and it needs to be changed if we want to have a chance to get onto one of the international spots at the end of the season. Due to our win last weekend and the results of the other teams we are only 3 points away from the Europa League spots. And the CL is also not absolutely out of reach. It will be interesting to see if Simeone sticks to the more offensive style played in the Calderon or if he returns to the more defensive style of the Málaga match.

Saturday will be the football day of this week as both Atleti and Cologne are playing on Saturday. The red and white club from the Rhine will travel to Diego’s “home team” VfL Wolfsburg, visiting coach Felix Magath who, following his reputation of shopping players like women buy shoes, has already signed 8 new players in the  winter break, making Wolfsburg a club with a squad of 39 players. Afterwards Atleti will face Real Sociedad in the search for the first three away points of this season.

For me its just left to say:

“COME ON EFFZEH” and “AUPA ATLETI”

PS: I’m still searching for a blog title. The current one is just a work title. I’d be happy for any suggestions