European Paper Review

In Spain, the futures of Pedro, Sergio Ramos and David de Gea still dominate. In Catalonia, Sport think that Wednesday’s Gamper season opening friendly v AS Roma will be Pedro’s last game in a Barca shirt before he signs for Manchester United. They write with regret given his popularity and success in 11 seasons wearing a Barça shirt as the Canarian rose through the ranks, but there’s an understanding too that he should be playing more than he played for the Catalans. Coach Luis Enrique, who doesn’t want Pedro to leave, is trying to keep him for Barca’s three Super Cup games in August.

In Madrid, AS claim that Manchester United don’t want to sell David de Gea and that Real Madrid, with Keylor Navas and Kiko Casilla, are calm about the situation as they’ll get him for free next summer. But they also say that Louis van Gaal wants to sell De Gea if he doesn’t want to be at Old Trafford. Both agendas suit Madrid – and Madrid-based newspapers bought by Madrilenos.

Across the Spanish capital, MARCA appeared to jump the gun by claiming that Sergio Ramos has agreed to sign a contract to stay at the Bernabeu until 2020. He hasn’t. Yet. But he’s played president Florentino Perez beautifully by keeping Manchester United interested (and they are) while Ramos’ brother negotiates the €10 million per year he’s been after all along to stay in white. For his part, Perez has said that he’s not selling him.

In Germany, broadcaster Sport1.de lead with a popular topic this week – unrest at Bayern Munich. CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has compared transfer dealings with Pep Guardiola unfavourably to those with predecessor Juoo Heynckes and said the coach’s future would be decided “this year”. Gardiola’s contract runs until 2016 but beIN Sports reported on Sunday from Qatar that the Catalan is set to move to Manchester City at the end of the season.

On Thursday, former Bayern captain Stefan Effenberg stated his belief that Guardiola would be gone by 2016, to which the man himself responded in this pre-Super Cup press conference on Friday that he “will not become a problem for Bayern Munich” (BILD). The questions over Guardiola within the Bayern hierarchy are linked not only to the failure to win the Champions’ League but also to a growing feeling that the manager has strayed too far from the identity of the club.

The sale of Bastian Schweinsteiger to Manchester United was followed this week by rumours that fellow Bavarian “Identifikationsfigur” Thomas Müller would follow him – rumours flatly denied by Rummenigge in BILD on Wednesday. The following day, BILD highlighted the presence of 14 Spanish speakers in the Bayern squad/coaching staff following the signing of Arturo Vidal who claims he has forgotten the few German words he learnt during his spell at Bayer Leverkusen.

Die Welt raised the issue of an identity crisis in the Bundesliga as whole on Tuesday, citing the cases of Julian Draxler at Schalke and Kevin Großkreutz at Dortmund in addition to that of Schweinsteiger as examples of local identity meaning less and less to German clubs. Draxler has been linked with a move to Juventus, whilst local boy Großkreutz is yet to have been offered a new deal at Dortmund.

Tuesday’s papers were dominated by reaction to Freiburg’s 6-3 win over Nuremberg on Monday night, in which new signing Nils Petersen scored the fastest 2.Bundesliga hat-trick in history in just 5 second half minutes. BILD reminded us of Petersen’s 24-minute hat-trick against Eintracht Frankfurt last season, leaving Die Welt to question why Werder Bremen effectively paid €600,000 to get rid of him.

Following the match, angry Nuremberg ultras contacted sporting director Martin Bader who was travelling back with the squad. They demanded the team bus pull over at a motorway service station where 250 ultras remonstrated – peacefully and cordially according to the Nürnberger Zeitung – with the players. The episode prompted Die Welt to question what sort of club allows its fans to decide how the team plays. The actions of the ultras was also questioned within Nuremberg’s fan scene. Following the job, Bader was sacked.

Both the German and French press ran rather negative pieces on FIFA presidential candidate Michel Platini throughout the week. BILD claimed on Tuesday that “Platini wants to be the new Blatter” whilst Die Zeit warned its readers “not to get their hopes up”, reminding them that Platini had a hand in Blatter’s election in 1998 and voted for Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup. To round off the week, France24 ran an interview with Platini biographer Arnaud Ramsey, who stated that he is a “pure product of the system. It’s impossible to be elected at FIFA otherwise. But Platini is also intelligent enough to present himself as being outside of the system.”

Elsewhere in France, FranceFootball reported on Monaco manager Leonardo Jardim’s “selection headache” following nine summer arrivals in the principality, whilst both France24 and Le Monde ran with the decision by the Algerian FA to ban foreign players due to “structural and financial difficulties” in the country. According to Le Parisien, Tottenham have made a €10m bid for Lyon’s 21-year-old Cameroonian striker Clinton Njie whilst, according to l’Équipe, Lyon themselves are interested in bringing Dinamo Moscow’s Mathieu Valbuena back to Ligue 1.

Back in the Bundesliga, Sport1 was convinced on Monday that new BVB manager Thomas Tuchel is close to executing his “masterplan” which, according to a feature in Die Zeit on Thursday, involves psychological training methods such as having Mats Hummels hold an object to prevent him tugging opponents’ shirts, and re-drawing the touchlines so that they run inwards from the halfway line to each goalpost, so as to encourage diagonal balls rather than passes down the line. Dortmund stumbled to a 1-0 win away at Austrian minnows Wolfsberger AC in the first leg of their Europa League qualifier on Thursday night, suggesting that Herr Tuchel still has work to do.

In Italy, Andrea Pirlo’s debut in MLS for New York City was covered, while Stevan Jovetic, formerly of Manchester City, told Inter Milan’s TV channel that he left Manchester because his former boss Roberto Mancini wanted him, while another City player, Edin Dzeko is close to a move to AS Roma according to La Gazzetta dello Sport. They claim that City are so desperate to sell the Bosnian that they’ve lowered their price from €30 to €24 million. Roma have offered €20 and Dzeko is expected to fly to Italy on Monday once a price has been agreed. Will he be a player in time to play against Pedro on Wednesday?