Michael Posted June 30, 2020 Posted June 30, 2020 Augsburg are about to snap up 3 players on free transfers at the start of July. They have agreed deals to sign goalkeeper Rafal Gikiewicz from Union Berlin, defensive midfielder Tobias Strobl from Gladbach and right sided midfielder Daniel Caligiuri from Schalke all on free transfers, as their contracts come to an end at their respective former clubs.
Spike Posted June 30, 2020 Posted June 30, 2020 Search Players Contract Expires in Six Months Approach to Sign
Michael Posted June 30, 2020 Author Posted June 30, 2020 1 minute ago, Spike said: Search Players Contract Expires in Six Months Approach to Sign Sounds like what I used to do on FM!
Administrator Stan Posted June 30, 2020 Administrator Posted June 30, 2020 4 hours ago, Michael said: Sounds like what I used to do on FM! Think that's what @Spike was alluding too
Moderator Tommy Posted June 30, 2020 Moderator Posted June 30, 2020 Thee very good free signings for Augsburg. They are all good enough to strengthen them.
Michael Posted June 30, 2020 Author Posted June 30, 2020 1 hour ago, Tommy said: Thee very good free signings for Augsburg. They are all good enough to strengthen them. Yes, they are 3 experienced players who Augsburg can definitely benefit from. I've never been a huge fan of Caligiuri to be honest, although I do think that a club like Augsburg is probably his level, and that he can do a decent job with them. Strobl is a good ball winner and he can be useful for them in midfield. As for Gikiewicz, I have been very impressed with him this season and he's probably my favourite signing out of the 3 players. However, it will be interesting to see what last summers big transfer arrival Tomas Koubek and Luthe, think about the arrival of the Pole.
Moderator Tommy Posted June 30, 2020 Moderator Posted June 30, 2020 2 minutes ago, Michael said: Yes, they are 3 experienced players who Augsburg can definitely benefit from. I've never been a huge fan of Caligiuri to be honest, although I do think that a club like Augsburg is probably his level, and that he can do a decent job with them. Strobl is a good ball winner and he can be useful for them in midfield. As for Gikiewicz, I have been very impressed with him this season and he's probably my favourite signing out of the 3 players. However, it will be interesting to see what last summers big transfer arrival Tomas Koubek and Luthe, think about the arrival of the Pole. Gikiweicz is a great keeper and seems like a nice guy. When we lost against them and got relegated, he sat next to and consoled Florian Kastenmeier for almost 10 minutes. I'll never forget that. Also I'm a bit sursprised that Tomas Koubek didn't work out. Didn't they pay a record fee for him? Like 7-8 Mio. if memory serves me right.
Administrator Stan Posted June 30, 2020 Administrator Posted June 30, 2020 Caligiuri is a decent acquisition. He's stood out in a poor Schalke team.
Michael Posted June 30, 2020 Author Posted June 30, 2020 8 hours ago, Tommy said: Gikiweicz is a great keeper and seems like a nice guy. When we lost against them and got relegated, he sat next to and consoled Florian Kastenmeier for almost 10 minutes. I'll never forget that. Also I'm a bit sursprised that Tomas Koubek didn't work out. Didn't they pay a record fee for him? Like 7-8 Mio. if memory serves me right. I didn't realise that he consoled Kastenmeier for that long, that's a nice touch from him. He's had an excellent season at Union and I won't be surprised if he's soon called up to the Polish national team, if he keeps up such performances. I am also surprised about Koubek because he's a regular keeper in the Czech national team, where he battles it out for a first team spot with Vaclik and Pavlenka. He's still only 27, yet he already has 9 international caps, despite having to compete with those two other excellent goalkeepers. He did very well when he played for Rennes in France and he was a key player when Rennes won the 2018/19 French Cup(Coupe de France), as they beat PSG in the final on penalties. The thing with Koubek, is that he loves to get into the thick of the action, he comes off his goal line at almost every chance he gets. He's also one of these keepers who seems to fist the ball away rather than catch it, which at times can result in chaos for his defence. But he's a very good shot stopper and he was one of the best keepers in France before he joined Augsburg for 7.5 million euros last summer. So yeah, it's quite surprising that it hasn't really worked out for him at Augsburg.
Michael Posted June 30, 2020 Author Posted June 30, 2020 9 hours ago, Stan said: Caligiuri is a decent acquisition. He's stood out in a poor Schalke team. I am not so sure that he stood out for Schalke, but he is a hard worker, I'll give him that. He is an experienced player, with a strong work ethic and I can see him being an asset to a club like Augsburg, despite me not being his biggest fan.
nudge Posted June 30, 2020 Posted June 30, 2020 Will be interesting to see who will replace Gikiewicz at Union. It's a pity they couldn't find an agreement.
Michael Posted June 30, 2020 Author Posted June 30, 2020 1 minute ago, nudge said: Will be interesting to see who will replace Gikiewicz at Union. It's a pity they couldn't find an agreement. Yeah, Union will probably need to bring in a replacement keeper this summer. Jakob Busk is decent, but I am not sure how he would fare at Bundesliga level for Union. As for Gikiewicz, with all due respect to Augsburg, they are not necessarily a step up from Union. But they were obviously willing to pay Gikiewicz what he wanted and meet his contract demands.
nudge Posted June 30, 2020 Posted June 30, 2020 3 minutes ago, Michael said: Yeah, Union will probably need to bring in a replacement keeper this summer. Jakob Busk is decent, but I am not sure how he would fare at Bundesliga level for Union. As for Gikiewicz, with all due respect to Augsburg, they are not necessarily a step up from Union. But they were obviously willing to pay Gikiewicz what he wanted and meet his contract demands. It's sad that in the end, he would have prefered to stay and Union prefered to keep him too, but they were unable to reach an agreement. As you said, Augsburg is not much of a step up (if any at all), and with Luthe and Koubek there are already two other strong keepers in the club (+ Giefer & Leineis as backup), so if things don't go well, he might even find himself struggling for playing time.
Michael Posted June 30, 2020 Author Posted June 30, 2020 7 minutes ago, nudge said: It's sad that in the end, he would have prefered to stay and Union prefered to keep him too, but they were unable to reach an agreement. As you said, Augsburg is not much of a step up (if any at all), and with Luthe and Koubek there are already two other strong keepers in the club (+ Giefer & Leineis as backup), so if things don't go well, he might even find himself struggling for playing time. The decision to make this move by Gikiewicz was clearly a financial one and not so much a sporting one. I thought the same about the competition he will face at Augsburg. Luthe is an experienced goalkeeper, who has played quite well this season, while Koubek is a young keeper, who has just been off form this term. If Koubek regains his form, Gikiewicz could have a real battle on his hands trying to secure a place in the starting 11 next season. There is also Giefer as well who you have mentioned. The ex Dusseldorf, Schalke and Bristol City keeper is no slouch either when it comes to decent goalkeeping. So the competition in the goalkeeping department, will indeed be intense next season at Augsburg.
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