But all the ducks have flown away

[noamjen.livejournal.com]

Bayern Munich agree deal for Schalke's Manuel Neuer - report

The Bavarian giants have agreed a fee with Schalke for the services of Manuel Neuer and will now negotiate personal terms with the highly-rated goalkeeper

Bayern Munich have agreed a deal to bring Schalke's Manuel Neuer to the Allianz Arena, according to Bild.

The Bavarian giants will pay €18 million upfront for the 25-year-old with a further €7m a possible part of the transfer, €3m guaranteed with the remaining €4m in performance-related bonuses.

Schalke accepted Bayern's offer after three hours of negotiations between the two clubs with it being reported that Neuer will sign a four-year contract with the Munich powerhouse.

Despite Neuer publicly declaring his intention to leave the Gelsenkirchen club this summer, a deal between the two side's looked unlikely when negotiations began in late April, according to Schalke's sporting director, Horst Heldt.

"The offer from Bayern was not worth mentioning, not acceptable. It is seriously worth considering keeping the world's best goalkeeper for another year," the club's sporting director told German media last month.

However, talks between the two parties on Tuesday were more successful with Heldt claiming: "Yes, we [Schalke and Bayern] had a decent conversation."

Neuer's imminent departure has lead to speculation regarding who will replace the keeper with Ajax's Maarten Stekelenburg emerging as a likely candidate, according to Derwestern.

The Dutchman is highly-sought after with the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal, Juventus and Tottenham all being linked with the keeper in recent weeks.

Stekelenburg currently has one-year left on his contract with the 28-year-old thought to be valued at around €12m.

Other possible replacements for Neuer are Werder Bremen's experienced man between the sticks, Tim Wiese and Hannover's Ron-Robert Zieler, who has been a revelation in 2011.

source: lol.com 

My personal thoughts on this are very bitter and angry, but mostly bitter (and surprisingly are not even directed at Bayern) so I will leave them to the comments. I'll just say, if lol.com want me to actually take them seriously even after they proved to know the shit in this Neuergate, the need to stop saying Wiese might come to Schalke. It's not happening, nope, not any time soon. (if so, he pulled a bigger Neuer than Neuer himself)

Comments

[blackjedii.livejournal.com]

It's nice to hear everyone's viewpoints either way.

Idk, I know you and I have talked about it before and I honestly am both happy AND sad... not b/c I like Bayern (I actually don't, go figure) but it's an opportunity. But it means leaving in a way that hurts a lot of people. But it's an GHAH I AM SO CONFUSED AND CONFLICTED INSIDE.

[noamjen.livejournal.com]

I know how you feel, I'm kinda the same as well, very ambivalent about the whole thing since I can't see myself stop being a Neuer fan or stop being a Schalke fan and it's really hard to cheer for both right now.

[blackjedii.livejournal.com]

Could we just be NT fans for a little while maybe? after I forgive Jogi for NOT including Marin again that is

[noamjen.livejournal.com]

Who cares about Marin (ok a lot of people do, but I can understand him thinking we have better people for his position at the moment...)

HOW DO YOU NOT CALL BENNI? HOW?!?!?!
Especially since Per is injured and he would've called him for sure. He deserve this place a lot more than Holger, over all he had an amazing season, he really developed a lot. NT is no longer lala land for me until Benni get his deserving place.

[blackjedii.livejournal.com]

I do! His Facebook is all... Facebook-y! (Actually I kind of don't expect him to get to show up very often simply b/c he plays very "controlling" football which is AWESOME to watch but not NT material... ahh..)

I was SO INCREDIBLY IMPRESSED with Benni during Schalke's match against Man Utd! Him being there made such a difference defensively and he sooo needs to be on the NT. Holger isn't bad but he does seem like he needs to... Idk, mature isn't the right word but he doesn't seem really confident and is looking for direction? That said, last match it seemed like Schweinsteiger was a little off kilter too which surprised me.

[noamjen.livejournal.com]

yes, schweisteiger was really off in the game against kreplachistan. tbh, I was never on board the schweini train to begin with, was never able to fangirl him, just appreciate his abilities and once that's out (and some really annoyingly arrogant quotes are thrown in) I'm left with a really negative opinion of him. Though I know he will always get a call to the NT, and will always start. I just hope Jog will learn to trust Sami more, and maybe let him be the boss when Schweisteiger is having an off day again.

Right now, Benni is more important to our game than Neuer is. it was really clear in the game against United as you said. He's a great help to the midfield as well... he's just amazing! Really, since the start of the year I can't remember him having a bad game.

[blackjedii.livejournal.com]

I definitely like his skill but I don't.. really have an opinion of him either way I guess? Which is weird to me, I'm usually either "omgYAY!" or "omgNOO!" about just about everyone. If he continues what he's doing, I want him there, obviously, but he's not really a player that I constantly watch like I do Muller (or Podolski, more for him being one of my first NT players than his off-and-on playing awesomeness ;) ). I like what someone said about Sami; that when he's there you don't necessarily notice him but when he's not playing you miss him terribly.

The second match was really good, and all I could tink was "SAF and EPL, BOW DOWN AND ACKNOWLEDGE THAT BL HAS SOME AWESOME PEOPLE. DO IT!" But uh, don't take them. I really do admire that so many BL players want to stay in the league, that says a lot about BL methinks.