Why a missing K could help save Franfurt's season
There was an excellently hilarious dose of deadline day drama in Germany with one big winner
Everyone who was fond of English football around a decade ago will remember Peter Odemwingie sitting outside Loftus Road, the home of QPR, in a desperate attempt to force through a deadline day move. It was the peak of the Sky Sports deadline day hype and they caught the entire soap opera as it played out.
He didn’t get his move in the end.
Such transfer stories are as old as the very concept of transfers. A personal favourite, as an Arsenal fan, is the legend that Herbert Chapman, when completing the world record signing of David Jack in the late 1920s, tipped a waiter incredibly generously to make sure the men he was negotiating with got drunk while he stayed sober.
More recently, three lawyers arrived at LaLiga headquarters claiming they represented Manchester United (they didn’t) and had the club’s permission to pay Ander Herrera’s release clause (they didn’t) before a deal ultimately collapsed. Herrera, of course, did move to Old Trafford at a later date.
Over in Germany there are obviously similar stories. Abédi Pélé joined 1860 Munich thinking he was signing for Bayern. Rafael van der Vaart was so desperate to leave Hamburg for Spain that he posed with with a Valencia shirt and did an interview to try and force a move through.
“I will fight to make sure this becomes my shirt. I still think I will play for Valencia. I will be there on 1 September.”
He wasn’t.
Here in 2021, we're more than familiar with jammed fax machines and can easily imagine mobile phones being switched off and calls ignored.
Or fake email addresses. Reports emerged from Italy (namely Gianluca Di Marzio) earlier this week claiming that Eintracht Frankfurt gave Lazio a fake email address with the Italian club looking for where to send an offer to. The clubs have been in talks for a considerable amount of time over the summer and Kostić was eager to complete the switch. So eager that he didn’t show up at training last Friday in an attempt to force a move and was excluded from the squad that drew with Arminia Bielefeld the following afternoon.
Frankfurt’s reluctance to talk about a transfer could be explained by Lazio’s almost insultingly low opening offer of just €10m but there were still talks. It was a bit of a surprise, then, that no transfer came to pass.
“Up until the weekend, a transfer was being discussed. Kostić will continue to play for Eintracht, as no acceptable offer arrived before the transfer window closed,” a club statement read shortly after Germany’s 6pm deadline. It’s a version of events Lazio went on to dispute.
“We confirmed our offer by email, as requested,” sporting director Igli Tare told Bild at the start of the week. “Afterwards, Frankfurt publicly said there hadn’t been an offer.
“It surprised me that, according to Frankfurt, Kostić was no longer on the market and it wasn’t a question of price. It sounded different to before.
“From our discussions, I never had the impression he wouldn’t be allowed to leave. We were ready to negotiate on the price again. But it didn’t come to that.”
And Lazio, seemingly, only have themselves to blame. A report from Frankfurter Neue Presse claims the Serie A outfit mistakenly emailed Eintracht Braunschweig instead of Eintracht Frankfurt. SPOX did some digging of their own and, after receiving confirmation from Frankfurt that they didn’t give out a false email, learned that Lazio actually just had a typo to blame. Whoever was responsible for sending the bid via email sent it to an address ending in "eintrachtfranfurt.de" instead of "eintrachtfrankfurt.de" prior to the deadline.
SPOX then reached out to Tare who, on Wednesday, no longer appeared to blame Frankfurt for pulling the wool over anyone’s eyes.
“I don’t want to say anything on that,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense to talk about it anymore. We would’ve liked to sign Filip Kostić but it’s history now. We wish all the best to the player and to Eintracht Frankfurt.”
So it was all just a happy accident! Well, happy for Frankfurt.
Die Adler have started the season disappointingly under new boss Oliver Glasner. Having competed for a place in the top four last two season, the club have picked up just two points from their opening three games of the new season, losing 5-2 to Borussia Dortmund before drawing 0-0 and 1-1 with relegation candidates FC Augsburg and Arminia Bielefeld.
Maybe things will look up with Kostić staying and able to focus on the club again. He has, after all, been integral to their success over the past few years.
An electric dribbler, the Serbian plays on the left and predominantly uses his left foot (89% of the time, to be precise) but that doesn’t restrict him or make him predictable. With superb close control and impressive upper body strength, defenders can’t just show Kostić inside like many one-footed wingers, because he’ll back himself to take a touch inside, burst past the defender, then get his shoulder across his opponents’ body to protect the ball as he moves it back onto his left foot.
Players with more progressive carries (occasions dribbling the ball five or more yards closer to the opposition goal in the final 60% of the pitch) in the Bundesliga in 2019/20: Achraf Hakimi, Jadon Sancho
Players with more progressive carries in the Bundesliga in 2020/21: Raphaël Guerreiro, Jadon Sancho
When it comes to having the ball in the final third, he doesn’t waste it. Kostić is unselfish and doesn’t rush his decisions. He gets his head up and picks a man out.
Players with more shot creating actions in the Bundesliga in 2019/20: None
Players with more shot creating actions in the Bundesliga in 2020/21: Thomas Müller, Christopher Nkunku, Jadon Sancho
And he’s not got a bad shot on him either. Kostić favours a low, driven effort across goal. He has 23 goals in 122 appearances (one goal every 5.3 games) plus 42 assists for Frankfurt despite playing predominantly as a wingback over the past three seasons.
Ultimately, it will be a big boost for Eintracht on the field as long as Kostić gets over the disappointment of missing out on his move. Life under Glasner hasn’t started ideally and the club will be expecting a lot more despite losing key players and having to change coaches this summer. Glasner himself led Wolfsburg to a top four finish at Frankfurt’s expense in 2020/21 and it will be a shock if he doesn’t start to get a lot more out of the team soon.
And Kostić will be crucial. A fairly similar player, the right-sided Ridle Baku, was integral for Wolfsburg last season, with Glasner getting the most out of him from right-back at the start of the campaign and then further upfield in the second half of the season. Frankfurt have signed a left-back in Christopher Lenz and moved from the five-man defence that has served them well in recent years to Glasner’s favoured 4-2-3-1 midway through the first game of the season. Kostić fits in perfectly, has a lot to offer in either position, and can remain the club’s key player until the transfer window reopens. As long as he wants to be.