How much transfer turmoil can 1. FC Union tolerate?

Robin Gosens is history at 1. FC Union. At least for the time being, for the remainder of the season that has just begun. Whether the midfielder will ever be brought back from Florence, from Tuscany, to Köpenick is anyone’s guess. The national player, the first to play for the DFB’s senior team as an Ironman, has certainly left his mark. But it could have been more striking. Both for him and for the club. With six goals in the Bundesliga last year, he was Köpenick’s top scorer, but that is a rather dubious honor.

1. FC Union: Robin Gosens’ transfer raises questions

Normally, one or two of the nominal offensive players would have clearly outranked him. That is not Gosens’ fault. It is just that the dilemma that the Irons were in last year, and from which even their busy left-footer could never really free them, has become even more obvious. Gosens himself had to experience the bitter end of it when he was dropped from the European Championships at home.

His departure, as often and as intensely as it had been speculated about in recent weeks, even months, and as spectacular as it turned out to be in the end, still raises some questions. And questions about the system. The deal was only finalized three and a half hours before kick-off of the first home game of the season, the match against St. Pauli, which was won by a whisker. At the last minute. All of this came in the middle of the immediate preparations for the game – Gosens was supposed to be in the starting eleven – at a time when a team is already mentally halfway into the tunnel. Anyone who disrupts that is usually out of the running.

Deadline Day not only keeps 1. FC Union on tenterhooks

Other transfers also take place on deadline day (what a stupid word for the last day of the summer transfer period). Sometimes it doesn’t work out because, as was the case with a transfer of the then 21-year-old Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting from Hamburger SV to 1. FC Köln, which had already been considered a done deal, a defect in the fax machine got in the way. Choupo-Moting later played for Nuremberg and Mainz, for Schalke and Stoke City, for Paris St. Germain and for Bayern Munich – but never for Köln.

The clubs may see it differently, after all, transfers on the last possible day are booming. For some, however, this has a lot to do with haggling, with players being moved back and forth in the hope and infected by the general dynamic (which here and there borders on actionism) of covering up what has been missed and trying to pull off the deal of the year at all costs. All too often, this has ended in disappointment, even disillusionment.

Leonardo Bonucci only played for 1. FC Union for five months

Exactly one year ago, the Irons received a lot of attention for bringing Leonardo Bonucci (37), a then current European champion and 121-time Italian international, to the Stadion An der Alten Försterei. Just seven games in the Bundesliga and three in the Champions League later, of which only four went the full distance, the interlude was over after just five months. Misunderstanding might still be a clever word for it.

Back to Gosens. He managed to score a header goal in Florence just 48 hours after his supposedly tearful farewell from Köpenick. That can happen. Good for him and good for Florence, because it meant a 2-2 draw against Monza. The reason why Gosens asked to move was apparently personal. If that is actually the case, then one can only congratulate 1. FC Union on their humane actions.

1. FC Union: Professional football is a shark tank

Bundesliga football, on the other hand, is a high-performance sport. There are tough laws in place. Shark tank and all that, competition not only with elbows and tackles, you know. Especially since there is a lot of money at stake. There are also contracts that are signed by managers and presidents here, and by players there who are in full possession of their mental faculties. That is at least to be assumed.

Maybe someone will come along soon and want to cancel their contract with a credit institution. For personal reasons, just like that. Every banker should be understanding about this. Penalty interest? Oh well, let’s forget about it, because you’re such a nice person and asked us so politely to go under the table. Or is the world, as evil as it may seem sometimes, actually a pony farm? Most of us probably just haven’t noticed it yet. ■