January 2025 Transfer Primer: Eintracht Frankfurt | OneFootball

Eintracht Frankfurt

Estimated Autumn Transfer Balance = +€13.2 million

For all the temple-slapping slapstick produced by this team in their final match of the calendar year, Dino Toppmöller's SGE still find themselves well-situated in third-place in the Bundesliga table. While the fact that the RheinMainAdler disappointed all of us by (now nine points behind league leaders FC Bayern München) not fulfilling our dreams of watching them participate in the title race, their current league position still qualifies as a success. In essence, the last few weeks of 2024 pretty much summed up the pattern of their entire calendar year. All throughout the last 12 months, it's been the same story.

Flashes of amazing potential. Chokes. More quiet and modest accomplishments after we had all stopped paying close attention. Renewed attention. More flashes. More chokes. The cycle kept repeating. Sporting CEO Markus Krösche had no way of knowing that - whilst conducting an interview last February - a phrase he uttered would appear in footballing print journalism no fewer than 500 times. Krösche called for more "heavy metal football" from his team. Regrettably, every time we journalists are prepared to declare the advent of Krösche's "heavy metal" ambitions, Toppmöller's side unplug the amp.

Krösche and his sporting director Timmo Hardung got virtually all Bundesliga lovers riled up last January with a mega transfer window that saw Sasa Kalajdzic, Donny van de Beek, and Hugo Ekitiké arrive in the German commercial capital. When all three additions proved absolute flops, the top administrative duo then began to look like abject fools. Their patience with Ekitiké (who initially struggled with fitness issues) nevertheless ultimately paid off. The young Frenchman - along with Can Uzun, Nathaniel Brown, Mo Dahoud, and Arthur Theate - is now part of one of the league's best Summer transfer classes.

Krösche's competence both as a player personnel manager and as an executive who can hire the right type of administrators to work around him has never really been in question. The former Leverkusen, Paderborn, and Leipzig football functionary inspired confidence from his very first days at his new appointment in Hessen. As many transfer misfires as there have been, Krösche and staff have struck gold more than enough times. Perhaps the most active front-office in German football always finds a way. One looks forward to the next installment with great anticipation.

Dead-Weight Ledger = Niels Nkounkou (LB), Auréle Amenda (CB), Jerome Onguené (CB), Krisztián Lisztes (ATTM), Jean Manuel Bahoya (LW)

Frankfurt's current Dead-Weight ledger shouldn't surprise anyone, beyond those who may have forgotten that they stashed Jerome Onguené with the reserves. The team has some fairly straightforward work ahead of them: Obtaining fair market value for Niels Nkounkou and parking the trio of prospects left. Naturally, Eintracht's prospects in the Europa League will dictate how much the SGE team wish to shave this roster of prospects. The 2021/22 UEL champs might want to even promote a few more reserve players to first team contracts if they plan on going deeper into the competition.

Expiring contracts =  Timothy Chandler (RB)

This particular section runs a bit thin as - in yet another testament to the competence of the Krösche regime - club management has derived all the right lessons from previous years. The massive problems encountered during the problematic finish to the 2022/23 campaign exist no more. An extremely light bit of criticism, expressed by a Timmy Chandler fan-boy no less, concerns the fact that the German-American was signed to a contract extension last year instead of receiving a fast-track to his coaching career. Too early to hope for Chandler "heavy metal football" in the "Main-troplis"?

Further Needs =  RB, CB, LW

Some readers may begin to wonder how relevant the "transfer balance" stat that leads these actions actually is. While it remains true that the stat may be less salient in some cases than others, the ability of the SGE managerial team to consistently keep the balance sheet in the black merits an extra mention. Krösche has swung a positive balance (+€15 million in 2021/22, +€2 million in 2022/23, and +€65 million in 2023/24) in all three years in charge, skillfully selling off overachievers in every case.

The €150 million garnered from sales of players such as Randal Kolo Muani, Willian Pacho, and Jesper Lindstrøm hasn't even been reinvested yet. The club itself continues to generate more revenue every fiscal year via increased merchandising, television revenue, and some well-staggered public share offerings. One or two big name signings can be expected in the coming window. One assumes that the front office team will again draw the right lessons from last year.The Era of consistence excitement could be on its way.

....or the “old cycle” could keep repeating.

Rumored Links = Max Aarons (RB), Finn Jeltsch (CB), Ruben Vargas (LW), Arnaud Kalimuendo (CF), Jonathan Burkardt (CF)