Cottbus Interested in McKenna

[Grizzly]

Cottbus was interested having McKenna transfer to the club but apparently Hearts wanted too much money for someone whose contract is expiring. Cottbus has financial difficulties at the moment. Coach Sander (who replaced Geyer) says maybe something will result with McKenna next season (when he is a free transfer). McKenna played for Cottbus before transferring to Hearts.

Der Transfer des ehemaligen Cottbuser Spielers Kevin McKenna von

Hearts of Midlothian kommt laut Trainer Petrik Sander vorerst nicht

zu Stande. Die Lausitzer waren für den 25-jährigen kanadischen

Nationalspieler, der die Spreestadt vor vier Jahren Richtung

Schottland verlassen hatte, offensichtlich von einer niedrigeren

Ablösesumme ausgegangen. «Vielleicht wird es in der nächsten Saison

etwas», meinte Sander. Der Geyer-Nachfolger hat noch keinen neuen

Vertrag als Cheftrainer unterschrieben, er arbeitet weiter zu den

Konditionen eines Assistenten.

[Grizzly]

Some more on this. The first article blames the reason for the transfer falling through not on Hearts but that they couldn't agree on salary. Cottbus has very little free money at the moment but hope to have more available in the summer. Coach Sander says that McKenna has promised that Cottbus will be the first club he talks to in the summer and that the club thinks highly of him and he thinks highly of the club. The second article is a day earlier when it looked like the transfer would be successful and stated that they had agreed on a salary. It also states that McKenna's girlfriend is a Cottbuserin and that they would both like to return to that city. Whether this occurs or not is probably dependent on whether Cottbus manages to avoid relegation and whether coach Sander who at the moment is only an interim head coach retains his post. Sander seems to be very much in favour of McKenna's return and may possibly have coached him when he was a youth player for Cottbus. Cottbus was interested in him as a striker even though he was a defender for the club earlier (Geyer criticized him for being to offensive a defender and not concerned enough with defence). Cottbus presently has a goal scoring problem and could have used him to avoid relegation.

Der frühere Energie-Verteidiger Kevin McKenna (25) wird vorerst nicht zum FC Energie Cottbus zurückkehren. Der Wechsel des Profis von Hearts of Midlothian in Schottland scheiterte an den zu weit auseinanderliegenden Gehaltvorstellungen. "Unser Rahmen für Verpflichtungen in der Winterpause ist jetzt sehr eng. Kevin hat mir versichert, dass wir im Sommer sein erster Ansprechpartner sind. Wir schätzen uns gegenseitig sehr", so Trainer Petrik Sander.

Kevin McKenna zurück zu Energie?

Kanadischer Nationalspieler will wieder nach Cottbus

20.01.05 Der frühere Energie-Verteidiger Kevin McKenna (25) will zurück zum FC Energie Cottbus. Der Profi von Hearts of Midlothian in Schottland verständigte sich am Mittwoch mit dem FC Energie auf die Details einer möglichen Rückkehr schon zum Rückrundenstart. Damit wäre die Suche des FC Energie nach einer Verstärkung im Offensivbereich einen großen Schritt weiter. Kevin McKenna wurde bei den Schotten als Stürmer ausgebildet und erzielte seit seinem Wechsel 2001 22 Tore für den Erstligisten.

"Wir werden versuchen, den Wechsel noch in dieser Woche möglich zu machen", so Energie-Manager Klaus Stabach. Ob Kevin McKenna jedoch schon gegen den 1. Fc Köln im Kader sein könnte, ist wegen der noch zu beantragenden Spielgenehmigung fraglich.

Kevin McKenna hatte bei der Bundesliga-Premiere des FC Energie Cottbus im Jahr 2000 in Bremen gespielt. Da er mit der Cottbuserin Claudine Hartnick liiert ist und beide zurück in die Lausitz wollen, hatte der Angreifer Kontakt zu seinem früheren Verein aufgenommen. Der 1,90 m große Nationalspieler (23 Länderspiele/6 Tore) gilt als extrem kopfballstark.

[Marc]

If they can stay up, I think that would be a good move.

Anyone know what living in Cottbus is like? (Just for interests sake.)

[SeanKeay]

Holy crap..marc u posted and it wasnt smart assed.. next thing could be me doing that!! AHHHHh

[Grizzly]

Cottbus is in eastern Germany near the borders with Poland and the Czech Republic. It is a largely industrial city with high unemployment. The city itself was badly bombed in WW2 and rebuilt in communist cement building style although the small city centre is intact with some pretty old buildings. The population is about 110 000. The people in this region are generally friendly and easy going at least by German standards. Cottbus is also interesting as the centre of the Sorb culture, a slavic ethnic group that is Germany's only indigenous ethnic minority. Many signs are in both German and Sorbian. The Sorbian cultural influence is noticeable and is the only part of Germany where soups play a prominent role in the cuisine (in fact they have a couple of great fast food soup restaurants). The very eastern parts of Germany where there has been centuries of mixture of German and Slavic blood also tend to have the most beautiful German women and those in Cottbus are typical of this so his girlfriend may be a real looker. You see many people in these regions who don't look like typical Germans as one would find in Munich or in Cologne. The city is fairly near to Berlin and Dresden and also near some very nice wilderness and nature areas, something not so common in Germany.

The soccer team is very prominent in Cottbus given the city's size and the fact it is about the only thing that makes the city well known throughout Germany. The stadium is old and small for the Bundesliga but what it lacks in comfort it makes up for in charm and atmosphere. For example there are trees growing on the top part of standing terraces which is dirt. In fact when I was there last at one point I had to move because I couldn't see with a tree in front of me. The stadium has been undergoing expansion and renovation so may now be in better condition. The team gets good attendance given the size of the city. Of course when it was playing in the 1st Bundesliga attendance was nowhere near that of teams like Schalke and Dortmund but its attendance in the 2nd about average for the league. Ticket prices when I was there were very cheap for the 1st Bundesliga.

[SABuffalo786]

They'll have a nice little North American center back pairing with McKenna and Berhalter.

[redhat]

Didn't Cottbus originally try to impede McKenna's transfer to

Hearts?

[Grizzly]

No, Cottbus made a lot of money off his transfer to Hearts, about 250 000 Euro, at a time when they needed money. They may not have agreed to Heart's initial offer but that is the right of any team with a player under contract. When Heart's offered what Cottbus was willing to accept they let him go. At the time McKenna was somewhat in Geyer's doghouse (I think a bit unfairly). McKenna has been a great deal for Cottbus. If they paid anything for him it was very little, then they sold him for a good sum and now may get him back on a free transfer although to be fair they also contributed a lot to his development.

[Cheeta]

Geez. Don't know about Cottbus. Are they going anywhere good? Might want to shop the skills around a wee bit there Kev.

Dose need to settle into a possition. Find someplace where he'll play target or center half, but not both on a regular basis. Think he's pretty much peaked in that two-faced costume. So, that's one for Cottbus (maybe).

Stay up front. You can play defence when your older.

P.S. Still think he's a very capable defender with the right paring. Just it's hard to ignore the fact he's got a head for goal and just seems to enjoy the attacking role. He'll learn something on every one he nets which'll serve him in good stead as the body ages.

[Grizzly]

The following blames the transfer's failure on the transfer fee demanded by Hearts. This seems more likely to me than problems agreeing on a salary considering that both sides seem to be interested in each other next season. Cottbus lost today against promotion favourites Cologne and only goal differential is keeping them out of a relegation spot. If Cottbus can stay in the 2nd Bundesliga I think this would be a good move for McKenna. He needs to establish himself as a regular starter regardless of which position and I think the 2nd Bundesliga is a better and more competitive league to play in than the Scottish. If Celtic and Rangers are removed from the Scottish league the other clubs would mostly be equivalent to lower table 2nd Bundesliga clubs. Germany seems to offer much more opportunity for players to develop and move up the ladder than the British Isles. McKenna may actually be further ahead today had he decided to play his way back into Geyers good books rather than move to Hearts and Hirschfeld certainly made a mistake in leaving the team (at the time he thought Cottbus had too many good keepers but shortly after this proved not to be the case).

McKenna kommt nicht

Einen Rückschlag gab es zudem in den Verhandlungen mit Kevin McKenna. Der erhoffte Transfer des kanadischen Nationalspielers kommt laut Energie-Trainer Petrik Sander vorerst nicht zu Stande. McKenna, der früher für Cottbus spielte und momentan in Schottland unter Vertrag steht, sei aufgrund der Ablöse nun doch zu teuer.

[Desigol]

I thought McKenna would've followed Levine to Leicester, but it was Maybury who did that.

[marktci]

Cottbus hopes of re-signing McKenna stall

CHARLES GROSVENOR

GERMAN outfit Energie Cottbus’ hopes of persuading Hearts star Kevin McKenna to return to the Bundesliga appear to have stalled - at least for the mean time.

The Canadian star’s old club had hoped to have McKenna in place for tomorrow’s home clash with FC Koln as they bid to haul themselves up from 13th place in the 18-team League. Cottbus boss Klaus Stabach made moves to lure McKenna back after his side returned from a sunshine break in Dubai but, according to reports circulating in Germany that bid has hit a snag over money.

The German side are operating under a very tight budget and would struggle to meet the 25-year-old McKenna’s personal terms in addition to any fee Hearts might demand as the player is still under contract until this summer.

However, Cottbus haven’t given up hope of resigning McKenna, Stabach has been reported as saying: "We will try to arrange the change and make it possible this week."

And if that deadline isn’t met - the winter transfer window shuts a week on Monday - Cottbus seem sure to return for McKenna in the summer if Hearts are unable to come up with a deal to keep him at Tynecastle.

Link

[marktci]

Cottbus hopes of re-signing McKenna stall

CHARLES GROSVENOR

GERMAN outfit Energie Cottbus’ hopes of persuading Hearts star Kevin McKenna to return to the Bundesliga appear to have stalled - at least for the mean time.

The Canadian star’s old club had hoped to have McKenna in place for tomorrow’s home clash with FC Koln as they bid to haul themselves up from 13th place in the 18-team League. Cottbus boss Klaus Stabach made moves to lure McKenna back after his side returned from a sunshine break in Dubai but, according to reports circulating in Germany that bid has hit a snag over money.

The German side are operating under a very tight budget and would struggle to meet the 25-year-old McKenna’s personal terms in addition to any fee Hearts might demand as the player is still under contract until this summer.

However, Cottbus haven’t given up hope of resigning McKenna, Stabach has been reported as saying: "We will try to arrange the change and make it possible this week."

And if that deadline isn’t met - the winter transfer window shuts a week on Monday - Cottbus seem sure to return for McKenna in the summer if Hearts are unable to come up with a deal to keep him at Tynecastle.

Link

[Cooks]

I'd put good money on Kevin going to Leicester.