Super dark horse in the five major leagues! 4 wins in the same period last year, the bottom of the fish belly after selling blood, ranked in the top 3 and rushed to the Champions League
Almost every season's five major leagues, there will be super dark horses to disrupt the pattern of the powers, and fans' eyes are often more focused on the Premier League and La Liga, as for Serie A, Bundesliga and French Ligue 1, the dark horses that rush to the championship seem to be able to match the flow of the sky.
Just like Bayer Leverkusen this season, under the leadership of Alonso, they are unbeaten in 43 games, unbroken in the third-tier battle, and also broke Bayern Munich's 11-year Bundesliga title monopoly.
Who has noticed that an old team that was at the bottom of the Bundesliga in the same period last year has now transformed itself into the top three in the standings.
Bayer Leverkusen went from sixth last year to this year's champion, another super dark horse, but from 18th last year to third today, who is better?
In the same period last year, the league finished bottom 12 rounds with 1 win
That team is Stuttgart. Behind Bayer Leverkusen, two teams have the same number of points, Bayern and Stuttgart. After 29 rounds, Stuttgart have won 20 games and lost only 6 games.
What was the situation in the Bundesliga in mid-April last year?
Stuttgart, who have only one win in the last 12 rounds, seem to be terminally ill, with only four wins and 14 defeats to sit firmly at the bottom of the table.
At that time, someone held on to his glasses and told you: "Stuttgart will definitely become the big dark horse next year and can rush into the Champions League!"
You're sure to respond with a pouting of disdain: "I believe you're a ghost, you're a bad old man!"
In the last 7 rounds of the Bundesliga last season, Stuttgart won 3 wins, 4 draws and 1 loss, and beat Schalke 04 by 2 points to qualify for the relegation play-offs. With a 6-1 aggregate win over Hamburg home and away, Stuttgart narrowly stayed in the Bundesliga.
Little Hornes' magic wand
What does relegation from the top flight mean for a team? For an established team, the crisis may not only be the loss of personnel, the collapse of finances, or even the collapse of the country, as was the case with Munich 1860.
Stuttgart's sporting director, Fabian Vogmus, is still grateful for the decision he made to hire Sebastian and Hornes as the team's head coach in April last year.
Isn't the surname Hornes familiar? Yes, Sebastian Hoeness is the nephew of former Bayern President Uli Hoeness. The Hornes family is also a well-known family in German football.
Sebastian Hornes (referred to as little Hornes) not only has the blessing of metaphysical blood, but more importantly, he really has two brushes.
In addition to the change in technique and tactics, the more important thing is confidence. Junior Hornes fully affirmed the ability of his players in training, convincing them that they could play traditional football with elegance and practicality, allowing players to play freely within the framework of tactics.
Faith, like gold, shines on those who can shine. Under the leadership of Hornes Jr., Stuttgart went from bottom to magical relegation, and fans finally breathed a sigh of relief.
The shabby summer window sells blood to survive
Ranked 15th in 21-22 and 16th in 22-23 through the play-offs, will the team be able to change their way of life after the 2023 summer window?
The management had this in mind, and last summer, the team sold key defenders Mavropanos and Sosa. Another major loss of blood was the sale of their captain Nagato for £16.8 million. (Later it turned out to be a win-win-win transfer)
The transfer market has frenzied 48 million euros, which is definitely a huge amount of money for a team that is barely relegated. And what about reinforcements?
The team's "authentic" summer window champion is Zheng Youying, who spent a full 2.8 million euros from Freiburg.
Other signings of more than €400,000 include €1.2 million for Milosevic from Vojvodina, €1 million for goalkeeper Nübel on loan from Bayern Munich, €500,000 for Mittelstedt from Hertha Berlin and €450,000 for Maglica from St. Gallen.
Of course, the team also has an extremely important expense, which is the official purchase of relegation hero Gilassi from Rennes for 9 million euros.
500,000 bought German internationals
In the case of declining strength instead of increasing, Stuttgart completed an incredible counterattack.
Stuttgart have been able to secure the top four for most of the season and are currently level with Bayern Munich in the standings, seven points ahead of fourth-placed Leipzig.
Who is Mittelstedt? Not many fans had probably heard of that name before the start of the season. A 27-year-old left-back from relegated Hertha Berlin.
To paraphrase a magic saying: "Then comes the time to witness the miracle". A player with a transfer fee of only 500,000 was successfully selected for the German national team after more than half a season of hard work. Not surprisingly, Mittelstedt will participate in the German squad for this summer's European Championships.
Under Horness Jr., Mittelstedt ran tirelessly on the field, and the entire left side became his free corridor. As long as you have the fitness and speed to defend, you can rush to the front on the offensive end. Mittelstedt's qualities on both ends of the floor were on full play.
How exaggerated is a player's counterattack? Mittelstedt, who is already 27 years old at 500,000 yuan, made his debut in a 2-0 win over France on March 23 this year. In the 2-1 win over the Netherlands on March 27, Mittelstedt scored the perfect world wave!
The Stuttgart treasure group that Bayern coveted
Along with Mittelstedt, he was selected for the German national team for the first time at the same time and made his debut. The 28-year-old striker, who has dual German and Turkish citizenship, is finally blossoming in Stuttgart.
In the previous season, Ondav had only made 16 appearances at Brighton, completely marginalized. But in Stuttgart, Ondaf ushered in a big explosion,
With 25 league appearances, 16 goals and eight assists, ranking fourth on the scorers' list, Ondav has attracted the attention of many big clubs.
Like Onduff, Ferich, who scored 8 goals and 7 assists this season, has long been the target of competition among the Bundesliga giants, Leipzig, Dortmund, and Bayer Leverkusen have all thrown olive branches to him, but Bayern is in the lead, and the release fee of 23.5 million euros is destined to be activated this summer.
What shines more than Ondav and Ferichy is naturally the team's striker Girassie. With 25 goals in 20 league games and 27 goals in 25 games in all competitions, Girassie's performance goes without saying.
Had it not been for the Africa Cup of Nations in January, the top two scorers would have been reversed and Girassie could even surpass Kane.
To the anxiety of the management, Girassie's contract with Stuttgart expires in the summer of 2026, and although the latest German transfer price has reached 40 million euros, there is a release clause of 17.5 million euros in his contract. At present, AC Milan and Bayern Munich are both strongly looking to sign the African striker.
Finally, let's take a look at the goalkeeper, the main goalkeeper Nübel, who only spent 1 million euros on loan, is also a great deal. As the team's first-choice goalkeeper, Noubel has conceded just 34 goals in 29 games, with 12 of them clean sheets.
Stuttgart were pleased with Nübel's performance, whose contract with Bayern was due to expire in 2025. Seeing the players playing well, Bayern have signed Nübel to a contract extension until 2029.
There is news that if Nubel cannot be retained, the club will go all out to bring in Manchester City's backup goalkeeper Ortega.
Epilogue:
In the following summer, Stuttgart may not be able to avoid being robbed of the big clubs, especially the famous club, digging and digging in the garden of the Bundesliga.
Of course, Stuttgart's finances will change dramatically with a smooth run-in to next season's Champions League, and it's time to test management's vision for recruitment.
I don't know, how Stuttgart, who are fighting on two fronts next season, will they become the next Leipzig, or Union Berlin?