Frank Baumann: We’ve added both quality and depth

Frank Baumann on…

…the Royal Blues’ new signings:
We try to take a step forward with our squad building in every transfer window and I believe we’ve managed to do that again this time. By signing Adil Aouchiche, Edin Džeko, Dejan Ljubičić, Kevin Müller and Moussa Ndiaye, we’ve added both quality and depth.

With Adil and Dejan in particular, we’ve also done a bit of early work for the summer. Both players offer a really exciting skill set. Thanks to our new signings, we can act with greater flexibility both in terms of personnel and tactically. We’ve also managed to react to one or two absences and adjust accordingly. Moussa Ndiaye, for example, can take over the role of Vitalie Becker, who is unfortunately unavailable at the moment.

…the financial situation in the winter window:
Thanks to the strong work of my fellow board members Matthias Tillmann and Christina Rühl-Hamers and their teams, we’ve had a lot of positive news in recent weeks and months – in sponsorship and merchandising, but also through the successful placement of our bond and the refinancing that came with it. That meant we had a little more budget available than had looked likely back in the autumn. Even so, we stuck strictly to our financial guidelines with every transfer.

…Maximilian Lüftl’s work:
In a winter window, you always have to work through several scenarios at the same time. As a club, you need to be ready for all sorts of situations and then find the right solution quickly. That’s why I want to pay Max a big compliment. He’s only been with us since January (as head of transfers and scouting) and was effectively thrown in at the deep end straight away. He and his team were not only extremely well prepared, they also handled everything calmly, clearly and with real focus. His work has already had a very positive impact in these first few weeks.

…departures in the winter transfer window:
We didn’t lose any regular starters from our squad. Justin Heekeren came to us with the wish to move to Anderlecht. We didn’t want to block that and responded by bringing in Kevin Müller on loan. Mauro Zalazar also had little prospect of playing time with us and asked to go out on loan as well. We’ll be following his progress in Braga and wish him all the best for his time in Portugal.

…Moussa Sylla’s move to New York, which fell through:
We’re frustrated by the behaviour of New York City FC. The contracts weren’t just negotiated, they had already been signed (a full statement can be found here).

It wasn’t acceptable to us – especially as we were under no financial pressure to make the transfer happen. It might have made our planning for the summer a bit easier, because we could perhaps have acted a little more proactively. But we know this situation from last summer and we can deal with it well. Moussa remains an important part of our squad – and that’s good news for us. The key now is for him to clear his head quickly, because the last few days will of course have had an effect on him too. We’ll support him as best we can. I’m convinced he’ll score plenty more goals for us in this league.

…the target for the remaining 14 games:
The message remains the same: keep both feet on the ground and take it one game at a time. The past few weeks have shown that we have to be at our best in every match and that will be the case again in the weeks and months ahead. In the 2. Bundesliga, nothing is handed to you on a plate. We’re ambitious, but we can also judge ourselves realistically, and we know we need to show better performances than we have recently. We need every player.

Now it’s about finding another gear. If we do that, I’ll be confident that we’ll get back on track very quickly. That’s also why these transfers weren’t primarily driven by our current position in the table. We always want to improve – regardless of where we are right now.