Augsburg
Coach Markus Weinzierl
Key arrivals Halil Altintop (Trabzonspor, Tur), Mathias Fetsch (Kickers Offenbach), Marwin Hitz (Wolfsburg), Raphael Holzhauser (Stuttgart, on loan)
Key departures Simon Jentzsch (retired), Sebastian Langkamp (Hertha Berlin), Torsten Oehrl (Eintracht Braunschweig), Milan Petrzela (Viktoria Plzen, CzR)
The Bavarian club’s amazing escape from the jaws of relegation last season – by the winter break they had only nine points – was a major boost to their self-esteem. Can they dodge the bullet a second time? Their lack of killer instinct in front of goal suggests probably not.
Bayer Leverkusen
Coach Sami Hyypia
Key arrivals Giulio Donati (Internazionale, Ita), Roberto Hilbert (Besiktas, Tur), Robbie Kruse (Fortuna Dusseldorf), Andres Palop (Sevilla, Spa), Son Heung-min (Hamburg), Emir Spahic (Sevilla, Spa), Konstantinos Stafylidis (PAOK, Gre)
Key departures Dani Carvajal (Real Madrid, Spa), Hajime Hosogai (Hertha Berlin), Michal Kadlec (Fenerbahce, Tur), Christoph Kramer (Borussia Monchengladbach, on loan), Andre Schurrle (Chelsea, Eng), Daniel Schwaab (Stuttgart)
Director of sport Rudi Voller says he will be delighted with a repeat of last term’s third place and, even though front runner Schurrle has left for Chelsea, the Rhinelanders should again be contenders for Champions League qualification. Hyypia is now in sole charge following the decision of co-coach Sascha Lewandowski to return to working with the youth team.
BAYERN MUNICH
Coach Pep Guardiola
Key arrivals Thiago Alcantara (Barcelona, Spa), Mario Gotze (Borussia Dortmund), Jan Kirchhoff (Mainz)
Key departures Mario Gomez (Fiorentina, Ita), Nils Petersen (Werder Bremen), Anatoliy Tymoshchuk (Zenit, Rus)
Philipp Lahm, captain of the reigning European and German champions, insists they will be even stronger now that ex-Barcelona boss Guardiola is calling the shots and it’s hard to disagree. Gotze offers Bayern even more options
in the attacking third.
Borussia Dortmund
Coach Jurgen Klopp
Key arrivals Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Saint-Etienne, Fra), Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Shakhtar Donetsk, Ukr), Sokratis Papastathopoulos (Werder Bremen)
Key departures Leonardo Bittencourt (Hanover), Daniel Ginczek (Nuremberg), Mario Gotze (Bayern Munich), Julian Koch (Mainz), Moritz Leitner (Stuttgart, on loan), Felipe Santana (Schalke)
Last season’s Champions League and Bundesliga runners-up will miss the goals and creativity of Gotze, but the Ruhr outfit were never a one-man band and they can still outdo any side in the country for collective spirit, dynamism and attacking potency. Armenian international Mkhitaryan is an interesting addition.
Borussia Monchengladbach
Coach Lucien Favre
Key arrivals Christoph Kramer (Bayer Leverkusen, on loan), Max Kruse (Freiburg), Raffael (Dynamo Kiev, Ukr)
Key departures Igor De Camargo (Standard Liege, Blg), Mike Hanke (Freiburg)
After spending ¤30million last summer for little return – a so-so eighth-place finish – Gladbach have been more circumspect in the market this summer and seem to have secured value for money in Brazilian playmaker Raffael (¤5m) and versatile attacker
Kruse (¤2.5m).
Eintracht Braunschweig
Coach Torsten Lieberknecht
Key arrivals Marco Caligiuri (Mainz), Simeon Jackson (Norwich City, Eng), Torsten Oehrl (Augsburg), Timo Perthel (Duisburg)
Key departures Pierre Merkel (Hallescher), Oliver Petersch (Arminia Bielefeld)
Long gone are the days of the 70s and early 80s when Braunschweig were Bundesliga pioneers as the first football club in the country
to adopt shirt advertising and confident enough to sign Paul Breitner from Real Madrid. Competing in the elite for the
first time in nearly three decades, they are expected to struggle among the big boys.
Eintracht Frankfurt
Coach Armin Veh
Key arrivals Johannes Flum (Freiburg), Joselu (Hoffenheim, on loan), Jan Rosenthal (Freiburg), Marco Russ (Wolfsburg), Stephan Schrock (Hoffenheim), Felix Wiedwald (Duisburg)
Key departures Heiko Butscher (Bochum), Karim Matmour (Kaiserslautern), Oka Nikolov (Philadelphia Union, USA), Olivier Occean (Kaiserslautern, on loan)
After an impressive sixth place last term – the best performance from a team new to the top flight for
15 years – they hope to keep
up the good work. The continued excellence of goalscoring midfielder Alexander Meier and the recruitment of a genuine
front-line focal point will be vital.
Freiburg
Coach Christian Streich
Key arrivals Francis Coquelin (Arsenal, Eng, on loan) Gelson Fernandes (Sporting Lisbon, Por), Mike Hanke (Borussia Monchengladbach), Christopher Jullien (Auxerre, Fra), Felix Klaus (Greuther Furth), Admir Mehmedi (Dynamo Kiev, Ukr, on loan), Vaclav Pilar (Wolfsburg, on loan)
Key departures Daniel Caligiuri (Wolfsburg), Johannes Flum (Eintracht Frankfurt), Max Kruse (Borussia Monchengladbach), Cedric Makiadi (Werder Bremen), Jan Rosenthal (Eintracht Frankfurt)
In his 18 months at the controls, Streich has proved himself peerless at turning water into wine but, after losing the spine of his side, he may be hard pressed to continue working his magic.
Hamburg
Coach Thorsten Fink
Key arrivals Kerem Demirbay (Borussia Dortmund), Johan Djourou (Arsenal, Eng, on loan) Jacques Zoua (Basle, Swi)
Key departures Marcus Berg (Panathinaikos, Gre), Son Heung-min (Bayer Leverkusen)
While not exactly starved of top-end talent, all in all the right stuff is too thinly spread. And with Son departing the outlook is uncertain to say the least.
Hanover
Coach Mirko Slomka
Key arrivals Leonardo Bittencourt (Borussia Dortmund), Edgar Prib (Greuther Furth), Salif Sane (Nancy, Fra)
Key departures Mohammed Abdellaoue (Stuttgart), Mario Eggimann (Union Berlin), Konstantin Rausch (Stuttgart)
The club are something of an enigma: plagued by intrigue, disharmony and controversy behind the scenes, but remarkably consistent on match days and have not finished out of the top 10 for the past three seasons.
Hertha Berlin
Coach Jos Luhukay
Key arrivals Alexander Baumjohann (Kaiserslautern), Hajime Hosogai (Bayer Leverkusen), Sebastian Langkamp (Augsburg), Johannes Van den Bergh (Fortuna Dusseldorf)
Key departures Alfredo Morales (Ingolstadt)
Luhukay believes his promoted team have one important lesson to learn if they are to stay in the top flight: they need to be much quicker in switching from defence to attack and vice-versa. But the coach has no relegation fears, stating: “There are at least seven or eight teams worse than us.”
Hoffenheim
Coach Markus Gisdol
Key arrivals Kevin Akpoguma (Karlsruher), Tarik Elyounoussi (Rosenborg, Nor), Anthony Modeste (Bordeaux, Fra)
Key departures Joselu (Eintracht Frankfurt, on loan), Filip Malbasic (Partizan Belgrade, Ser, on loan), Stephan Schrock (Eintracht Frankfurt), Danny Williams (Reading, Eng)
Following a shambolic campaign
in which they employed three coaches and only stayed in the Bundesliga with a play-off victory over Kaiserslautern, the south-westerners have released no fewer than 10 professionals.
Mainz
Coach Thomas Tuchel
Key arrivals Johannes Geis (Greuther Furth), Julian Koch (Borussia Dortmund), Christoph Moritz (Schalke), Shinji Okazaki (Stuttgart), Park Joo-ho (Basle, Swi), Sebastian Polter (Wolfsburg)
Key departures Andreas Ivanschitz (Levante, Spa), Jan Kirchhoff (Bayern Munich), Marcel Risse (Cologne), Adam Szalai (Schalke)
Even the highly rated Tuchel might find it hard to keep his side’s head above water in the wake of the summer comings and goings. The loss of top scorer Szalai was a massive blow and there is doubt whether new front men, Okazaki
of Japan or Germany Under-21 Polter, can carry the same load.
Nuremberg
Coach Michael Wiesinger
Key arrivals Martin Angha (Arsenal, Eng), Josip Drmic (Zurich, Swi), Daniel Ginczek (Borussia Dortmund), Emanuel Pogatetz (Wolfsburg), Mariusz Stepinski (Widzew Lodz, Pol)
Key departures Timm Klose (Wolfsburg), Timmy Simons (Club Brugge, Blg)
In his first full season at the helm, Wiesinger’s priority this term is for his side to be “free of relegation worries”. However, since uttering those words, talismanic central defender Klose has left.
Schalke
Coach Jens Keller
Key arrivals Christian Clemens (Cologne), Leon Goretzka (Bochum), Felipe Santana (Borussia Dortmund), Adam
Szalai (Mainz)
Key departures Christoph Metzelder (retired), Christoph Moritz (Mainz)
Hats off to Schalke general manager Horst Heldt for the quality of the reinforcements he has brought in this summer: the youthful promise of midfielders Clemens and Goretzka, ace Hungarian striker Szalai and Brazilian centre-back Santana, who at any team other than Dortmund would have been an automatic starter.
Stuttgart
Coach Bruno Labbadia
Key arrivals Mohammed Abdellaoue (Hanover), Thorsten Kirschbaum (Energie Cottbus), Moritz Leitner (Borussia Dortmund, on loan), Konstantin Rausch (Hanover), Marco Rojas (Melbourne Victory, Aus), Gotoku Sakai (Albirex Niigata, Jap), Sercan Sararer (Greuther Furth), Daniel Schwaab (Bayer Leverkusen)
Key departures Shinji Okazaki (Mainz)
Following two-and-a-half yearsof crisis management, reduced budgets and decidedly mediocre results, the club firmly believe better times are around the corner. Much will be expected of Germany under-21 creator Leitner.
Werder Bremen
Coach Robin Dutt
Key arrivals Luca Caldirola (Internazionale, Ita), Cedric Makiadi (Freiburg), Nils Petersen (Bayern Munich)
Key departures Sokratis Papastathopoulos (Borussia Dortmund)
Suddenly the ultra-conservative northern club is embracing change, bedding in a new leadership structure of Dutt as coach and general manager Thomas Eichin. The signing of defender Caldirola, the skipper of Italy’s Under-21s, was a coup.
Woflsburg
Coach Dieter Hecking
Key arrivals Daniel Caligiuri (Freiburg), Max Grun (Greuther Furth), Timm Klose (Nuremberg), Stefan Kutschke (RB Leipzig)
Key departures Simon Kjaer (Lille, Fra), Emanuel Pogatetz (Nuremberg), Sebastian Polter (Mainz), Marco Russ (Eintracht Frankfurt)
Since shopaholic boss Felix Magath was removed early last season, the VW-owned club have reverted to team building on a rational basis and seem to be benefiting hugely from the stability and focus.
