From what I've seen he's more of an attacking midfielder, probably play on the left or right side of the attacking three behind a striker. Reports here in Germany seem to think he will likely sign. Would be surprised if he could play as a championship standard defender. He also refused to play in the game(s) that decided Hamburg would be relegated for the first time in their history! Can't remember what his reasons were though.

They would want over 10 million for him. I wouldn't pay it and not sure he would move to the championship either.

I haven't posted on here for years but I'm a frequent reader. Just saw the Anton Waldemar suggestion and I'm hoping we wouldn't go for him. I've been living in Hannover and watched him play several times. He is highly rated but not by me. He was part of one of the worst teams and defences Hannover have had in a long time. Things were going so badly wrong that they were pretty much relegated by Christmas and he was stripped of the captaincy soon after the winter break. He has been trying to jump ship and Hannover could do will getting rid of some players. Anton won't be at the top of the list though.

Hannover 96 beat Byern 3-1. I didn't go to the game because the tickets were sold out on the day so I went to the Cebit instead. Was offered tickets for €85 each Looks like there is a chance that they could sneak into 3rd palce for the champions league ahead of Byern!

Yep it was! Time has flown bye since I arrived here. Good spot I was suprised at the sacking as I knew they were lower down the league then they should be, but the way they played some good football and they could have beaten or at least drawn with Hannover who may sneak into the Champions league next year. Shows that football, at the end of the day, is judged on results and not performances.

bitte. Yeah there are quite a few differences between English and German football. I play for a fairly big team (although rubbish) in Hannover and they take it fairly seriously so it's almost all tactics tactics tactics. I sometimes wonder what would happen if I now played for an English team again. I've never learnt half the things i've learnt in just 18 months here! But maybe this discussion is for another thread...

Hannover 96 1-0 Wolfsburg Attendance: Last season sell out, this season about 40 000 (out of 49 000) Last season: I had just arrived from England and couldn't speak a word of deutsch. Somehow got free tickets for the game and during the next 3 hours leart a lot about german football. Two most important things I learnt were: Every matchday seems to start with a beer and a bratwurst and Hannover and Wolfsburg are big rivals and 'we' must not lose. Well it ended up 5-0 and Wolfsburg all but secured the championship in Hannover, whilst at the same time almost relegated Hannover. Dzeko was amazing and scored a perfect hat-trick. This season: Hannover after their promising start seemed to be on a bit of a wobble. Wolfsburg were underperforming compared to last season. Pre match: Chanting started 30 min before the game kicked off. The standing section was packed well before then and all in full voice. Teams walked out with the commontator saying Hannover are now Niedersachsen's number 1 team, to which the away fans set off 10 flares covering the corner in smoke. Game: I was impressed by both teams overall. Hannover can't defend down the flanks. I lost count of the number of times the left winger ran round the right back to collect a through ball passed between the right back and right sided centre back! Wolfsburg were unlucky not to score from one of these crosses. After 5 min the first clear change of the game occured. Pinto collected the ball from a short freekick, (The kind that when Blackburn do it, we groan and the ball is blocked by the wall) ran towards the goal and unleashed a shot that bounced towards the bottom corner, which the keeper jumped over and the ball went in the goal!!! The game was pretty even and in the 80th minute Diego won a penatly from a kamakarzi tackle just inside the edge of the box after the defence failed to clear. For some reason the home fans hate Diego, not sure why, maybe it was a bad tackle in the opening minutes but the whistles were defening as he took the spot kick. Diego smashed it and it came off the underside of the bar and landed just out of the goal! After this the atmosphere was amazing and every fan was stood up cheering the team home to a hard earned victory. The atmosphere and the game was amazing, best one yet in Germany for me. I think the un-reserved standing section is a definate plus and the ground is covered with banners and flags - similar to when England play. The fans also sing along to ACDC and Black Eyed Peas etc before the game. I also like the announcer as he only says e.g. number 1 paul and the fans shout ROBINSON. Thats pretty cool. Same with when a goal is scored: goal scored by: David DUNN, the score is: Hannover EINS, Wolfsburg NUL. danke BITTE. As a side note: I wouldn't say Wolfsburg were playing like a team that were about to have their manager sacked. They could quite easily have won playing away against one for the better teams in the division.

Hannover 96 0-1 Schlake 04 Hannover 96: Zieler - Cherundolo, Haggui, Pogatetz, C. Schulz - Schmiedebach, Pinto - Schlaudraff, Rausch - Ya Konan , Abdellaoue Schalke: 04: Neuer - Moritz, Höwedes, Metzelder, Schmitz - Kluge, Rakitic - Farfan, Draxler - Raul - Huntelaar Attendace: Close to a full capacity of 49000 Bought the tickets at the last minute. Costed €25 for a student ticket. Normally priced between €10-40. Arrived 1 hour before the game and you could hear the fans singing inside the ground almost before you could see the stadium! First half: Schlake just shaded it. Only goal of the game came from Raul. He was playing in the gap between the number 6 position and the 2 defenders so wasn't man marked. Cross game over and he ran from behind the defender and passed it past the keeper. Second half: Hannover were all over Schalke but didn't score. Played some nice football but always passed it out to the wings when counter attaking which slowed the play down a bit for the Schalke players to re-group. Their keeper made some great saves and was a typical german keeper. The difference between the two teams was Raul, but if you can afford to pay for a quality striker then you win games like this. Referee: Schalke had an agenda to stop Ya konan scoring as he is one of the main reasons why Hannover are in second place in the league. The referee wasn't strict enough, infact he was pretty poor, even allowing Raul in the space of 5 seconds, to shout and scream at him, then punch a Hannover defender and not get a red, or even a yellow! Atmosphere: Amazing, sung the whole way through the game apart from a 5 second pause, which felt odd as it was so quiet. They have a standing section behind the goal where the hardcore fans stand, bounce and sing. AWD arena: Built for the 2006 world cup. Looks like 2 doughnuts placed ontop of each other. You enter a zone surrounding the ground after being checked for weapons/flares/vodka etc. Almost impossible to spend cash inside the ground and the surrounding area as you buy a card and load it with €'s so you can buy your pretzel, bratwurst and beer. You can also drink in your seats and at the end of the game give your cup back for either your €1 deposit back or give it to a charity stall so they can reclaim the 1€. P.S. If anyone is interested I can write another review after the next game I attend - hopefully to see Schweine and co. play for Bayern

I have just read the LT report about Ronnie. I was lucky enough to meet him a few times because I played for Wilpshire, and one of my best memories of my time playing for wilpshire (there werent many - we lost almost every game...) was the award evenings when I got to shake his hand and wear one of his england caps! I picked the Brazil one I knew almost nothing about his football career, but I remember thinking that he would have been a great grandfather.

I used to live nearby but had no idea it was any good! Just been back to England and ate out a lot. Went to three fishes and it was great as usual.

R.I.P condolences to both his friends and family and Preston Blue

He is a legend here, club captain and someone people looked up to. Such a shock and a shame. Rest in peace

I had a NY cheesecake from the 'famous cheesecake diner' a while ago. I love my cheesecakes, but I didn't like that one Was towards Wall street area, but no idea if it is the real ''famous NY cheesecake diner' or not.

Good game. Reached level 4, 62%. Don't think this would be a good career move for me!!

I think this was my first ever game I watched! I didn't even like football then but a few years later I had season tickets and played for 3 different teams a week! Good times. Wonder what would have happened if we lost!? Maybe I would have supported the other local team