Who will win the Bundesliga?

Who do we think will win the Bundesliga?

The current champions are Wolfsburg. The club, which grew out of the sports club for Volkswagen workers, won it’s first ever Bundesliga title last season and will be determined to make a decent attempt at defending it.

Enigmatic

Manager Felix Magath has added the enigmatic striker Obafemi Martins to the prolific Grafite and Dzeko, and will be hoping that they can again fire the team to success. Also arriving at the Volkswagen Arena is £6 million midfielder Karim Ziani from Marseille and the twenty-one year old defender Fabian Johnson from 1860 Munich.

The other European qualifiers in the Bundesliga last season were Bayern Munich, Stuttgart, Hertha and Hamburg. Borussia Dortmund and the remarkable Hoffenheim just missed out.

Challenge

Will any of those sides be able to mount a successful challenge for Wolfsburg title this time around? The answer to that question is an emphatic yes. Looking at the teams in reverse order from how they finished last season we start with Hoffenheim. Twenty-two year old Brazilian striker Reginaldo has joined the club from Botafogo, defender Christian Eichner has joined from Karlsruhe and goalkeeper Jens Grahl has signed from Greuther Furth.

They haven’t stopped there. Twenty-two year old Ghana striker Prince Tagoe on a three-year contract from Saudi Arabian side Al-Ettifaq. Highly-rated eighteen year old Argentinian international Franco Zuculini has arrived from Racing Club Avellaneda and thirty-one year old Croatia international defender Josip Simunic has signed from Hertha.

Amazing

It looks as though manager Ralf Rangnick has added an exciting mixture of youth and experience to his squad and after the amazing exploits of the last few years, who would write off their chances of success this time around?

Borussia Dortmund have brought in Bulgaria striker Dimitar Rangelov and midfielder Sven Bender. They came up a little short last season and it is difficult to see them doing anything much better this season.

Leadership

Hamburg are now under the leadership of former Bayer Leverkusen coach Bruno Labbadia after Martin Jol left for Ajax. Dutch striker Eljero Elia has signed for the club along with Groningen’s Swedish striker Marcus Berg who was wanted by a number of English Premier League clubs.

Despite the new manager and the new additions, I find it hard to see Hamburg making a sustainable challenge at the top. Having said that, I wouldn’t bet too much against them in the Europa League.

Negative

Hertha have lost striker Andriy Voronin and although they have made a couple of signings, the stories coming out of the club are more negative than positive. At the start of the summer break general manager Dieter Hoeness ended his thirteen year association with the club following alleged differences with the club’s board.

Hertha do not seem like a club at peace and they will do well to match their excellent fourth placed finish of last season.

Excellent

Stuttgart have signed defender Stefano Celozzi and midfielder Matthias Schwarz, as well as bringing in Alexander Hleb on a season long loan. The signing of Hleb, in particular, could prove to be an excellent piece of business for the club.

They have several other high profile targets and should any of those be successful, I can see them being there or thereabouts come the end of the season.

Leaving

Lastly we come to Bayern Munich. Louis van Gaal’s summer has been as much about who might be leaving his team as it has about who might be joining. Brazilian center half Lucio has left, apparently with more than van Gaal’s blessing whilst at the time of writing, Franck Ribery is still at the club.

After a fairly dismal period under Jurgen Klinsmann last season, Bayern only just missed out on the title. Under the astute leadership of the excellent van Gaal, I can see them reclaiming what they believe to be theirs by rights, the Bundesliga title. They’ve won six of the last ten and haven’t finished outside the top three.

Surely the sensible money has got to be on Bayern making it seven out of eleven?