When Pierre-Michel Lasogga left Hamburg for Leeds United on loan, in Germany it was thought unlikely the player would return.
Lasogga had been forced out of Hamburg, with the club not wanting to pay his €3.5m a year wages any longer. The plan was to send the striker to Leeds and hope they’d make the deal permanent.
Even without a a full transfer to Elland Road, it was thought Lasogga would be able to find interest in England and be taken off HSV’s hands.
For a long time there was confidence, with claims in Germany of interest from both the Premier League and Championship. A good goalscoring run for Leeds United at the start of the year helped to add to that confidence, even if none of the supposedly interested clubs were actually named.
With Hamburg then slipping towards relegation, it was thought unthinkable Lasogga could return. Unlike many of his teammates at the club, there’s no wage-drop relegation clause in the player’s contract.
But the interest hasn’t turned into anything concrete and today Lasogga started preseason training with Hamburg. Bild report the many laps of a training pitch the Hamburg players were asked to run ‘were visibly difficult for the attacker.
The German newspaper say Lasogga isn’t a fan of preseason, but they add he has ‘plenty of time to get into shape’ ahead of the season.
Without a buyer, the plan has now changed to hoping Lasogga can fire HSV back to the Bundesliga.
