SC Freiburg boss Christian Streich has admitted that “ideally” they would have kept Kevin Schade from Brentford this month, but the Bees “really wanted him.”
Schade completed his move to Brentford at the beginning of the transfer window, joining on loan until the end of the season.
That deal includes a clause which means it is very likely to be turned into a permanent transfer come the summer for around €25m.
That will see Freiburg make a huge profit on a player who only cost them €250,000 in 2018, when he joined their youth setup.
He’s spent the subsequent three years developing before moving up to the first team, where he went on to make 36 appearances, scoring six and assisting four.
That is only a handful of games but he showed enough for Brentford to make their move this month and agree to pay a sizeable fee in the summer should things go to plan.
They see something in the youngster but Streich believes the transfer may have actually been a case of them not knowing what to do with the money they have available.
“(He’s) a very talented player with extraordinary individual skills that very few players have like that,” Kicker report him saying about Schade.
“But we got an offer for him, they really wanted him the English. They have the money, then it’s also nice that a little bit comes to us. They don’t know what to do with some of the money.
“We’re doing well even without these incredible investors that they have in England and to some extent in Germany, because we work the way we work and also make transfers that help us because players have developed well.
“After all, that is also an award, not so much for us and certainly not for me, but for the football school. Ideally, we would have liked to have had the money and Kevin would still be here, but that’s not possible.”
