Arsenal have confirmed that Mika Biereth will spend the second half of the season on loan with Austrian side Sturm Graz.
The Denmark under-21 international had planned to spend the entire campaign with Motherwell but after impressing in the first five months, the club decided he might be better served testing himself in another environment. We’ll leave it to you to decide whether the Austrian Bundesliga is stronger than the Scottish Premier League.
Biereth follows in the footsteps of goalkeeper Arthur Okonkwo, another Arsenal Academy graduate, who last season enjoyed a very fruitful spell with Sturm Graz, even securing silverware. We assume the trust built between the clubs over the last 12 months played into the decision to rehouse Biereth who also attracted interest from Sheffield Wednesday.
The 20-year-old made 15 appearances north of the border, scored five goals and made six assists. Despite enjoying his time at Fir Park, he’s excited for the new challenge.
“The last few days have been very exciting, everything happened very quickly, but that’s just how it is in football,” he told the Stum Graz official website.
“Sturm is a big club in Austria that has high goals – just like I am very ambitious and strive for the highest both in my personal development and with the team.
“Arthur Okonkwo, a player on loan from Arsenal, was recently extremely successful here in Graz – I hope to be able to follow in his footsteps in this regard.”
For their part, Sturm Graz are glad to be adding extra firepower to squad.
“Mika Biereth is a young player who perfectly fulfills the striker profile we have clearly defined with the power and depth that we were still looking for,” said sporting director Andreas Schicker.
“We have known Mika for a long time through our extensive scouting work – he became part of our shadow squad during his time in the Netherlands – and have been in very good contact with him, his management and Arsenal FC ever since.
“We are convinced of Mika’s potential and look forward to seeing him in the striker’s jersey.”
We have no idea what a shadow squad is but we look forward to someone explaining the term to us*.
In other news, we’re off to rebrand the site as MikaBierethNews.com.
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*It could just be a clumsy google translation.
Will he get better.
Blogs is right about wondering if the Austrian league is superior to the Scottish premiership….. there’s probably something they’re not saying …a fall out with Motherwell? An offer of a loan to buy? Doesn’t make sense to remove a youngster from a great environment especially where he plays and is clearly improving….
hey blogs,
shadow squad is a set of players you could potentially add to your ranks. basically your scouting list
I’ll say it again – we must NOT let this lad slip away. He’s a fast, powerful, big striker with a cracking shot on him and finds the net regularly. Good hold-up play as well.
May he have a brilliant few months and come back to us to fight for a starting berth up front next season.
A starting biereth?
If they can turn Biereth into Bierhoff, I am taking it.
This is AF fuckin C man.. come on man.. we do our bit.. yes?
Out bit is.. COYG!!!!!!!! So.. it will be ok.. trust me.. i we do fuck up.. I have hugs ready man.
Is the Austrian Bundesliga stronger than the Championship, never mind the SPL..?
I wish him well but this has ‘shop window’ written all over it…
I don’t want to get tribal on this but sometimes we need to trust the guys doing their jobs at the club. Which league is better is up to you as a fan but for player development and potential exposure I’d leave that to the staff concerned. Look at the championship for example. No way it can be considered better than French League 1 but teams have different ambitions. Balogun for example was at Boro but with ambitions of promotion/playoffs there was no way he would start week in week out, something he was assured at Reims. I doubt relegation… Read more »
It is, yes. Not speaking generally about Austria vs. Championship, but a title candidate like Sturm Graz, who ist still playing in Europe in spring, is stronger than Sheffield Wednesday. Austrian league is currently unfortunately very similar to the SPL. Two teams dominating (Salzburg and Graz), currently being miles better than the rest. So Graz are kinda the “Rangers” of Austria and are about as much better than Motherwell as Rangers are. (They have more than twice as many points if I am not mistaken) 6 most recent results in European competition Austria vs Scotland: Salzburg – Celtic 3:1 /… Read more »
The main difference is that Sturm plays for the title so the pressure is on. And i assume that the Austrian league is more competitive because the scottish is largely dominated by the old firm.
Oh Mother, well the Graz is greener on the other side..
Don’t bother, will see myself out.
My guess is Shadow Squad is the list of players they follow (like your shadow follows you).
“We are convinced of Mika’s potential and look forward to seeing him in the striker’s jersey.”
It is a translation mistake. Correct translation would be in “our club’s jersey”. Sturm in German generally means storm but in football terms means attack. (Strikers position is called Stürmer)
That’s were the wrong translation comes from. What he means with “… freuen uns darauf, ihn im Sturmtrikot zu sehen” in the original interview is “… looking forward to seeing him in a Sturm jersey.” same as saying you’d be looking forward to seeing somebody in a Gunners jersey.
and a shadow squad (Schattenkader) is a team of potential recruits – meaning they had identified him as a player they’d like to have since he was playing in the Netherlands
I can confirm your explanation, thank you. Its quite a new term i guess, having heard it only in the last months
Shadow Squad: Akward translation of “Schattenkader”
Describes a list/squad of potential transfer candidates in case players of the actual team are transfered. It’s just Schicker doing his homework and being well prepared for every eventuality.
“Sturm is a big club in Austria that has high goals”
Less chance of the ball going over the bar, then!
A shadow squad is a scouting tool. It’s a depth chart of targets the club would want to acquire in different scenarios. i.e. Raya was presumably in our shadow squad as a long-term target.