Possibly the only shining light in a troublesome season for Paderborn was the form of their winger Moritz Stoppelkamp and it now looks like he'll make the expected imminent return to the top flight. With Werder Bremen winger Eljero Elia looking to complete a permanent switch to Southampton, that deal could be crucial to securing the services of Stoppelkamp.
According to various reports, Stoppelkamp is available for a cut fee of just €700,000 euros which is considerably less than they'd receive for Elia, the fee is well within their budget even if Elia chooses to stay.
The former Hannover 96 and 1860 Munich winger was consistently involved all season as Paderborn were relegated after a 2-1 last day defeat at home to VfB Stuttgart.
The high point of his season, and one of the high points in the Bundesliga all season, came on 20th September 2014, Stoppelkamp scored a goal from 83 metres in a 2-0 victory against former club Hannover 96. His 83 metre strike recorded as the longest goal in Bundesliga history.
With Bremen short on wingers, picking up a solid player like Stoppelkamp for a small fee of just €0.7m would be smart business in terms of how much they're spending whilst also targeting the area of the pitch they need to improve the most.
After such an impressive start to their first ever season, Paderborn went downhill quicker and more drastically than any other team across Europe in 2015. They picked up just 12 points from a possible 51 in 2015 including a 5-0 defeat away to Mainz 05, a 6-0 defeat at home to Bayern Munich and a 4-0 defeat away to Eintracht Frankfurt. More worrying statistics confirm that Paderborn scored just 10 goals in their 17 games in 2015.
If the opportunity does come around for Stoppelkamp to secure a return to the Bundesliga with a team close to qualifying for the UEFA Europa League, he's surely going to grab it with both hands.
