Stuttgart defend policy

Gomez: Not been successfully replaced

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Stuttgart general manager Horst Heldt has refused to blame the poor start to the season on the club's failure to find a replacement for Mario Gomez.

The striker, who netted 63 goals in two seasons for Stuttgart, left at the end of last season to join Bayern Munich for a fee believed to be around £25million.

However, despite the major cash injection Stuttgart decided only to buy Russian international Pavel Pogrebnyak for a reported 10million euros.

The former Zenit St Petersburg man has struggled to live up to the reputation of his predecessor with just three goals from 14 appearances in all competitions.

Not only that but Stuttgart find themselves 14th in the Bundesliga with only goal difference keeping them out of the bottom three.

However, Heldt angrily defends the club's transfer policy: "I am not out to get in touch with all the rubbish produced by some parts of the public anymore," he told Deutsches Sportfernsehen.

"It was after the final day of last season that Mario Gomez decided to leave our club. We had looked at alternatives for over a year, but this business is no computer game to click on a name of a player to get this player playing for VFB Stuttgart.

"This is not the way business is done. This is way too superficial, way too simple and is definitely not the way things are.

"Before his decision we had not been aware of facts that Mario would definitely leave us this summer."