Last season was the pinnacle of Jürgen Klopp’s Dortmund project. Following successive Bundesliga titles, the 2013 Champions League final was a chance to complete the job and for that Dortmund team to place itself in the pantheon of teams who were so much more than the sum of their parts. But as we all know that wasn’t to be. So what next for BVB and their beloved manager? This season has proved difficult. With the loss of Götze to Bayern, who seem insistent on cherry picking their nearest rivals most influential players, and a whole host of injuries providing significant barriers along the Yellow Brick Road, it is the back line that has suffered most this season, with at one point the entire first team back four out of action.
However, this doesn’t seem to have been the only issue. For a team so good at creating chances they have been surprisingly wasteful in front of goals. This is no better shown than through the wasted chances in the second leg of the Champions League tie against Real; Mkhitaryan will take the blame here, but he is not the only one who has lacked that clinical edge this season.
There is a feeling, as with all sides that succeed against the odds, that following the success they achieved, they will be disassembled for parts. Dortmund have arguably been lucky that some of their most in-demand players have been injured - who would take a chance on signing an injured player? But with the aforementioned loss of Götze and this summer’s pre-agreed free transfer of Lewandowski, there is a feeling that the vultures are lurking and waiting to pounce. Reus and Gundogan are linked off and on with Manchester United (another club in serious need of a rebuild job), Piszczek linked with Arsenal, and Hummels has been linked with Barca.
The issue is that Dortmund won’t be able to compete with the financial clout of the super clubs. The most obvious example of this is the transfer of Lewandowski, whose wages at Dortmund last season were a reported £25,000-a-week, whereas Bayern are said to have raised those to £175,000-a-week .The heart of Klopp’s side it appears will eventually be torn out. They had their moment in the sun and now they go back to where they belong, away from the big boys - the same could happen to Atletico after this season.
What now for Jürgen? Well some have seen the transfer of Adrian Ramos as reflecting his intent to stay, but it feels more like a man trying to fill the gaps as best he can so as to not leave his successor in dire straits; unlike Fergie with Moyes.
Dortmund are a top Bundesliga team, but last season never heralded the era of German club dominance. Klopp could leave now and nobody would begrudge him for that - his success at the club speaks for itself and he is, after all, still a young manager at the age of 46. He is tactically astute, and along with Simeone, Pep, Bobby Martinez and Brendan Rodgers, part of a new breed of managers who are forward-thinking and always look at how best to get their teams working as a cohesive unit - always tweaking and adapting.
This has coincided with another end of an era it seems, that of Arsene Wenger at Arsenal. Football it seems has overtaken the French manager, and Klopp is a man who would fill the role perfectly. As when Wenger took over at the North London club, Klopp is dynamic, gets his teams playing exciting attacking football and has a keen eye for new talent - most evidently in his purchase of Lewandowski from Lech Poznan for a reported fee of €4.5 million. At this stage of his career, it would benefit Klopp’s career advancement to leave while his stock is incredibly high. After the success he has achieved at BVB he would still have the love of the Dortmund fans as without him the club just would not have been the same. As the Elton John song goes, maybe Dortmund will find a replacement, there aren’t plenty like Klopp to be found, but he has earned the right to see what lies beyond the Yellow Brick Road.
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