Media on BVB’s recent transfer policy: “A sign of lacking direction” | OneFootball

The BVB expert at Spox is Jochen Tittmar, who regularly provides detailed assessments of the happenings at the 2024 Champions League finalist. The latest version of his analysis is once again quite something, as Tittmar does not hold back with criticism of those responsible at Borussia Dortmund.

The topic is the recently concluded transfer window, in which BVB first signed Jobe Bellingham for a lot of money—and then remained inactive for a long time when it came to new signings. Only shortly before the deadline did the club, which still sees itself as the real number 2 in Germany, become active again. At least, some expensive players were offloaded, and 40 million was raised for Jamie Gittens.

Nevertheless: Starting with the description of BVB's conduct as "strange," moving on to the mention of "empty statements" from Lars Ricken, and finally getting to the heart of the matter, which is simply a "lack of an idea" regarding their approach, the reader knows right from the start which direction the text is taking.

Last week, Lars Ricken described the transfer decisions as so successful that the club now has a better squad than last season. Nothing more could be done, as the financial resources were exhausted.

Tittmar, on the other hand, points out that the squad is in reality almost identical to the one that "played badly 80 percent of the time" last season. Only the final sprint was successful, and that with the often overlooked generous help of the competition.

Photo: IMAGO

New Season, Same Old Issues at BVB

The same issues from last year are still being carried along. Professionals like Julian Brandt, Emre Can, or Niklas Süle are extremely well paid, but do not consistently deliver the desired performance. Their high salaries at BVB made it so difficult to transfer them that none of the aforementioned could be moved on.

In addition, the squad was assembled to fit the wishes of coach Niko Kovac. While that is not reprehensible, it is risky given the short tenure of coaches at Borussia Dortmund since the end of the Klopp era. Especially since Kovac himself has not yet shown anywhere that he can permanently improve a team, usually having to leave after less than two years.

Kovac's football has rarely been attractive so far, which is why Ricken's comments about the kind of football BVB wants to play sound "vague and empty." The club wants to "fight and work hard," but also "provide spectacle." This manifests a weakness of BVB that has not been addressed for some time: the lack of a footballing identity.

Tittmar adds further thoughts on the less-than-optimal squad composition—keyword polyvalence vs. specialists—to create an overall picture of BVB that raises doubts as to whether the squad has actually improved compared to the last two weak seasons.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.