The roller coaster ride continues for BVB before the decisive game in Glasgow on Thursday. The situation in Dortmund is now one of the last great mysteries in football. What really keeps this club stuck in this endless loop between triumph and defeat?
“There are a lot of young players. Sometimes it’s like walking ten dogs.” Four years ago, Borussia Dortmund thought they had the problem under control. With Axel Witsel and Thomas Delaney – from whom the gassi saying came – two so-called leading players had been committed, who should not only lead the whole club on the pitch. As we know today: it was only intended to be a brief success experiment. Delaney is now active in Spain and Axel Witsel rarely makes it into BVB’s first eleven.
It’s maddening what’s been happening in Dortmund over the past few years. And it’s one of football’s last great mysteries why this club doesn’t get any consistency in their games on the green turf. Because Borussia is now one of the most consistent clubs in Germany at management level. But the team has apparently not benefited from this for years. On the contrary: the famous “roller coaster rides”, which not least annoy the players themselves, have meanwhile almost become a stigma for BVB. And the reasons for this fatal flightiness probably lie deeper than the Borussia officials would admit to themselves.
Two years ago, Uli Hoeneß reached deep into BVB’s open wound with a statement when he said: “If Dortmund buys a highly talented player and he plays well, a few months later you can hear either from the club itself or from outside that at some point it will be a sale.” At the time, Michael Zorc countered Hoeneß’s “rather arrogant” statements with a memorable verbal attack: “If you have 250 million euros more in your pocket every year, you can stink with full pants.”
Of Legends and Travelers
How close Hoeneß may have come to BVB’s big problem with his simple description of Dortmund’s realities at the time can be seen in the current situation at Borussia. It doesn’t matter whether the team wins or goes down again: There is always a man in the headlines who, due to an injury, only has to sit in the stands at the moment. Erling Haaland and his future are an issue, even if he doesn’t play at all. A totally unhealthy story for everyone. Because a man who is not on the green lawn should never have such a large place in the stories surrounding a game. But that’s exactly BVB’s problem.
Ben Redelings is a passionate “chronicler of football madness” and a supporter of the glorious VfL Bochum. The bestselling author and comedian lives in the Ruhr area and maintains his legendary anecdote treasure chest. For ntv.de he writes down the most exciting and funniest stories on Mondays and Saturdays. More information about Ben Redelings, his current dates and his book with the best columns (“Between Puff and Barcelona”) can be found on his page www.scudetto.de.
As a “training club” that earns a lot of money with the maturing of young stars, Borussia Dortmund – regardless of whether they want it or not – is always just a transit station for many footballers. Consistency in the squad, which would be so important to show real consistency on the pitch, is not guaranteed in many crucial positions. And what’s even worse: It can never come up because players like Erling Haaland never see BVB as a real home. An upright bond with the club will not arise in this way. It’s a real looping dilemma!
The officials should analyze as soon as possible how Borussia Dortmund can escape from this impasse. Because at the moment the whole of football Germany is still looking more to Marco Reus when it comes to the problematic situation at BVB. But the native of Dortmund is probably just powerless with his style against the larger forces that prevail at Borussia. Because if two outspoken leaders like Axel Witsel and Thomas Delaney could not permanently change the general situation at Borussia, then those responsible for BVB should finally think about their strategy of the last few years. Big and successful clubs have always been defined by club legends on the pitch. And you usually don’t become a legend if you only play on call for a club.