Go speak to @moreinjuredthanowen on our board about Dortmund and their policy. He’ll agree with you and tell you how Dortmund won’t win anything cos more than happy just buying young players and selling on.
One thing Brighton have that makes me think they will be in the top flight for quite a while yet is the fact that . Their owner is very wealthy AND A BRIGHTON SUPPORTER .
I agree to some degree with Lincoln's disappointment although the comments about poor quality reinvestment has been well made. I think that the sensible solution would be to bomb out the players who are surplus and of no real value. In my opinion I think Saints will have worked out who is to be sold and who they wish to retain. I am sure they have this worked out now. Russell probably knows already who his key players for the season will be. With regards to the rest of the squad, I just feel that we probably want to ascertain how it develops and work out what the problem areas are before we spend the money. I would not want to see it gone in one spree as do not feel we will go up in the first season. The January window was like supermarket sweep and was ill thought out. I think Martin needs a two year project and the investment needs to be over the whole period because I justbelieve that the issues we currently have will make automatic promotion unlikely.
But they didn’t… in same way we didn’t get a trophy for missing out on the title by a point to city twice and let’s be honest, that was mainly due to Bayern being awful last year and almost handing it to them
They didn't. But saying that their model cannot win them trophies when they came within two minutes of winning a title a few months ago is idiotic. A model that gets you to within two minutes of a title is a model that can obviously win you a title.
But it can’t on a consistent basis. 12 years since they won the league. And 2 German cups within that time period. Leicester have won more. I love Dortmund. I think they’re a brilliant club. buying load of young talented players, developing them and selling them on works as a model. As long as you don’t expect to be winning trophies regularly. Inagine if they had kept Bellingham, Haaland, akanji and Sancho for the past 3 years together. Feel they’d have had a much better chance
That's the point though. The only reason they were able to sign those players was because of their business model of developing young talent and selling them on. In fact Haaland only signed on the condition of a £65m release clause.
They wouldn't have had Bellingham, Haaland, Sancho et al then. That's the very basis of their model. It's not like those players were unknowns that they discovered, every club in Europe wanted Haaland, but Dortmund landed him because it had the right combination of prominence, willingness to sink or swim with young players, and also would not stand in his way when one of the true giants invariably stepped in.
That’s the point exactly. They have a model and can attract brilliant young talent with the promise that they will play in brilliant stadium at a high level and after a couple years can move on to another big club. But let’s not kid ourselves, they aren’t going there to win trophies. Dortmund is a huge club but it’s a stepping stone at the moment and the lack of silverware shows that although it’s a great business model, it doesn’t work if you want to win things as well. Only way to do that is to keep your best players. I don’t know the general feeling among Dortmund fan base. Maybe they’re ok with constantly being second fiddle to Bayern with the odd title challenge and domestic cup in which case it all works perfectly. But it does remind me a bit of wenger at arsenal where he almost convinced the fan base that top 4 was a trophy better than any actual trophy and the fan base got happy with it knowing they’d buy decent talent develop them get top 4 then sell them for big bucks.
I mean they are the 2nd most successful club in Germany in terms of Bundesliga titles, and 3rd in therms of their national cup. Yes they aren't on the same level as Bayern, but bayern are one of the most successful clubs in world football.
No way he'd join to be third-choice: he has been a regular starter on (generally poor) Championship sides for years. Imagine that's probably McCarthy out.
You're acting as if there is a model where they would be regularly beating Bayern. There isn't. That is the very reason they are doing what they are doing: Dortmund used to have a very German side where half their squad would run out the end of their contracts and then sign on a free with Bayern. Almost went broke at one point. Now they instead have a squad full of world-class youngsters who they sell for enormous profits, which leaves them positioned to remain financially stable, able to regularly reach the early (and sometimes late) knockout rounds, and go head-to-head with their much more moneyed opponents for the title. Seems like a decent model.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Liverpool have only won the league once in 33 years, right? It sounds a bit hypocritical for a Liverpool fan to be talking about Dortmund's 'failures'.
