ClapAs weird as it is going to sound, being an elite level club in the landscape of European football can be hard sometimes. There’s a constant pressure from within, and from outside of the general circle, to perform to your full potential. Of course, everyone should strive to do that at all costs, but we can’t all guarantee success 100% of the time.
Case in point: a lot of Borussia Dortmund fans a few years ago were anticipating a change of the guard at the top of German football. They had usurped Bayern Munich in pretty much every way imaginable, to the point where they were expected to carry that momentum forward across a number of seasons in the future. In the end, though, that’s not how it went down. Not even close.
The trail of success
Bayern have been able to take back control of the German game with ruthless efficiency, and a few days ago they were able to retain the Bundesliga title on the final day of the season. How did they do it? The simple answer could be money, and the cocky answer would be to say they simply accumulated more points than Dortmund throughout the course of the season.
However, we happen to believe that they had a specific system behind their spends in the transfer window: pick the best players from rival clubs and go after them. It was a strategy we’d seen being implemented in the past, but not quite to the same extent as Bayern did it. You have to put everything together on the pitch with those players, as we all know, but you could certainly make the argument that they bullied their way to the title.
Now, as reported by BBC and Dortmund on Twitter themselves, they’re making the kind of acquisitions that could lead a casual to believe they’re doing the same thing – and the hardcores would be right to believe it, too.
Making moves
It might not be the most favourable of techniques, but let’s face it, you may as well fight fire with fire in the current landscape of the game. It’s the way in which we’ve been going in the sport for longer than we care to remember, and there’s no point in denying it. Dortmund have to get with the times and start fighting Bayern Munich at their own game, and these transfer deals are the definition of ‘statements’.
Is it going to make much of a difference next season if Bayern strengthens too? Who knows. What we do know, though, is that when you factor in some of the other teams rising up through the ranks, this is quickly becoming one of the most exciting divisions in world football. It’s going to take a while before they can really contend with the Premier Leagues and La Ligas of the world, but German football is certainly making strides towards getting themselves back on the map.
Oh, and we don’t think Dortmund’s spending is over – not by a long shot.
