Last week we saw two enthralling Champions League quarterfinal first legs. Bayern Munich thrashed Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund hammered Real Madrid.
Bayern Munich are one of the biggest and best clubs in the world so when they demolished a Barcelona team who were no where near top form, people were surprised but not too surprised as the form they have shown this season has been unbelievable at times. Borussia Dortmund, although back-to-back winners of the Bundesliga in 2011 and 2012, are nowhere near as well known. So we need to ask the question where did that amazing performance come from?
German football has been in somewhat of a slump. No German team has won the Champions League for 12 years. During this period there has been one Portuguese winner (Porto), 3 English champions (Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea), 3 Italian winners (AC Milan x2 and Inter Milan) and 4 winners from Spain (Barcelona x3 and Real Madrid) So how do you get from a slump like that to a chance of having an all German CL final?
Bayern Munich have always been up there with Europe’s elite but Dortmund are here for the first time since they won this prestigious competition in 1997 (they reached the semi-finals a year later). So how did a club who were almost bankrupt in 2005 become odds on favourites to reach Wembley on the 25th of May?
Borussia Dortmund shares a friendly rivalry with Bayern Munich. So friendly in fact that when in 2005 the team who wear yellow were on the brink of bankruptcy Bayern loaned them €2 million to make sure they would survive. A decision I’m sure the higher powers at FC Hollywood are regretting now.
The starting eleven that brilliantly battered Mourinho’s men cost Jurgen Klopp and Borussia Dortmund just £29 million, £6 million less than Andy Carroll.
He is a tactical genius, a genius with transfers and overall Jurgen Klopp is definitely the best young manager in the world today. He could go to any of Europe’s best club if he feels he has achieved all that is possible at Dortmund.
Robert Lewandowski was the man who grabbed the headlines after the first leg and rightly so. His four goals and all round brilliant play, show why he is being closely watched by Bayern and Manchester United. For Dortmund fans it is a shame that Lewandowski is looking for the exit door but for the fans of the club who attain his signature in the Summer it is brilliant news.
Like his Polish colleague Lewandowski, Mario Gotze is also wishing a move to a bigger club and like a middle aged, bald genie Pep Guardiola has granted Mario’s wish and the young German international has been signed for Bayern Munich next season.
Mats Hummels: free, Robert Lewandowski: €4.2 million, Ilkay Gundogan: €4.8 million, Lukasz Piczczek: free, Shinji Kagawa: €308,000, Jakub Blaszczykowsi: €2.684 million, the list goes on. We know Klopp is brilliant at signing young cheap players and developing them into real quality. However what we have little evidence of is his spending on big money players. The excellent £15 million acquisition last Summer of Marco Reus is the most Klopp has ever spent on player. How he goes about replacing players with the quality of the two who are departing will show us the quality of his money management skills. He will have around £55 million from the sales of Gotze and Lewandowski and what he does with it will certainly show us if he is ready to manage one of the other big, rich European clubs.
Back to back titles in one of the toughest leagues in the world should have really been a indicator to us all that this current crop of young Dortmund players could go on to conquer European football.
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