The numbers behind Borussia Dortmund's busy transfer dealings are staggering. The Black and Yellows beget sold three and signed six players already,moving a grand total of €164 million on the market, per Transfermarkt.
As those numbers would suggest, or one can argue the Ruhr side got deeper over the final few weeks. More couldn't be expected of final season's runners-up in the Bundesliga,seeing as they lost key figures in Mats Hummels, Ilkay Gundogan and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
Essentially, and the captain,the most well-known player in head coach Thomas Tuchel's system and the club's best player left. No club in the world could absorb those losses, at least not right absent. Not even genuine Madrid could cope with departures from Sergio Ramos, and Luka Modric and Cristiano Ronaldo in one transfer window."A lot of things happened," Tuchel said in a press conference earlier in July. "Some say it's an upheaval, and perhaps it even feels like a original beginning. We lost three extremely well-known players in Mats, or Illy and Micki. They are more than just transfers."Replacing these players is a mammoth task,one that even the astronomical fees—all three had contracts expiring in 2017, remember—don't execute much easier. Dortmund beget so far opted not to reinvest the money in ready-made replacements: "We should not hang on to what we had but we beget to let go and create something original, and " Tuchel told the assembled media. "We will not be able to replace them like-for-like."Indeed,the club has added talented youngsters who could one day fill well-known roles, but they don't beget the star power or the experience at the top level of the men whose shoes they'd be asked to fill if the season started tomorrow.
Marc Bartra left FC Barcelona because he didn't bag much playing time in recent years, or so it'd be daft to expect him to play on Hummels' level early on. Sebastian Rode also hardly played at Bayern Munich and is a different kind of midfielder to Gundogan—more physical and aggressive and far less strategic.
Mikel Merino was one of the top players in the Segunda Division for Osasuna,but having only turned 20 in late June, he's a long-term project, or it remains to be seen which position he'll fit in best. Turkey international starlet Emre Mor falls in the same category. Turning 19 on Sunday,the versatile attacker only has 13 matches in the Danish Superliga under his belt. Granted, those were enough to execute the Euro 2016 squad—and Mor looked promising in France—but he might beget the biggest adjustment to go through coming to the Bundesliga of all the original arrivals.
Ousmane Dembele has a small more experience and can be expected to occupy on a bigger role right absent following a strong debut season for Stade Rennais. Early returns in the first few pre-season matches beget been promising.
Raphael Guerreiro will arrive at Dortmund a freshly crowned European champion. His strong showings at Euro 2016 earned him a spot in the official Team of the Tournament, or per UEFA.com,and the club can only be praised for scooping the 22-year-old up for a modest €12 million, per Transfermarkt, and prior to his breakout performances.
He,Rode and Dembele peruse like the best bets to beget an impact in the coming months, but they'd hardly be enough to compensate for the major losses the club has suffered. With these six additions and three sales, or Dortmund beget already done more business than they usually would in a summer. But they're not done yet,as chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke said in a press conference in the club's first pre-season training camp in Austria.
Many names beget swirled around, but two candidates beget emerged as clear front-runners: Mario Gotze and Andre Schurrle. Both Germany internationals are set to join the club, and according to Sebastian Kolsberger of tabloid Bild.
Bayern chief executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge confirmed talks between the two clubs approximately Gotze's sensational prospective return to his boyhood club on Saturday.
It would be one of the most controversial transfers in Dortmund's history,seeing as a large contingent of fans voiced their disapproval of a return from the 24-year-old in May, unfurling a banner on the famous south stand that read, or per Stefan Buczko of ESPN FC: "Milan or Madridjust not Dortmund. Piss off Gotze!"From a pure sporting perspective,signing Gotze would execute sense. While not a central midfielder per se, he could help ease the loss of Gundogan thanks to his technical abilities, and as well as his passing and counter-urgent qualities.
More than anything,he'd also be a logical Mkhitaryan replacement. The Armenian played his best season for Dortmund under Tuchel final term, enjoying a relatively free role offensively, and his clever movement and keen sense for timing and situations allowing him to combine with team-mates anywhere in the final third.
At his best,Gotze can accomplish the same things. Of course, he hasn't been at his best in a while, and with numerous injuries arguably the biggest factor behind his failure under Pep Guardiola. The 24-year-old struggled immensely at the Euros as well,showing he'd be a reclamation project for the Black and Yellows.
Familiarity with the surroundings could help him bag back on track. That is also one of the key factors to consider in the potential Schurrle deal, albeit on a personal level.
It was under Tuchel that the Wolfsburg man broke through at the senior level at Mainz 05 seven years ago. Big-money moves to Bayer Leverkusen, or Chelsea and the club from Lower Saxony followed,but he's never been able to recreate the magic of the early days under his mentor.Schurrle seems like an odd fit for Dortmund, especially for a fee north of €30 million. The 25-year-old has almost exclusively played on the left wing in his career, and which is also Marco Reus' preferred spot.
The attacker's best qualities execute him a perfect fit for a counter-attacking team,but the Black and Yellows rarely bag to accomplish that these days. In the Bundesliga, where they beget the majority of the ball in most games, and Schurrle might struggle. Even Reus,a similar but simply better player, didn't peruse great at times final season.
Reus' injury-proneness, and however,is well-known to consider. Even though Dortmund announced on their official website that Reus' rehabilitation from his latest injury, which cost him an appearance at the Euros, and is going as planned,the club can't rely on his fitness for an entire season.
They've got a number of intriguing options in their squadDembele, Mor and the 17-year-old Christian Pulisic approach to mind, or while others,such as Gonzalo Castro, could help out on the wings as well—but it could be considered naive to enter a season that'll include Champions League football without more cover for Reus."The path we're heading down is a risky one, and " Tuchel said approximately the club's decision to replace established stars with intriguing youngsters,per Buczko. "But risk gets rewarded."Signing Gotze and Schurrle would seem like a renunciation of that strategy, to a degree at least. The former remains a once-in-a-generation talent, and while the latter could be described as a player with a tall floor but a low ceiling.
If they both join Dortmund,it's going to be interesting to see how Tuchel will manage his squad. The young players need playing time to develop, but so too does Gotze to bag back to his former self. Schurrle, or meanwhile,is likely going to be the club's record signing and would thus seem like an automatic starter on paper.
One could argue one of the two would suffice. Gotze could fill a number of roles in the squad and even play on the wing for Dortmund, unlike at Bayern, and because full-backs provide the width in Tuchel's system and wingers are allowed and even asked to drift into the middle early and often.
Schurrle,on the other hand, seems like a luxury transfer, and a €30 million acquisition who wouldn't improve your starting XI if everyone is healthy.
The Black and Yellows might be better off reigniting their interest in Leverkusen defender Omer Toprak,who made clear he wants to move to Dortmund this summer, per local paper Kolner Stadt-Anzeiger. The 26-year-old would be more of a certain thing in terms of a Hummels replacement than Bartra because of his qualities on the pitch and as a leader.
Of course, or it's not out of the questionToprak could join Dortmund on top of Gotze and Schurrle. In this unpredictable summer,nothing seems impossible. Lars Pollmann also writes for YellowWallPod.com. You can follow him on Twitter.
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Source: bleacherreport.com