Giovanni Reyna finds himself at a club that has struggled to redefine itself after the exuberance and turmoil of the Jürgen Klopp years.
When Borussia Dortmund manager Edin Terzić suggested a few weeks ago that his plan for the season was to make his team “less sexy and more successful”, one would have imagined that his Newcastle United counterpart Eddie Howe would nod approvingly. The improvement in speed over one of English football’s perennial underperforming players over the past two years has been dizzying, remarkable and commendable but, unlike the highlights of Kevin Keegan’s first era, it was based more on sweat than arrogance.
Following Dortmund’s 2-0 Champions League win over Newcastle on Tuesday, Howe would have arguably harbored a grudging admiration for Terzić and may also see even more parallels on where he needs to take his players in the future. The German team, which helped expand the careers of American stars such as Gio Reyna and Christian Pulisic, beat Newcastle twice in less than two weeks, home and away, with pragmatic and measured football that, each time, made the Geordies look green. . like the shiny T-shirts they wore for their fit in North Rhine-Westphalia. As well as being an indicator of the spaces Newcastle, a club run and funded very differently from Dortmund, would possibly want to be in order to reflect their hosts’ consistent presence in the Champions League, Tuesday’s attack served as a reminder. that the Bundesliga giants have moved away from the recipe that made them such a popular “second favourite” for many, just as Newcastle had been in Keegan’s heyday in the mid-1990s.
When the world looks at Borussia Dortmund, many still see the parameters built around Jurgen Klopp’s successful team a decade ago. The symbol of a young and dynamic entity. Heavy steel football, the Yellow Wall, a catalogue of colours and emotions, defying the odds until the big and bad Bayern Munich arrived to take their players. Around the time of the 2013 Champions League final in London (lost, at least recently, (to Bayern, of course), Echte Liebe (true love) have become the marketing slogan meant to distill emotions around the club and its evocative Signal Iduna Park stadium. This led to later attempts to do the same, to quantify strong feelings for advertising purposes, as Liverpool did with their slogan This Means More. The two clubs convey much more than just an anthem.
Cliché now trumps reality, a cliché that annoys many of the Yellow Wall regulars, although the club has gone to great lengths to maintain the authenticity of BVB (keeping only a small fraction of tickets on general sale, for example) during the process. However, after the perceived peak in 2013, some kind of evolution was inevitable. It had already started after the first of two consecutive Bundesliga titles under Klopp, in 2011 and 2012.
That 2011 championship was astonishing, a fairytale, made on a modest budget (at the time, BVB had a lower wage bill than Queens Park Rangers) just six years after the club faced financial and institutional ruin. At Borsigplatz, the club’s hometown in 1909, the long run was already in their hands. On that day, influential midfielder Nuri Sahin found himself on crutches amid the applause of the fans, knowing that he had already agreed to sign for Real Madrid and that the sentiment of a group of friends who opposed the global game for fun and money had transparent limits. Success is one thing. Repeating it is expensive. Good players, successful players, need and deserve to be paid.
Maintenance, structure and restructuring were time-consuming and costly, and were a major component of Dortmund’s (re)growth difficulties. Its main points are overlooked. Let’s take one of BVB’s biggest clichés as an example, the one in which Bayern summarily burst in and pinch their most productive players. Since Klopp took over at Dortmund in 2008, 10 players have played for Bayern and Dortmund, six of whom have signed for the latter. The examples of Mario Götze and Robert Lewandowski who left Westfalen for Bavaria in 2013 and 2014 are still etched in people’s minds (as key pieces of Klopp’s beloved team, of course), but they are far from the norm. Such was Dortmund’s good fortune in coming the ability of youngsters (one of the tropes that is truly true) that Jadon Sancho and Erling Haaland, for example, were out of Bayern’s financial means.
You have to understand where the club came from in the 20th century, before Klopp touched it. Borussia Dortmund have been big spenders and big winners, especially after becoming the first German club to go public in 2000, a move Bayern considered too risky. This idea was clearly demonstrated when Dortmund came close to oblivion in 2005. There is a before and after 2005 for the club. Since then, there has been a slowdown in spending. Klopp’s team reached world level in 2013, there have been clashes at the heart of the club’s existence. Build, grow, be the wonderful club you’ve been, but never get carried off the cliff again.
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Of course, this is not a fear that is likely to bother Newcastle in the short to medium term. The only genuine monetary dilemma for the Saudi club is how to spend what it needs without provoking the wrath of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play watchdogs. Like Dortmund, Newcastle are facing a track record in terms of what they need to be on the pitch. Their own developmental struggles have been evident in the Premier League this season. Howe’s team is not comfortable being at the forefront rather than reacting, as is the case. More and more was expected and will be demanded. But that wasn’t the case after Niclas Füllkrug scored the opening goal on Tuesday.
Terzić’s team would probably be more comfortable with themselves, but barely. It’s been a long time since Dortmund have had a team that is a monster of tension and counter-attack, so BVB’s quieter speed compared to it is not so new. He also doesn’t look like the current coach, a former die-hard fan of the terrace at Signal Iduna Park. However, the word that this is the case is not yet fully known. The enduring symbol is at odds with reality, although significant progress in the Champions League this season may also replace it.
Newcastle and Howe may have indications that they would like to capitalise on Dortmund and Terzić. However, they show that defining themselves is obviously an ongoing and arduous process.