Borussia Dortmund’s sell and replace policy has caught up with them

Borussia Dortmund’s policy of selling players and replacing them with cheaper alternatives has had an adverse affect the squad.

Can you imagine Borussia Dortmund losing 6-0 to Bayern, or getting knocked out of the Europa League by Salzburg, if they had some of the star players that they used to? Dortmund were torn apart by Bayern like they were some sort of Sunday league team and now there are serious doubts over their qualification for next season’s UEFA Champions League.

A big reason for their recent stutters is the fact that Borussia Dortmund are a selling club and that policy has finally caught up to them, and now it’s badly starting to affect their performances.

If you look at some of the players who have been sold, and then compare them to their replacements, it’s easy to see that the quality has decreased. Yet the club continue to sell their best players, instead of showing any sort of ambition and buying better ones to improve the squad. And to add to that, some of those departures have been really messy, which has had a bad impact on the squad morale.

The progress made under Tuchel last season finally had Dortmund back on the right path. But then he was sacked and Dortmund’s two most important players were sold within six months. Now there is no identity in the team, and Dortmund are struggling as a result.

Yes, Aubameyang and Dembele probably wouldn’t have been able to prevent Bayern from scoring six on Saturday, but with them, Dortmund would have had a chance even when they were two goals down. But looking at the team that played on Saturday, fans were already fearing for the worst when the first goal went in.

Borussia Dortmund’s quality has stagnated over the years, and the board’s attempts to try and make money and save money at every opportunity they get is the reason behind this slump. And the excuses given by the hierarchy have been daft and ludicrous.

Managerial mishaps

The board’s biggest mistake of the season, I believe, was hiring Peter Stöger to replace the sacked Peter Bosz. It was a convenient appointment, announced just a day after they let Bosz go. Stoger had just been sacked by Koln and they decided to appoint him without looking at any other candidates.

Had the board shown some ambition and spent some money, they could have appointed a more recognized name. Had they shown some patience and conducted a thorough research, they could have found a much better manager than Stoger. And perhaps, Aubameyang would still be at Dortmund and the club would still be in the Europa League. But the stagnation has only increased since Stoger’s appointment.

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Lack of ambition

Mid table clubs in England show more ambition than Borussia Dortmund. Yes, they do get more TV money, but there are simply no excuses for Dortmund not to show ambition and spend on transfers when they are a Champions League club with so much windfall from transfer fees alone.

Selling your players for high fees and then replacing them with unknown talents or cheaper alternatives just doesn’t cut it anymore. Borussia Dortmund are a club with high stature in Europe, however their poor mentality has seen them take a steep decline.

The club have put profits over success, and that’s the reason why they’re in their current state. Or perhaps maybe Watzke and Zorc aren’t quite suited to modern football yet.

Borussia Dortmund are severally suffering and they need an injection of ambition and cash in the next transfer window if they want to get back to where they belong. Otherwise things could get much worse for the Black and Yellows.