Really? Where can we find out more info as I'm a BA resident and been hoping for a BVB fan club. I've been with a friend of mine to watch BVB-Bayern in SF but that was organized by the Bayern fan club.
In news that I'm sure will make everyone here jump for joy, Aki Watzke has extended his contract until 2021.
Madness..... Are the people in the club living in the past or are they so stubborn and unwilling to see the present, thus damning the future?
According to Bild it is until 2022. Treß as well. Cramer gets promoted to CEO (yeah in German its stupid; you can have multiple CEOs) Perhaps managing director makes the most sense. Responsible for sales, marketing and digitalisation. I have no problem with him. But Watzke has to go. Unless he gets rid of Toprak, Castro, Schurrle, Sahin, Schmelzer, Rode, I don't see a way forward with him. We also need a better CB such as Tah and a potential RB. Piszczek has one decent game every three.
I've already posted this several times, but as much as Watzke needs to go do you guys have any idea of how unrealistic such a demand is? We're just a bunch of nobodies ranting on an internet board. The BVB board of directors have the final say in the matter and they absolutely love Watzke, so unfortunately we're stuck with him until the bitter end.
As long as the "umsatz" is rising year by year Watzke is going nowhere. If there is anything this contract extension signalizes then it sure is to show that the most important barometer is financial health and not sporting success and Watzke has been great in the former. I think the board are fine with setting very achievable sporting goals (top 4 finishes) as that typically relates to strong financial outcomes and keeping the wage bill managable. Sad.
I think this is just the reality of business+ football. BVB had what looked like a good team on paper and a reasonable try at a coach. The coach didn't work. The injuries are bad. Some top stars wanted out and the young talent hasn't blossomed as you'd hope (particularly Weigl and Dahoud). That makes this a bit of a lost season and throwing tons of money at it probably doesn't make sense when you consider the future of the business. And there is no way to stay competitive in the long term if the business gets weak. I think they are right to focus on making top 4 while trying to get the young talent experience.
I do understand the business side of the equation but the problem is that all you are doing is giving the young players experience up until the point the leave for better wages elsewhere and/or better chances at silverware, both things Dortmund cannot (or will not) offer. Attracting young players to develop is not a foolproof concept as it can be a crapshoot. The bigger issue is depending on those players to produce consistently and Dortmund has done exactly that in the past two seasons. This is balancing on a very tight rope for a team who depends on CL football if it is to remain financially strong. At this point Dortmund is a lot closer to mid-table BL then it is to challenging Bayern for trophies and something has got to give. Watzke will need to take more risks and increase the wage structure to lure more experienced players as well as hold on to some of the young ones or we will just be another Leverkusen.
Aki went on a TV show recently hosted by a famous German named Jorg Wontorra who, not so surprisingly lives in Spain. Basically whined about a ton of crap and talked a lotta shit (I am going to transliterate): - Took a dig at Hamann and Mattthaus saying they have never summed up profit and loss, never balanced the books basically. - Does not want to take on debt but want to make as much money as possible. No Oligarch either. But this means there will be limits. - If we are a launching pad for Madrid and Barca we gotta deal with it. - Bayern can pay 80 to 100M more in salary (faaack, thats the same difference as back in 2013) - Thinks Bundesliga is the best competition in the world (clearly does not know anything about the Serie A or La Liga) - Wants a player who thinks "bigger" or as he calls mentally strong player - Sees Leipzig, Leverkusen and Schalke as the competition (not Bayern; I guess he has never looked at how much money S04 and B04 make) - He thinks the showdown against Leipzig will decide our fate. He also said that he knew he was going to take it in the ass for firing TT but the entire board supported his decision. One of the 3 departures from 2016 had said they would stay which is why he said "not all 3 will be leaving". Ciro Immobile had no patience PEA admitted that he was a truant but wanted to leave at all cost IMHO he talks like those mediocre German fans on twitter who support Sahin and Schmelzer.
Guess what? A German twitter account made a poll asking fans if they thought Watzke's contract extension was good, bad or not sure, and an overwhelming 80% thinks it's good. *sighs*
Definitely I agree. BVB has a smaller margin than other clubs that compete in Europe. That is why I think Mislintat's departure is the biggest worry. They need to be bringing in quality, and that quality can't be the sort that needs to be loaned back out for a couple of years. Right now it is the reverse: BVB is taking EPL loanees with no option to buy. It is a clear f***up. The youth (that we own, not the loans) need to start producing. Big video walls, cutting edge training, etc. are all nice, and the team really does seem to care and understand that turning out youth talent is the best way up. But there is no magic formula, and the teams that can afford it know that the only reliable way up is to _buy_ talent after the other teams have sifted through it for you. We are stuck with the unreliable way. And this season is a "yeah, it doesn't always work" season.
Hmmm ... interesting interview. I can't saY i disagree with much of it, but I do question the thought process behind it. Dortmund can't purchase a James Rodriguez, but I think if you look at Bayern's transfer business over the past few seasons, they have been very prudent. They cherry pick all of the talent from the Bundesliga, and many times don't pay much of a transfer fee ... Lewandowski, Hummels, Rudy, Sule, Goretzka. It's hard to see why dortmund need exhorbitant amounts of money to challenge for the title. It's not like there are other teams that can challenge Bayern. I mean, if you think back to the Klopp team that won 2 Bundesliga's, they were all purchased for peanuts. I think Watzke needs to relax the wage structure limits in order to keep talent at the club. But at the same time, I wouldn't want to see this, because that completely destroys the pay structure. I mean look at Manchester United, their wage bill is through the roof and a lot of it is due to a lopsided pay structure that means they overpay marginal players. I think it also promotes a lot of heirarchies, player disunity and discord in the dressing room. I mean just imagine making 30k as a first team starter when there is someone making 300k. I can pressume at a subconscious level there might be quite a lot of enmity in such a circumstance. Hindsight is always 20-20, and I can understand the challenges of running a club. I'm not dissapointed Watzke has re-signed, but he has his work cut out for him in proving that he deserves the extension. I would also prefer he did his talking on the pitch than giving interview. I can't think of any other CEO that gives so many interview
Chelsea wanted to insert a buyback clause if BVB inserted a buyout option. Aki did not want this and for good reason because he did not want a repeat of Götze circa 2013. It is a club policy. We cannot pillory the guy for what he did with Götze back in 2012 and then pillory him again for doing the exact opposite. He may be a complete idiot but we have to be fair. We absolutely could have loaned James Rodriguez. The loan fee is a total of €13M for the two years. His salary is just over €10M gross. People who say we could not have no idea because they do not look at the numbers. His purchase clause is at €42M. That is the amount we paid for worthless Schürrle and a money pit called Rode to our direct rivals. Basically not buying these 2 rocks + Toprak could have got us Rodriguez. Watzke has proven that he does not deserve the extension. The only reason why he got it is because we surpassed €500M in revenue thanks mostly to player sales.
Okay, let's say you bring in rodriguez and pay him a salary of 10mil Euros, which amounts to about 200k a week. At the time, auba was still at the club and had just plundered an absurd amount of goals. So Auba who is getting significantly less in wages, comes knocking on your office door and he says he's not happy. why is Rodriguez getting so much more money tha him. He wants a raise. So you give him a raise. Then Reus comes knocking and says he was loyal to the club and is on par with these players talent wise, then Gotze, then Kagawa, then Pulisic who is the next big thing wants to get paid accordingly, then weigle, and before you know it, a wage bill that was at 100 mil Euros (just as an example), is now 150 mil euros, let alone the 60 odd mil you paid for a player who really wasn't all that great to begin with. I think there are lot more considerations to make than just a transfer fee Slash, although that being said, the wage structure is a bit outdated. As for whether Watzke deserves the extension, it's hard to say. He has done remarkably well on the financial front. Quite a few mistakes on the sporting side, but those can be remedied ... I guess time will tell.
I do not see anything wrong with paying your leading players wages around 10M (or more, depending on the player). It is not a luxury it is just how things are by today's standards. If you want to compete with the big boys you have to become one yourself. Auba, should have gotten a better deal years ago, Weigl, Gotze, and Pulisic should be getting more as well. An increased wage bill is something that should have been implemented 3-4 years ago. Pay your star players what they deserve to keep them around. Said players increase quality.This attracts other good players. The increase in quality means competing for trophies. That is measured both in prestige, reputation and money (either through competition prizes, TV rights, sponsorship deals, a larger fan base to buy merchandise, more avenues to explore with marketing). I get that financial stability, success and growth are hugely important and they definitely should be, but Watzke has achieved them at the cost of diminishing sporting success and a substantial damage to the club's reputation. And that is coming back to bite us in the a**. Thanks to this cheap approach star players have left us, others (Sokratis, Pulisic) are seriously considering a move and we have devolved from a side that reached the CL final to one that barely manages to finish top 4 in its league and is playing in the Europa League.
Yes, I can't say I disagree with anything you have said ... which is why the Lewandowski saga rankles. But at the same time, I do wonder if there are better ways to go about it than dropping big money on star players, as that is a game Dortmund are bound to lose. You have to keep in mind that the club do not have Premier League TV money, nor are they owned by a shiek or oligarch, so the 500 mil in revenues, in retrospect after taking into account transfers out of the club (namely Dembele and Auba), doesn't look all that much. It would howver be nice to see existing players already at the club who have proved their worth being given a raise, and the great thing about that is that you can consequently extend their contracts at the same time (just as was done with aubameyang). Sadly these days though, contracts don'T appear to be worth the paper they printed on