Borussia Dortmund's Lewandowski stand: Right or wrong?
Robert Lewandowski
Much has been said over Borussia Dortmund‘s insistence on not selling Robert Lewandowski to Bayern Munich despite his contract running out in a year.
Common sense says that a club should cash in on a player unwilling to renew his contract. In the recent times, Arsenal has been a prime example of a club which faced such situations and has always gone the conventional way of selling the player.
On the other hand, Athletic Bilbao let Fernando Llorente’s contract run out and lost him to Juventus free. So, when Dortmund decided to hold onto Lewandowski and lose him for free next year, it surely left everyone wondering about the sanity of this decision.
Dortmund has already suffered a big blow by losing Mario Goetze, considered the next big thing in German and world football, to their arch rivals. In fact, they have sold their best player after both the last two seasons. Nuri Sahin went to Real Madrid after a stellar season as Bundesliga‘s best player and a year later it was the turn of Shinji Kagawa to opt for Manchester United.
However, it is important to understand the whole context of the current situation before drawing any conclusions.
The current Borussia Dortmund team under Jurgen Klopp is really onto something special. For a change, a club is finally looking to challenge Bayern Munich consistently for the top honours.
Despite Bayern’s undisputed financial might, Dortmund has managed to pip them to the Bundesliga title twice in the last three years. In fact, it only seemed natural for them to aim for doing well in Europe as a priority over the Bundesliga this year for enhancing their stature in the quest for challenging Bayern’s supremacy.
Every match against Bayern is a six pointer for them. That’s why there is a huge difference between losing their best player to another club and losing their best player to Bayern Munich. In the past, Bayern has always managed to bully any emerging club by poaching their best talents.
Moreover, the gap between Bayern and any other club in Bundesliga is enormous. It will take years of consistent performance to even think of challenging them. And that’s precisely why Dortmund’s defiance over this transfer might seem to be justified. They surely know that it is not for the last time that they will be facing such a situation if they keep on doing well.
Every time, Bayern will be right there knocking on their doors to snatch away their best players. It wasn’t possible to stop Goetze’s transfer as he had a release clause which was activated by Bayern. After losing the Bundesliga, Champions League and Goetze to Bayern, Lewandowski’s loss would have been too severe a blow to the club and its fans. And judging by Arsenal fan’s frustrations, it isn’t a wise thing to do especially if you consider Arsenal’s failures on the pitch too.
Of course, they will just be delaying the disappointment but you never know in football. Mario Gomez was amazingly successful and as prolific as Lewandowski, if not more, for the last few seasons. However, a change of coach and tactics led to him being shunned for Mario Mandzukic! Big clubs tend to move on.
As things are, Dortmund only stands to lose the transfer fee of around 20 million euros due to this decision. However, they need to send out a strong message to their supporters, players and the whole of the football fraternity that they are here to stay and are ready to fight back every piece of trickery Bayern throw at them to halt their progress.
Robert Lewandowski
One good season and a title will be more than enough for compensating that monetary loss. Of course, Klopp would have talked it out with Lewandowski and ensured he would be giving his all in his last season. In the meantime, he can look for an apt replacement for the man who scored 34 goals in 44 matches for them last year.
Apart from Bayern, the rest of the pack in Bundesliga are very equal, and one slight slip can throw a club from the top to the bottom. If Pierre Emerick Aubameyang ends up being successful this season, the loss of Lewandowski will hurt much lesser.
It’s about pride and dignity against a little money for them, and they would do well to stick with pride for it is an essential ingredient for achieving glory. Else they would end up in a vicious cycle of mediocrity back to where they started this ambitious project from.