BVB boss Hans-Joachim Watzke expressed his views in an extensive interview with Bild on the transfers from Borussia Dortmund and possible departures and contract extensions. In addition the managing director of the vice-champion spoke about Bavaria Munich, Leroy Sane and contact to Jürgen Klopp.
Watzke about …
… the commitments of Julian Brandt, Thorgan Hazard and Nico Schulz: “We wanted to plan before prices continue to rise. If you look at the sums, you can see we weren’t wasteful: We received around 64 million euros for Christian Pulisic and invested around 10 million euros net for the three new acquisitions – from one to three.”
… Lucien Favre: “With the vice championship he has achieved more than we expected. He finally gave the team a clear playing style again. Lucien is the right person for BVB! The second and third years will show whether we can win titles together.”
… Mario Götze: “Mario Götze played a strong season with us, he deserved Jogi Löw to give him another chance with the national team. Even Julian Weigl would be ready.”
… New contracts for Favre and Götze: “We will tackle these personnel issues in the next few weeks. We’d like to extend with both.”
… Jadon Sancho: “We can assume that Jadon will certainly not be playing for BVB for ten years. But we have clear agreements about the present. Jadon is not on the market and will play next season guaranteed at Borussia Dortmund!”
… Mario Mandzukic: “We don’t have to discuss Mandzukic, he’s currently a player from Juventus Turin. In football, nothing can ever be ruled out. But he’s playing in Turin. And knowing Mario Mandzukic, he’s a striker with so much ambition that he always wants to play.”
… Bayern Munich: “We want to become champions! But Bavaria is like Mount Everest, like an 8000m mountain. You can try to defeat him – and that’s what we want. I even think Germany will need that again soon.”
… I think it would be very good if Bayern were to bring Leroy Sane back as a German national player, because that would make the league even more attractive. I’m the first one to congratulate them.”
… the championship fight in Germany: “German football currently has a problem abroad because until a year ago we were attested a kind of football monoculture like in France and Italy. […] That’s why we feel an obligation to football Germany to have a clear goal from now on to play the championship.”
… Matthias Sammer: “Matthias’ task is to give us an in-depth analysis from his point of view as a former top player, sports board member and coach. Ruthless! It is important that we open ourselves to him argumentatively. […] Sammer continues, that’s for sure.”
… a visit to Jürgen Klopp: “It’s always fascinating with him. We don’t need ten minutes, then everything is always the same as before. Even today we have almost weekly contact. I just felt unbelievably sorry that he didn’t become champion despite 97 points. Just gross. That’s why I’m wishing him the Champions League title now.”
