As a Borussia Dortmund fan since 2010, it pains me to write these words, but Dortmund's 3-1 loss to Bayern Munich in the latest edition of Der Klassiker not only handed Bayern a 10th consecutive Bundesliga title; it also all but ensured that unless there are some major changes in the off-season, Dortmund are probably done as a top team or even close to one for the foreseeable future.
Several days before the match, Dortmund's ace striker Erling Haaland all but confirmed that he would be joining Manchester City during the coming off-season. City confirmed that they are willing to pay Haaland's release clause of £63 million - a laughably low amount given the fact that even at just 21, he is already among the world's best centre-forwards and projects to be a perennial Ballon d'Or candidate throughout his prime years.
Dortmund's consent to this astonishingly low price is just more evidence of the incompetence of the club's front office who have completely squandered the two years and change that the Norwegian has spent at Signal Iduna Park. Again and again, he was not provided with the pieces around him which he needed. Though the acquisition of Donyell Malen from PSV Eindhoven almost a year ago was one of the club's better signings, Die Schwarzgelbe did not press ahead with further signings of a similar calibre and largely stayed put. The consequences of this inaction: a stunning group-stage exit in the Champions League, followed by an even more humiliating aggregate loss to Glasgow Rangers in the Europa League's round of 24.
Dortmund's unwillingness to strengthen their defense in particular has come back to bite them this season. Are Manuel Akanji, Thomas Meunier, and Raphaël Guerreiro really the foundation of a top-tier backline? Not even close - Dortmund have conceded 46 goals in the Bundesliga this season. There are nine teams in the Bundesliga alone who have conceded fewer. This is clear evidence that this season, Dortmund were almost single-handedly carried by their generational talent up front.
Ever since the departure of legendary head coach Jürgen Klopp in 2015, Dortmund have consistently shot themselves in the foot during their rebuild attempts. They have not used the money generated by sales of players such as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Jadon Sancho, and Ousmane Dembélé wisely in the slightest. Although Dortmund hit the jackpot when they beat Juventus and Manchester United to the signing of Haaland in the winter of 2020, as has been shown, they did not capitalize on this at all.
Clearly, Haaland refuses to wait any longer for things to change - and rightly so. He is clearly too good for this Dortmund team which has never truly appreciated his greatness but has instead taken him for granted. The lack of value of his release clause is clear evidence of this fact. There's no good reason for him to stay at an increasingly moribund team in an unglamorous town - the longer Haaland stays at Dortmund, the more his career would suffer because of it.
One would expect Haaland's impending departure to begin to ring alarm bells in North Rhine-Westphalia. However, the past several years have been marked by both complacency and incompetence on the part of CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke as well as the entire front office. It's highly unlikely that Dortmund will change anything they've been doing. Without Haaland, they can thus expect to experience a steep decline on the pitch - if Dortmund do not finish in the top four of the Bundesliga next season and miss out on the following season's Champions League, it would certainly not come as a surprise.
Haaland obviously has a glittering career ahead of him - one which will see him score hundreds of goals and hopefully rack up title after title. By following in the footsteps of his father Alf-Inge and joining City, he has put himself in an excellent position to do exactly that. As for Dortmund, on the other hand, they will once again be left high and dry once Haaland leaves; it will be a situation entirely of their own doing. How long will it take them to be on the road back to the top? It's uncertain, but it could be a very, very long time indeed.
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