Following the announcement that Robert Lewandowski will be joining the German and European Champions Bayern Munich in the summer on a five year deal, it raises questions about the competitiveness of the Bundesliga as a league and its future in the coming years.
In recent times the league has become far more exciting and competitive within the upper echelons of European club football, with Borussia Dortmund being the Bavarian clubs main rivals. However this battle to be the top German club looks to have ended following consecutive departures of Dortmund’s leading stars, with Mario Gotze also having opted to join Bayern last summer. So does this mean that Dortmund have turned into a selling club? Technically no as Lewandowski will be leaving on a free transfer and not be sold. They perhaps passed on taking in excess of £25 million for the Polish star in order to avoid the tag of being labelled a selling club. Only time will tell whether they will permanently avoid this title as Marco Reus and Ilkay Gundogan are two more Dortmund players on the radars of major European clubs. If Dortmund can hang on to these players it will leave hope for the future of the German league, otherwise the difference between Bayern Munich and Dortmund, not to mention the rest of the league will only grow larger.
BVB did manage to replace Gotze with Henrik Mhkitaryan in the summer, who has performed well in his first season since arriving from Shakhtar Donetsk, but with no disrespect intended, at this point, he is not in the same class as the young German whom he replaced. We will have to wait and see who replaces the world class striker Lewandowski. A marquee signing would be a big statement for Dortmund in their bid to regain supremacy in Germany. Dortmund chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke has already announced they are already searching for a “new Lewandowski” so we will soon see if they succeed, which hopefully they will for the sake of the Bundesliga.
Dortmund currently sit in fourth place during the Bundesliga’s winter break, behind Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Mönchengladbach and of course Munich who sit at the top. Two sides who are typically weaker than Dortmund and a great deal weaker than Bayern Munich currently sit above them which further illustrates the troublesome time Dortmund is currently experiencing and they wouldn’t have expected to be in this position at the start of the season. They have been hampered by injuries which has not helped and have indeed exploited their weak squad – they have had to field a second string defence for the past few games which has resulted in unexpected losses. With Bayern already 7 points clear at this stage and unbeaten, I expect their lead to only increase further, resulting in them running away with yet another Bundesliga title.
However, despite all of this, the German Bundesliga remains an exciting league with many goals flying in, remove Bayern from the equation and you are left with a very exciting and tight league, so in a way it’s a shame that Bayern are so strong. Despite this their team are a genuine pleasure to watch and you can only admire them for they are the strongest club side in the world at present and are only looking to improve further. The Bundesliga is a league which is a thrill to watch and has come on a great deal in recent years, but it must go through a greater amount of development to compete with the excitement in terms of competitiveness of the world famous Barclays Premier League.
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