Bye Jadon, Hello New Signings and Youth Academy.
Jadon Sancho leaving Dortmund is a good thing.
While this might come as a surprise to many football fans and any of my friends, Jadon Sancho leaving Dortmund is a good thing. Dortmund fans must strive to understand how Jadon Sancho moving to any club OUTSIDE OF Germany will be great for Dortmund. The influx of cash coming into the club from a Jadon Sancho sale would allow the German giants to reinvest by signing another set of young players with promise in central defense, central midfield, and at wing.
Haaland will be gone in about a year and a half so signing a striker to understudy Håland is also a top priority. With Dortmund recruiting being so strong for many years in succession, finding a player that fits the mold should be easy for the front office. Also, lookout for a young Moukoko. If you do not know who this young prodigy is, he is the youngest ever player in the Bundesliga. He scored 3 goals in his first season in 14 appearances mostly off the bench. Moukoko and Steffen Tigges could be good enough but there could be an argument to reinvest when Haaland does leave next summer.
Axel Witsel is 32 and will probably have one or two more seasons to perform at the top level. This leaves a gap for youth team players like Tobias Raschl and a new signing to make the position their own. Tobias Raschl, while smaller than Axel Witsel, is more technically gifted and would provide a player similar to Veratti at PSG. I saw his preseason play both in person and over Livestream for the past two seasons and was thoroughly impressed. Bringing in someone to take over for Axel Witsel is ideal though currently there is not a player in the system that can do exactly what he brings to the team. Jude Bellingham and Dahoud are too attacking to fit the Axel Witsel mould and should not be expected to fill the role. Neuhaus could be ideal as he is a complete midfielder and converting him to a more defensive 8 or even a 6 would be easy. Dortmund would be battling Bayern and others for his signature. Marco Rose might be a contributing factor to Neuhaus joining Dortmund.
Hummels is 32 years old with little pace but is probably the best Bundesliga CB. He is not getting any younger and seems to year on year need to rely on his positioning. His recall to the national team is an important statement that he is still world-class. Dortmund fans should be worried about when he falls off and how fast the decline will be for the experienced player. Dortmund should look within and outside to find another player for the conveyor belt. They should look internally first as they have a few center backs that maybe need to be given a chance. Amos Pieper was a Dortmund youth product and was let go to Arminia Bielefeld. Though Pieper is not world-class, having him as a back up this past season would have been wonderful as Zagadou is extremely injury prone.
Reyna being at the club and in a position to make himself the second coming of Pulisic, Dortmund has a ready-made replacement for Sancho. The conveyor belt of players will only continue to move forward. He has gotten first-team time consistently and has shown defensively that he can press well with incredible work rate. Reyna has an inconsistency in offensive play and this will not be good enough if he is to replace Jadon Sancho. Ansgar Knauff should 100% be given a huge chance next season. His pace and total game are impressive. His winner against Stuttgart was a blinder so his ability to score goals is present. 1 goal and 1 assist from Ansgar in 4 appearances in the Bundesliga is very good production for a 19-year-old.
The introduction of Marco Rose to the coaching staff and holding onto Terzic will definitely be interesting as there needs to be a good relationship there as the players fully support Terzic who leads the squad to a 3rd place finish after a 7 game win streak right at the end of the season. Winning the DFB Cup was massive and getting to the quarterfinals in the Champions League was very important for recruitment. The front office has been very good at filling gaps so lets hope this is another season of replacement and success.