With all due respect to Manchester United and Tottenham, Borussia Dortmund have to be the most disappointing team domestically in European football, as they have inexplicably fallen all the way to 11th in the Bundesliga.
Even though Dortmund are into the quarterfinals of the Champions League after coming from behind against Ligue 1 side Lille, their pursuits in league play have been beyond abysmal, currently ranking behind such stalwarts as Augsburg.
Dortmund need a complete overhaul of their squad, and they could let as many as eight players go in the summer 2025 transfer market – both a mix of stars who will generate revenue and players who are no longer of use to the squad.
BILD reports that defender Niklas Sule, midfielder Salih Ozcan, and attacking midfielder Giovanni Reyna are the three prime candidates to leave. Julian Brandt and Pascal Gross could also go, but they have a 50/50 shot at staying, depending on how the club view their future contributions when reevaluating in the summer.
Dortmund have a tough Marcel Sabitzer question
Finally, star winger Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, new fullback Yan Couto, and center midfielder Marcel Sabitzer could potentially be sold if a sensible financial offer makes it across the Dortmund desk.
Out of these players, Couto, Ozcan, Sule, Reyna, and Brandt have been the poorest performers this season. But Sule has hefty wages, Brandt has been good for Dortmund in the past (though never great and often overrated), and Couto only just joined the BVB.
As for Gross, he hasn’t been bad in his first season at Dortmund. Meanwhile, Bynoe-Gittens is the team’s best player with high potential in the future, but he is also the biggest sellable asset as a 20-year-old England international.
Sabitzer is getting older at 31 and isn’t anywhere near a world-class midfielder, but he’s Dortmund’s only consistent midfield presence. They don’t have anyone else with his mix of technical ability, leadership, defensive cover, and box-to-box quality. Their midfield is shambolic, and while Sabitzer is indeed a sellable asset with an RB Leipzig and Bayern Munich pedigree, he may be too important to sell.
Dortmund are in a weird spot where they are nowhere good enough for their goal, which should be to win the Bundesliga title over Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen, but they will have to sell at least one of their most important players this summer if they want to afford the kinds of players who will really help them.
Most importantly, it’s time for BVB to get rid of the proverbial dead wood – including the floating logs clogging up the toilets in their inferno of a front office.
Joe Soriano covers West Ham for Green Street Hammers and writes about Real Madrid for The Real Champs. He has extensive experience covering world football since 2014. Joe is an editor for The Trivela Effect, where he covers the biggest clubs in European football. He has watched professional sports regularly since 2002 and can be found playing the same sports he covers with his friends.