Utd and Chelsea can print money, but not at the same rate as City. If FFP wasn't a joke then this wouldn't be an issue in the long term, but the way things are make it easier for City.

Don't know about those Liverpool rumours. Klopp is definitely a top tier manager, and if he had the same resources as Guardiola he would probably get his team to compete with City.

German football needs some change too, although the problem isn't the same as in England. Your teams aren't competing in Europe anymore. I remember 5 years ago when we had an all-german CL final and Guardiola announced he was moving to Bayern... there were great expectations for the Bundesliga, which had recently secured its right to 4th CL spot due to its rise on the coefficient table, and people were talking about how it was going to fight to become the best league in the world and would attract many top players and what not. It has all been downhill from there tbh. The league needs to rethink its strategy and perhaps introduce regulations that will lead to a greater balance.



Yep, tactically they have a lot of catching up to do. Pep might have paved the way now though, because he has made the problem very apparent. Clubs should try to replicate it.

And they also need to change how scouting works. While clubs in other leagues sign "randoms" for pocket money that later become proper players, the prem just signs flashy names that fail more often than not. Sevilla's former director of football (now at Roma), Monchi, always said that the way scouting worked and how transfers were decided in England was an absolute joke. He criticizes how signings are solely based on stats, flashy names, and deals with agents, rather than how he worked in Sevilla, where scouts would bring their report to the club and have a meeting along with the coaches and sports director, and decide on which players could help the team and analyze the potential team synergy. I'm sure that City hiring Txiki Bergiristain (Barça's former director of football) has helped them, even though he was pretty mediocre he at least had experience with how work gets done here.

yeah, the trend is not going in the right direction and who knows how bayern will do next season

the main problem after the successful years is hypocrisy, traditionalists stick with the outdated 50+1 rule no matter what
its ridiculous how we have the likes of leipzig, hoffenheim (huge respect for their 3rd place btw), wolfsburg and hamburg around collecting money, while other clubs cant do it

there is some resistance though and some people think that the 50+1 rule wont hold up in court, if it comes to that

other issues are bad decision making (dortmund) and bigger clubs underperforming
and those who took the european spots embarrassed us in the el like hertha, who were resting their starters for the weekend
thats right, go to europe and then dont play your best team

good news that we will have clubs with deeper squads in europe next season

whoever said that, whoever thought that, clearly had no clue or insight. it was already clear back then that any resurgence, any competitive success for the league would just be temporary and eventually be overwhelmed by the ridiculous amount of money that english clubs, real, barcelona, and paris would be able to invest each year - if they fail or not.

don't get me wrong, this season our clubs (except from bayern, who play in a league of their own) underperformed - even if you take the financial aspect into account, there is no excuse for that.
but if you exclude this atrocious year, and just look at how teams like dortmund or leverkusen for example PERFORMED in the past, that does NOT justify clubs like that losing all their main players to random (or less successful) clubs.

seriously, the main issue here is money - but feel free to share your insight into what else the bundesliga in general could improve, maybe i'm missing something.
prospects will still be happy to come to the bundesliga - our stadiums are full, the training is highly professional and scientific, the atmosphere is great, pay is good and reliable, you get great coaches and massively improve physically and tactically. but as soon as somewhat of a real breakthrough is achieved, almost all of the good players (with VERY few exceptions) follow the money and leave so all of our clubs have to rebuild each year and that can obviously fail badly. so if you want to CHANGE something in the league to make it competitive, the obvious adjustment would be our strict financial rules in terms of club ownership.

This post was edited by fender on May 13 2018 06:45pm

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/43898708

Is it really a surprise that the team that spent the most money is dominating the league?

FFP needs sacking off. It's just a joke at this point.

Germany is a rich country with a big population and great fanbase, stadia and attendances... the potential is there. Of course the 50+1 clause stops sheiks, american entrepenours and russian oligarchs from pumping in money, unlike what happens in the prem... but if we look at Spain for example, only Málaga and Valencia have had millionaires come in, buy the club and inject millions in transfers and wages (and they only put money during their first year), and yet the league has many other teams competing well in european comepetitions. La Liga as a whole does have a lot more money now than before though, because of the recent tv deal changes that were implemented a few years ago, making them centralized and selling them for good money to a tv companies. I don't see why Germany can't do the same, becuase like I said all the right ingredients to make the league attractive are there.

The reputation of the teams in general has declined. I don't see Dortmund or Leverkusen being attractive for players outside the Budesliga anymore. You might want to consider some sort of regulations to prevent or discourage clubs from raiding fellow league competitors, because that obviously isn't helping the Bundesliga's situation. The 17 teams below Bayern seem mentally worn out, submissive and lacking the intensity and competitive mentality german teams have always shown both domestically and in europe.

And while this season has indeed been freakishly terrible, the negative trend isn't new. Bundesliga is now the 4th ranked team in the coefficient table, over 5 full points behind the 3rd. That doesn't happen over night, the results of german teams had already been slipping (before compeltely crashing this year).



It needs to be stricter and properly enforced. The way it is right now is indeed a joke that prevents nothing... it really only makes the rich richer while the poor stay poor.

while spanish club's performances in european competition are indeed impressive and something bundesliga clubs should aim to imitate, malaga and valencia are by far not the only clubs with financial exploits that would prevent them from getting a bundesliga license. for example, real madrid's and barcelona's debt-based financing, riddled with semi-shady sweetheart deals, would also not be allowed in german football - so you do the math how well you'd do if your whole league had to adhere to such rules.




well, maybe the bundesliga has to be even more greedy, even smarter in their tv deal negotiations and efforts to market the league internationally, but it's not like those things aren't happening already. all the big clubs go on international trips in the off season and the league is very active trying to promote its popularity abroad. also, while you can certainly negotiate smartly, there's only so much you can achieve this way. the spanish league has a definitive headstart in terms of international attention - not only based on the language, which naturally makes it appeal to a larger market, but also due to the massive recognition and success that its two leading clubs had and have.
and when it comes to attractiveness you can't seriously tell me that clubs like sevilla or valencia for example would are a more attractive destination (even when you include natural factors like language and climate) for a young player to go to than dortmund for example, despite their shambolic last season. so i guess what my point here is, when you say 'make the league more attractive', i'm wondering how you suggest that should happen...




is this a serious suggestion? how would that look in practice? has any league ever done that? and while one team completely owning the league is certainly not a good thing for the morale in general, if you exclude bayern, the league is actually EXTREMELY competitive - almost every team can beat the other on any given day, and 'upsets' like that happen on a weekly basis...




actually, it kinda DOES happen over night. specifically, the night this current season ends that is. this season were 2nd, next year we'll be 4th. we're losing a great european season and gaining a terrible one, basically over night. but even in the new table we'll have outperformed italy in 3 of 5 seasons, and england in 2 out of 5.

and again, i think you actually got it the wrong way around - it's not the lack of competitiveness, but rather how close the competition is which hurts the league. it results in objectively weaker squads (both in terms of player strength and financial potential) that have lost their key players preseason starting for us in european competition. and i say that without malice, my own boys did it, and as a football romantic that's a nice thing to see - but it's certainly not helpful for the coefficient.

This post was edited by fender on May 14 2018 10:47am

200 million + the Coutinho money. I expect us to atleast challenge next year.

52 million is already spent on Keita though.

This post was edited by DJVIP on May 14 2018 01:47pm

you also signed van dijk in that winter window, lets not forget him ^^

keita will be a beast for you guys

This post was edited by ampoo on May 14 2018 01:55pm

Yep, also Klopp never goes crazy with signings. He identifies targets and does everything to get them, if he can't get those specific players he doesn't go for backups.

I also think it would be stupid to change to many things at the same time, we have been progressing every season and getting better and better. If we get to many new players at the same time it could be very counterproductive.

We need to sign more midfielders though with Can leaving and Coutinho already left. Oxlade Chamberlain is out for 6 months and will return in november

This post was edited by DJVIP on May 15 2018 02:34am

It's the wages of world class players that we'd find difficult to pay, like approaching the £200k a week mark.