sam-caddick said:
Tancredi Palmeri @tancredipalmeri 8 hrs
Barcelona met Gundogan for medical tests, according to Mundo Deportivo, which prepares to the departure of Xavi
What's going to happen to Dortmund this Summer?
Who knows. They will lose Gundogan and it looks like they will lose Reus as well. As things stand right now even without those players they have enough to get top 4 and probably make the last 16 of the CL given a favourable draw. They can either take the Arsenal route and focus on repaying their debts or they can actually try and catch Bayern.
Midweek both Bayern and Celtic won their respective leagues. Bayern currently have a bigger lead than even Celitc. The German clubs like Schalke and Dortmund have no excuse for this. Bayern does not even have twice the turnover or wage budget of Dortmund, but Celtic has over 5 times the turner over and wage budget of Aberdeen, yet Aberdeen were able to put up a better fight. It's not Bayern's fault, but the other teams need to take a long hard look at themselves.
Schalke need a god manager and to bring in 2 or 3 highly experienced successful players. Guys like Puyol, Xavi, Alonso, Vidic, Evra and Cole. They could also do with signing a proper defensive midfielder, but above all they need a new manager.
Dortmund need to spend close to 80 million to catch Bayern. They should get some money from Gundogan leaving (which seems like a foolish move on his part) and I would see Mkhitaryan. That should give them around 40 million odd back. They could do a lot worse than signing the current loanees at Everton, Lukaku and Deulofeu. Deulofeu would be brilliant, but Volland would be a suitable if they cannot get Lewandowski. Maybe a gamble on Holtby to replace Gundogan and then go all out for Ozil. However, they won't they will buy Sahin, Ramos and maybe Volland at best. They will maybe fall behind Schalke and finally Reus and Hummels will be off, leaving them without any world class players.
I did manage to watch both games during the week. It's funny how I missed all the Dortmund chances. Dortmund absolutely destroyed Schalke's poor set up in the second half and could easily have won 3 or 4 nil.
Maldeika, I did watch Bayern against Hertha and you are right the first half was unbelievable. The speed and accuracy of the passing was fantastic. Kroos and Schweinsteiger dominated play, but I really loved seeing Kroos get stuck in and use his physicality a lot more. It was frightening how good they were. The only shame was that the game was over in the first 13 minutes and they did not have to push themselves. That being said the problem with Rafinha playing right back reared it's head again. He gave away a stupid penalty, which could have put Hertha back into the game.
