Hitzfeld: “I am very sorry that BVB gave in to pressure from the media”

When Lucien Favre was sacked as Dortmund coach, various club figures played a dubious role. But someone with a past in Dortmund is behind Favre: Ottmar Hitzfeld.

On Sunday morning, the smoke evaporates in Dortmund. The 1: 5 against VfB Stuttgart has worked. Who is primarily responsible for the debacle against the newcomer was already decided internally at that time: the coach, Lucien Favre. Information from the media is scheduled for the afternoon, the “Bild-Zeitung” will find out an hour before the separation decided the night before; the leased line worked.

Leading German commentators produced the swan song. The “Süddeutsche” grabbed the two-handed sword: “Assistant coach Edin Terzic is supposed to clean up the pile of broken glass from now on.” The “kicker” followed suit in the same vein: “The decision was overdue as the development of a team urgently in need of new momentum had stalled for more than a year.”

The rest of the boulevard was looking for leaders among the players who might have hastened Favre’s release. They found what they were looking for with the captain and his deputy: Marco Reus and Mats Hummels. As is known, they cannot defend themselves well, Reus had publicly analyzed. Hummels generally resented “small to small through narrow spaces.”

Hitzfeld is irritated

In relation to Favre, the statements of the two spokesmen amounted to a verbal frontal attack. The statements are a real style break compared to the elegant strategist. Favre never liked himself as an actor who exposed actors like the defensive patron, who was prone to making mistakes, or dissected blatant mistakes according to quota in front of television cameras. Lucien Favre is a very educated person. He attaches great importance to well-arranged interpersonal relationships, ”emphasized goalkeeper Roman Bürki in an interview with the Keystone-SDA news agency a few months ago.

Favre couldn’t get sharp quotes. If successful, his cautious demeanor was interpreted by the media entourage as charming, after the defeats, critics called him a puzzled and distracted soccer teacher. It was not uncommon for his training to be defined by gestures on the sidelines; the subtle and tactical look no longer played a role in the Bundesliga steam boiler of the many minded monsters.

One with reputation and the status of supreme authority in German football is irritated by the actions of BVB management: Ottmar Hitzfeld, coach of the best team in the club’s history in the 1990s. “I am very sorry that BVB gave in to the pressure of the media. I remain of the opinion that Lucien would have been Bayern’s biggest competitor over the course of the season, ”the two-time Champions League winner told Keystone-SDA.

Different truths

In recent weeks, the big picture has been completely forgotten. None of the participants remembered the best season in years at the start of the nearly two-and-a-half-year Favres campaign; On the other hand, the club’s Instagram page received a large number of benevolent votes from fans. Obviously, there are several truths that circulate through BVB. Even with black and yellow, obviously, there is not only black and white.

The best point average in club history (2.09, along with Thomas Tuchel) wasn’t good enough. Six points behind surprising leader Bayer Leverkusen, a largely sovereign Champions League group stage, the open starting position in the Cup, is no longer an argument to appease skeptics in their ranks and outside. On the contrary: the club’s management saw the “goals at risk” and unanimously imposed the coach’s departure.

The nostalgia card

Hans-Joachim Watzke, the powerful managing director with a penchant for nostalgia, could no longer imagine any other way with the laid-back French-speaking Swiss; especially since you recently heard from Entourage Favres of a planned change for the summer. Favre’s commitment to Watzke was never more than a community of convenience.

An example confirms this impression: at the same time as the first shoals under Favre in October 2019, Watzke published his personal romance novel BVB. The relationship with his friend Jürgen Klopp? “Only!” He would bring the former star coach back any minute if he could, Watzke reported in a relaxed atmosphere. Favre himself did not comment on the strange timing of the book’s release. He fell silent as his superior dreamed of the good old days with “Kloppo”.

As decisively as in his hymn of praise to Klopp, Watzke rarely if ever spoke out in the case of the now-exempt Favre. With its largely passive stance, the governing body gave plenty of room to influential skeptics. The backrest definitely feels different. From this point of view, the immediate separation was not actually unsigned, and certainly not just because of a 1: 5 rejection.

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