Kovač says Dortmund can't challenge Bayern next year

J

Jacob1984

Community Member
Joined
Feb 3, 2025
Niko Kovač has basically come out and said what a lot of people probably already think: Dortmund are not ready to seriously take Bayern on next season. On one hand, it's hard to argue with the realism. Bayern are still Bayern, and Dortmund have had enough false dawns to make anyone cautious.

On the other hand, saying it out loud is always going to land badly with fans. Dortmund supporters want ambition, not a manager sounding like the title race is already over before a ball has been kicked. Feels like one of those statements that is probably true in parts, but still terrible optics.

So what do people make of it? Honest assessment, or the kind of thing that just feeds the old Dortmund stereotype?
 
He is probably making a fair assessment if you look at the gap and the way Bayern usually carry themselves across a season, but the problem is he has said it in a way that sounds like the job is already half done and that is never going to sit well with a fanbase that has been through enough near misses already, and then you start thinking about the wider culture around the club, the constant pressure, the weird expectation cycle, the fact that every summer turns into a reset, and suddenly it feels like one of those statements that opens a massive can of worms rather than closing the conversation off
 
Analytically, he is not exactly wrong. Dortmund have not exactly built a squad that screams title charge and Bayern are still the benchmark in the league. But there is a line between realism and waving the white flag before the season has even started, and this feels way too close to the latter for comfort. Fans do not want a manager to sound like he has already accepted second place, they want belief, urgency, a bit of fight, something to hang onto. Instead he has basically handed the pessimists a megaphone and now everyone is going to run with it, and honestly it is infuriating because you can already see the excuses being written for when things go wrong and that is exactly the kind of energy that drags a club down season after season
 
He may be right on the football side, but the timing is poor. Dortmund fans need ambition from their manager, even if the odds are against them. A realistic message can still sound positive.
 
People are acting like this is some shocking betrayal when really it is just the latest excuse to pile on Dortmund because that is what everyone does anyway and it is honestly boring at this point because the club gets clowned no matter what the manager says or does and if he had come out talking like they were definitely going to win the league people would have called him deluded and if he says they are not favourites then suddenly he is a loser and a quitter and all of that ignores the actual reality that the squad has been stitched together badly for years with constant turnover and players leaving and the whole thing being held together by vibes and hope so yeah maybe the statement sounds bleak but the real issue is the mess that keeps getting passed down and people pretending one quote is the whole story is just lazy
 
hes not exactly wrong but saying it like that just kills the mood and gives everyone an easy headline to run with i get being realistic but theres a way to do it without making it sound like the season is already dead before it starts
 
i know people are going to pile on him for this but if you actually look at the bloke he has always had this weird habit of talking like the room is already on fire and then acting shocked when everyone says he is negative and this is exactly why people get frustrated with him because he never seems to sell belief in a team he is supposed to be leading and with a club like Dortmund that whole thing matters even more because the fans are desperate for someone to actually stand there and say we are going for it and mean it instead of sounding like a bloke doing a risk assessment for a warehouse and it is always the same pattern with him one minute it is realism the next minute it is excuses and then when the pressure comes he starts pointing at the obvious gaps and the obvious problems and i just think if you are going to manage a club with this much expectation you cannot be the guy who sounds like he already knows how it ends
 
this reminds me of a lad i used to go the pub with who supported a team that always talked themselves down before a big season and every time he would say well at least we are being realistic and every time the mood in the room would just die because nobody wants to hear that when they are trying to enjoy a pint and dream a bit and thats what this feels like really not some deep tactical truth just the kind of thing that drains the air out of the place and then you spend the whole night arguing about whether realism is just another word for giving up and by the end of it everyone is more miserable than when they started and the funny thing is the teams that actually win stuff usually do not sound like this they sound like they believe even when they probably know they are not favourites and that tiny difference in tone changes everything
 
He is being honest, but honesty alone does not build momentum. Dortmund need belief as much as structure.
 
so basically he has looked at the situation and decided the season is already a write off which is hilarious because this is exactly the sort of thing people say when they want to sound smart while lowering the bar so nobody can blame them later and then if they finish second everyone says well he told us so and if they dont then it is all fine because expectations were low in the first place proper little managerial escape hatch that
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top