FC Bayern has signed him... What a joke german football is. Now, how much time will he be given at Dortmund? Must have been one of the most expensive points to prove ever.
Robert Lewandowski
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
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That's how much his transfer fee was.
Bollocks.
That's how much his transfer fee was.
Bollocks.
What's the issue? Bayern are the number one club in Germany? Did you all react similarly when Ballack left Leverkusen for Bayern? Would you react the same if Barkley ran down his contract to sign for us?
Will be interesting to see who Dortmund sign to replace Lewandowski. Hopefully they won't go all Woodward/Moyes in the summer.
It's not the same! I have zero problems with Bayern signing the two best players of their closest rivals, why shouldn't they if they have the ability to? It's up to the likes of Dortmund/Schalke/Leverkusen to reach a level where they would be able to keep a hold of their players when Bayern come calling. But don't compare their situation to ours.
I don't see how it's different? Anytime Everton, Tottenham, Southampton etc. produce quality talent we're all hoping we'll swoop in and sign them. It's natural progression for players to make that step up, as Lewandowski has done.
I've said it before, the problem in the Bundesliga isn't Bayern buying the best players, the problem is that the teams behind Bayern are loosing their best players to the top teams in Europe anyway. Bremen lost Diego to Juve, Özil to Real and Mertesacker to Arsenal, they dropped in the league and are now fighting against relegation. Stuttgart lost Gomez to Bayern and Khedira to Real, sucks just as much. Leverkusen lost Vidal to Juve, incredible loss. Those players wanted to leave anyway, not because Bayern is the bad club that forces them to, some of them were interested to join Bayern, some not, all left anyway. Since the massive disaster with the pay TV deals in 2002, which lead to huge financial problems throughout the whole league, no German club besides Bayern was able to establish themselves at the top and even Bayern struggled to keep their best players against European top teams up until 2010.
The league is still in transition, needs more time to find a new identity and clubs to use the new ressources in an efficient way. I'm sure we'll get back to the position where the league was between '95 and 2002 when we had several different teams in finals of the three European competitions, but it takes time. The only way to avoid slow development is by allowing investors to take over clubs and therefore destroy any hope that quality work is rewarded after more years. Ask any neutral German football fan, if they'd prefered a competitive league in which Hoffenheim and Wolfsburg bought all the players from Dortmund, Gladbach, Bremen and Stuttgart and then fought for the title with Bayern? Somehow I doubt many would prefer that, if any at all.
The league is still in transition, needs more time to find a new identity and clubs to use the new ressources in an efficient way. I'm sure we'll get back to the position where the league was between '95 and 2002 when we had several different teams in finals of the three European competitions, but it takes time. The only way to avoid slow development is by allowing investors to take over clubs and therefore destroy any hope that quality work is rewarded after more years. Ask any neutral German football fan, if they'd prefered a competitive league in which Hoffenheim and Wolfsburg bought all the players from Dortmund, Gladbach, Bremen and Stuttgart and then fought for the title with Bayern? Somehow I doubt many would prefer that, if any at all.
That's not at all the same.
Your pet line was convincing when you signed Gotze, it does sound rather vapid now. The difference between Bundesliga and La liga is that at least there are 2 clubs doing it in Spain. Terrible.
I fear who more they'll sign in the summer.
Comparing us to Bayern is a joke. Maybe in the 90s everyone wanted to play for us.
But let's look at it now. Players want to join Arsenal, Chelsea and Man City too. Bayern have free reign over the German talent as none of them can't compete. Where as we don't.
But let's look at it now. Players want to join Arsenal, Chelsea and Man City too. Bayern have free reign over the German talent as none of them can't compete. Where as we don't.
So leaving Southampton for United is the same as leaving the two time German champions and Champions League finalists for their admittedly superior rivals? Our position in England today is so dramatically different from Bayern's in Germany that it's unreal. Maybe a decade ago you could have compared our scenarios, but even then we had Arsenal as the closest rivals and I don't think we ever stood a chance if we had tried to get Bergkamp/Henry/Viera. The thing is Bayern are twice the size and have much more spending power than any other club in Germany. We on the other hand are marginally the biggest club in England today and don't have anywhere near the spending power of our rivals. What Bayern do to second placed club in Germany can't be compared to what United do to 5th-15th placed clubs in the Premiership. Playing for Bayern automatically guarantees you a spot in the German team, playing for United doesn't even do the same with the England team.
Stupid comparisons to premiership. This is equivalent of United signing Henry and Vieira from Arsenal in successive seasons. Even when we signed RVP off them they were the 4th best team in the league.
And then trying to tell Arsenal fans that there's nothing wrong with EPL. I knew a lot of our supporters had reservations signing RVP due to that reason.
Dortmund should have sold him in the summer. They knew this was going to happen.
Correct, they knew full well they'd lose him for free if they didn't sell him.
It's not just those two. It's shamelessly and systematically hoovering up a huge amount of great players in the league. Podolski, Neuer, Gomez, Mandzukic, Gustavo, Frings, Effenberg, Matthäus, Elber, Brehme, Jeremies... it's just an endless stream of the best players from other clubs ending up at the one club at the top, that no other club in the league has a chance in hell of competing with financially.
The worst part, however, is how they'll just snatch up the best players from clubs who look like they're moving up a level to becoming amongst the best in Europe. Ballack, Lucio and Ze Roberto were all bought from Bayer Leverkusen during Leverkusen's great spell 10 years ago, where they even got to a CL final. Now Dortmund look like getting up to becoming regular challengers and Bayern buy their two best players in less than 12 months.
This happens to some extent in every league, of course, but there are no other top leagues where it is as extreme as in the Bundesliga.
Agree with you. It's easy to say that it's the big bad Bayern buying all the talents from their rivals but could we honestly have seen the likes of Gotze and Lewandowski spending their primes with BVB? Or Reus and Gundogan? They would leave for somewhere else if not for Bayern. It's upto the rest of the Bundesliga to step up their game and match Bayern step for step. Can't see it happening sadly without substantial investment for outside which I think is difficult with the German rules for ownership.
There was an offer from RM but Lewy didn't want to go. They probably needed some time to find a striker to replace him too so they decided they'll drop this ~20-25 mln euro for him. ( if Bayern ever paid so much for him, they didn't mind waiting anyway obviously )
They are still in Europe. They'd be hoping he says his goodbye in the grandest manner possible.
What were Bayern supposed to do anyway ? Not sign a great player out of respect for the neutral fans and some Dortmund weirdo fanboys ?
People aren't blaming Bayern for doing it, they are just saying that the league is a joke.
It's still true though, nothing has changed in the last 7 months?
I don't get the big drama. Bayern has won 2 league titles in the last 5 years and are on the way to defend the title for the first time in 10 years, yet we're supposedly suffocating the whole league because we sign players that wanted to leave anyway. It really doesn't make sense.
Completely bizarre how Dortmund handled this one!
Quote from June 12' 'Franciszek Smuda (Poland Coach): "Robert Lewandowski is going to Manchester United." [reuters]'
Good god, they have got a remarkably good team for the foreseeable future. Hard to not be somewhat envious of Bayern's policies/behavior as a United fan. Say what you will about German football, the key to success is to strengthen when you're on top and that is Bayern right now.
It really does. Credits to Bayern for not leaving any stone unturned to strengthen from a position of strength something which we so spectacularly failed to do after reaching 3 CL finals in 4 years.feck, that Henry and Viera comparison really hits it home. Incredible really.
Some do.
I will just quote myself, because I´m too lazy to type that all again. Seriously, it is two pages ago and was brought up several times in this thread:
In Lewandowski´s case it is even about a lot of money, because according to multiple sources both Chelsea and Real made offers between 30 and 35 Mil €, which Dortmund would have accepted, if Lewandowski would have been willing to transfer. At that point he was already Bayern-bound, though, because they probably promised him enough (salary and cash for signing) to make him unapproachable for any other club.
That left Dortmund with two choices: keep him for another year and let him go for free or sell him last summer for a price Bayern could dictate (certainly way below his actual value), because Lewandowski was already certain to join them anyway and he is by all means a luxury buy and not someone they absolutely need.
I haven't seen any serious criticism. How could there be? Bayern are acting the way any rational business would in such a market. The issue is with the league as a whole and that isn't down to Bayern to try and fix.
Makes me want to vomit thinking that our reaction to getting our asses handed to us by Barcelona in the 2009 CL final and losing Ronaldo was signing Valencia, Obertan and Owen. That was the time we were widely considered the second best team in the world.
Bayern have always been hovering up the best players in Germany. Not sure whats the big surprise.
Which is my point, they should have sold him in the summer. It's like Rooney signing for City next January after they already bought our best player the previous season. It's a joke. They should have sold him when they knew he would be going there, even if they didn't get as much money for him as he's worth, it's better than none.
No, it isn´t. Let´s say Bayern made an offer for 10 Mil € (can´t see them offering more than that). This amount of money stands in no relation to having a world class striker like Lewandowski for one year. You can say about the Pole what you want (the behaviour of his agent is disgraceful and some of his interviews were downright cnutish), but he is a full fledged professional, who contributed already in this season. Having Lewandowski can make the difference between qualifiying for the KO round of the CL or finishing on a CL spot in the first place. That alone would bring in more money that the marginal transfer fee.
Nor do I. Think its just because of the hype Bundesliga has had over the last few years. Bayern always do this, take the best players from their closest rivals at the time
So you seriously see this as the best scenario? And as a Dortmund fan you're happy with how it's panned out?
If I was a Dortmund fan I would've wanted to watch Lewandoski rot in the reserves for the season. 
They can't afford to.If I was a Dortmund fan I would've wanted to watch Lewandoski rot in the reserves for the season.
Dortmund gave him a pay rise last summer to make sure he's still motivated to score goals for them in his last season there.If I was a Dortmund fan I would've wanted to watch Lewandoski rot in the reserves for the season.
They could've played Aubameyang up top.
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