Big fan of Xabi Alonso and what he is doing with Leverkusen. His stamp on the game is so evident. What do you people think?
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yup, Leverkusen is really killing it this season. Hopefully, they can stay on top until the end of the season.
They are called vizekusen for a reason. I hope they can put up a fight tho!
They are playing great football and in an alternate universe they might be 6th-8th with another coach.
However: It must also be said that Bayer04 has an outstanding squad and with the exception of Diaby, not a single player of importance was lost (Meanwhile RB lost half their squad). The squad contains brilliant players that - in case of Wirtz and Frimpong - aren’t even playing above their capabilities even at this moment. So it’s not surprising that Bayer is a contendor - it’s more surprising that they haven’t been last season.
However: You gotta admit that Rolfes knows how to spend his Glyphosat-Money. Grimaldo, Hoffmann, Xhaka and Boniface all worked out perfect for the team.
It’s actually Diaby-money…
23/24: 80 Mill in / 70 out. High loan players brought in, too. 22/23: 15 Mill in / 10 out. 21/22: 55 Mill in / 43 out 20/21: 46 in / 91 out 19/20: 100 in / 33 out
Sum: ~ 300 Million in / 240 out over the last few seasons. That’s a transfer gap of 60 Million by a club that has an average viewer count of 28k (as much as Karlsruhe SC has in 2. Bundesliga; half as much as Hamburger SV) and 30k members compared (half as much as Freiburg and a fourth of Frankfurt or Cologne).
I am 100% willing to give you another 50 mill on top for CL-Money and everything, but dont tell me thats Diaby money. 25 Million each season by Bayer - that’s what pays competitive wages and works as the main security.
🥳
In the second half of the 2001/2002 season Bayer played the best second half of it’s club history, only topped by Red Bull Leipzig by a few goals. One summerbreak later they had their worst start into a season ever.
But they already had great potential before Alonso came and if Wirtz wouldn’t have been injured, who knows what could have happened with Seoane in that season.
Even after Alonso arrived they didn’t really win games before Wirtz came back and even later in the season they struggled when he didn’t play.
So yeah, Alonso is doing exceptional work and right now they are playing as a team with such a dominance like they didn’t play since Topmöller, maybe even better. But that he picked the team up on the 17th place is only part of the story.
Such a bizarre post because they got to the CL final in 2002, so yes they did play their best ever football in 2002.
But obviously Leipzig wasnt there and they didnt play their best ever football in 2022, seeing as they were better in 2002.
Do you mean 2021/2022? Pretty sure there was no RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga back in 2001/2002
Ich hoffe ihnen geht (wie immer) die Puste aus. Kein Produkt verdient es Titel zu gewinnen bzw Deutschland international zu vertreten.
Gähn… sagt der börsennotierte Verein
Bin auch für die Abschaffung von Trikotwerbung.
Unpopuläre Meinung:
Ich hätte gerne mal wieder einen anderen Meister. und da der BVB es jetzt 11 Jahre nicht auf die Reihe bekommen hat und auch andere Traditionsclubs sich größenteils selbstverschuldet von der Spitze des deutschen Fußballs verabschiedet haben (Hallo HSV&Schalke) kann das von mir aus auch gerne FC Aspirin oder Monster Energy Cottbus werden, die mal wieder den Ligabetrieb spannend machen.
TL;DR: It’s complicated, Leverkusen is exciting and has some legitimacy within the Bundesliga, but ultimately owe their place at the top of the table to unfair financial advantages provided by the Bayer corporation. Not a massive fan of them winning the league, but kinda want to see Bayern’s streak finally ending.
I’m torn about it. On the one hand, Leverkusen is a joy to watch on the pitch. Xabi Alonso coming in and taking Bayer from relegation candidate to (possibly) champions in just a year and a half would certainly be an incredible story, plus the individual players and their talents are really exciting. They could finally end Bayern’s seemingly eternal streak of championships, which certainly seems desirable.
However, I simply cannot ignore the other side of this. Leverkusen, although they’ve been part of the Bundesliga for a long time, is not a club like any other. They are very much a clup tied deeply to the Bayer corporation, one of the most evil corporations in the world, and their success would not be possible without Bayer’s support. The club and company are so deeply interwoven that the company logo is featured prominently in the club logo, a feature which can only be compared to the Red Bull logo in the RB Leipzig club badge, and the shorthand for Leverkusen in Germany is simply “Bayer”. The club has their finances balanced at the end of each business year by the Bayer corporation, meaning money is not much of a concern for them. This gives them a significant advantage over most other Bundesliga clubs (except Wolfsburg, Hoffenheim and RB). Because of this, I struggle to actually root for them, because I feel that them winning the league would be a significant reward for not obeying the 50+1 rule.
Some football fans will counter this by saying that Leverkusen simply make smart deals on the transfer market and do good work. That’s not entirely false, but it does ignore that Bayer enables the club to buy and sell players at a much higher financial level than they otherwise could without risking bankruptcy if their deals don’t work out. This club is complicated. There’s certainly a fan culture, a genuine connection to the city, and some good work being done, it seems very possible that Leverkusen could survive in the Bundesliga even without the support of Bayer. But without the financial advantage over other clubs that Bayer provides them, Leverkusen would not be anywhere near the championship, that’s absolutely a result of their corporate identity. Ultimately, I would like to see Bayern finally defeated, but I’d much prefer for a club like Dortmund or Stuttgart to beat them. RB would be the worst case scenario, worse than Bayern, Leverkusen or anyone else. If Leverkusen do end up winning the championship this year, I can’t say I’ll be too happy for them, but I’ll certainly be happy that Bayern’s winning streak was broken for once.