Bigger mess than Man Utd: Ten Hag is RIGHT to snub Dortmund

Tom Weber

Updated: 22 Jan 2025 10:22 CST
5 min read

Erik ten Hag, Borussia Dortmund — © IMAGO/FootballTransfers

Former Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag is not keen on taking over Borussia Dortmund mid-season - and this is the correct decision.

The Dutchman has been in attendance at the Signal Iduna Park on several occasions since his sacking by Man Utd in late October 2024. Ten Hag witnessed in person as the pressure on Nuri Sahin increased.

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Sahin, a fan favourite former player (and forgotten ex-Liverpool and Real Madrid midfielder), took the head coaching gig in the summer after returning to the club a year ago initially to be one of Edin Terzic's assistants.

The 36-year-old was regarded as a coaching prodigy after doing excellent work at Antalyaspor in Turkey, but his reputation has now been thoroughly tarnished by the mess that is Borussia Dortmund.

Sahin was sacked on Tuesday night after BVB collapsed against Bologna, conceding two goals in the space of two minutes to lose 2-1. In recent games, the team has looked paralysed and frightened by the pressure, with even the club's most reliable veterans making schoolboy errors.

Dortmund are a complete mess

While Sahin must, of course, shoulder a lot of the blame for the way the team performed in recent weeks, it would be wrong to think that his dismissal will fix the larger issues at the club, as he himself stated in his post-match press conference after the Bologna fiasco.

For too long, near-successes have papered over the cracks at Dortmund. The Bundesliga runners-up finish in 2023 and the Champions League final in 2024 obfuscated that the club is a complete shambles behind the scenes.

To say that too many cooks have spoiled the broth at Dortmund would be an understatement. The club needs a major reckoning in how it is run because there are so many influential figures giving their two cents on every matter that this current crisis has felt inevitable for some time.

Parting Club CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke, his successor and current CEO for Sport Lars Ricken, Club Advisor Matthias Sammer, Sporting Director Sebastian Kehl, Squad Planner Sven Mislintat and, of course, the head coach all should have clear responsibilities but the division of labour at Dortmund is completely muddled.

Moreover, as Sahin also alluded to in his final press conference, the club is always preoccupied with 'secondary theatres of war.' What he meant by this, of course, were the power struggles between all of the above-mentioned luminaries.

According to Sky Germany reporter Patrick Berger, Mislintat and Kehl, for example, do not get along at all and don't pull in the same direction despite being the most crucial when it comes to the recruitment of players.

Kehl recently extended his contract, but it was entirely up in the air for months whether he would stay on board as he was reportedly upset about being overlooked in favour of Ricken for the CEO role when Watzke announced that he would leave at the end of the season.

Then you have Sammer, who works for the club but is also a pundit and has no qualms about publically and bluntly criticising the playing squad and how it was assembled.

A club obviously can't function when the most influential figures are always pointing fingers at each other instead of working together. Dortmund are an unmitigated disaster at present.

Ten Hag right to turn down Dortmund

Unsurprisingly, then, Erik ten Hag has said 'no, thanks' when asked to replace Sahin mid-season. Due to his close relationship with Sammer, Ten Hag knows the club inside and out and he is well aware of the mess he would have walked into.

When he took the Man Utd job, the club was struggling and crying out for a 'disciplinarian.' The same is the case for Dortmund, who have several players on massive wages and who are unwilling to pull their weight.

However, the big difference is that when Ten Hag arrived at Old Trafford, he was the main man. Though there was John Murtough to take care of recruitment, the Dutchman had a massive say - arguably too big a say - in which players were signed.

This wouldn't be the case at Dortmund if he were to join the club, at least not at present. Not only would he have to contend with the disaster that is the club's squad but he would also have to try and tune out the ongoing power struggles behind the scenes.

No wonder that he preferred to wait and see how things develop between now and the end of the season, similar to Roger Schmidt, who has also been considered for the job but who likewise knocked back the approach due to major reservations about the current regime.

Despite having an army of influential club bosses, Dortmund are a rudderless ship without a captain. Ten Hag was right to turn down the offer to replace Sahin - and any sensible person would have done the same.