BVB Sporting Director on Transfer Secrets and Fan Criticism
Kehl: “The English are often pain-free”
SPORT BILD: Mr. Kehl, to what percentage did you achieve your transfer goals this summer?
SEBASTIAN KEHL (45): We achieved a lot of what we had set out to do. Let’s look at the departures: Sébastien Haller, Gio Reyna, Youssoufa Moukoko, and Soumaïla Coulibaly. These players no longer had much of a sporting perspective with us. And we were able to transfer all of them – and, in my opinion, under very good conditions.
And the arrivals?
With the transfers of Daniel Svensson and Yan Couto (permanent signings after loan spells; editor’s note), we took an early step and then signed Jobe Bellingham early on as a difference-maker. That already amounted to nearly €60 million in expenses. After that it was clear: we first had to sell players before we could continue investing. We mainly did that in July through the transfer of Jamie Gittens.
Carney Chukwuemeka came permanently from Chelsea, Fabio Silva from Wolverhampton. You also brought in Chelsea’s Aarón Anselmino on a one-year loan.
Correct. These are players with development potential who give us both sporting and financial perspective. I am absolutely convinced of our squad and believe we are better positioned than last season.
Which transfer was the most nerve-racking?
Overall, it was a very nerve-racking summer. With lots of phone calls and meetings. And every squad move had its own peculiarities, especially since we did them abroad. Transfers within the Bundesliga are generally a bit easier. We dealt with clubs that weren’t necessarily dependent on money. That changes the negotiation dynamics enormously. And I must say: the English are often pain-free. They sometimes deliberately wait until the very end of the transfer window, knowing that, given their financial means, they can calmly hope for a possible domino effect. So, we had to be patient in order to act.
You personally traveled to England twice recently to finalize deals. Were the clubs unwilling to negotiate earlier?
Of course, I could also fly to Chelsea in July, sit down with the bosses, and put €20 million on the table for Chukwuemeka. But then they would probably say: “You can fly right back home!” It takes time and a clear strategy to push through your vision. And it also takes the player’s firm commitment.
Did Chukwuemeka himself go to the Chelsea bosses in the end and ask them to let him go for that price?
Yes. Carney already knew BVB and was determined to play in black and yellow again.
Fabio Silva too?
Fabio as well. A transfer is usually the result of weeks, sometimes months, of work. We had been in close contact with his management since early July and convinced him about us. In the end, we got both players for a price that doesn’t fit the current market trend at all.
What do you mean by that?
Fabio Silva is a really good striker with excellent potential. Yet he doesn’t even appear in the top 100 most expensive transfers worldwide this summer! Chukwuemeka will rank even lower. That shows just how much money is in the market.
Nevertheless, at times there was a lot of fan criticism on social media about your transfer policy.
schmidtis95 on
I hate that BILD seems to be his favorite media outlet.
Chazy89 on
Oh look, its Bild again
SwedishBorrussian on
I forgot we even got rid of Haller. Did we get any money from him? If memory serves, we didn’t get anything since his contract was so expensive for Utrecht.
bagstone on
Low quality source but it is an interesting interview. And I think some of it, in hindsight, makes sense. The complaints about BVB not doing anything on the transfer market made sense now. If it’s true, then that’s good, because it means there was a transfer development happening for weeks (Silva) that wasn’t leaking, a welcome change to the past few years.
I guess Kehl, like every other sports director, will be evaluated in the future based on how his past actions turn out. If the new arrivals perform well and the market value doesn’t decrease, he might receive less criticism. If not… well, there’s plenty of headwind already coming his way.
I don’t know how many here are old enough to remember but Zorc, in his first few years, didn’t have too much of a good reputation either (in terms of his business abilities, obviously he was always loved as a player/person). Basically Kagawa was a huge turning point. We’ll see if Kehl can find his own Kagawa. A 350k deal won’t happen anymore though in this new economy, and Kehl is correct in that. Also this year seemed mental, there was probably about a billion in transfer value being moved just on the final 2-3 days of the window.
biggieBpimpin on
The thing that annoys me here is he is saying English teams have money so they can afford to wait for higher bids most of the time. Ok, then quit shopping exclusively in England. We signed Jobe, Silva, Chuck, and Anselmino (loan) all from England. Cuoto was also signed from City.
Just because we secured players at the deadline doesn’t mean it will always work out like that. We could have just as easily been rejected by these clubs or the player could have chosen somewhere else. And then we are left with hardly any time to sign a back up option.
It’s a catch 22 because while I don’t want us to sign everyone from England, I don’t want us to default to only bundesliga signings again either. Spread the love, scout creatively, find some decent deals or take some risks on smaller stature players. We should be aiming for more Svensson like deals than Jobe deals.
6 Comments
BVB Sporting Director on Transfer Secrets and Fan Criticism
Kehl: “The English are often pain-free”
SPORT BILD: Mr. Kehl, to what percentage did you achieve your transfer goals this summer?
SEBASTIAN KEHL (45): We achieved a lot of what we had set out to do. Let’s look at the departures: Sébastien Haller, Gio Reyna, Youssoufa Moukoko, and Soumaïla Coulibaly. These players no longer had much of a sporting perspective with us. And we were able to transfer all of them – and, in my opinion, under very good conditions.
And the arrivals?
With the transfers of Daniel Svensson and Yan Couto (permanent signings after loan spells; editor’s note), we took an early step and then signed Jobe Bellingham early on as a difference-maker. That already amounted to nearly €60 million in expenses. After that it was clear: we first had to sell players before we could continue investing. We mainly did that in July through the transfer of Jamie Gittens.
Carney Chukwuemeka came permanently from Chelsea, Fabio Silva from Wolverhampton. You also brought in Chelsea’s Aarón Anselmino on a one-year loan.
Correct. These are players with development potential who give us both sporting and financial perspective. I am absolutely convinced of our squad and believe we are better positioned than last season.
Which transfer was the most nerve-racking?
Overall, it was a very nerve-racking summer. With lots of phone calls and meetings. And every squad move had its own peculiarities, especially since we did them abroad. Transfers within the Bundesliga are generally a bit easier. We dealt with clubs that weren’t necessarily dependent on money. That changes the negotiation dynamics enormously. And I must say: the English are often pain-free. They sometimes deliberately wait until the very end of the transfer window, knowing that, given their financial means, they can calmly hope for a possible domino effect. So, we had to be patient in order to act.
You personally traveled to England twice recently to finalize deals. Were the clubs unwilling to negotiate earlier?
Of course, I could also fly to Chelsea in July, sit down with the bosses, and put €20 million on the table for Chukwuemeka. But then they would probably say: “You can fly right back home!” It takes time and a clear strategy to push through your vision. And it also takes the player’s firm commitment.
Did Chukwuemeka himself go to the Chelsea bosses in the end and ask them to let him go for that price?
Yes. Carney already knew BVB and was determined to play in black and yellow again.
Fabio Silva too?
Fabio as well. A transfer is usually the result of weeks, sometimes months, of work. We had been in close contact with his management since early July and convinced him about us. In the end, we got both players for a price that doesn’t fit the current market trend at all.
What do you mean by that?
Fabio Silva is a really good striker with excellent potential. Yet he doesn’t even appear in the top 100 most expensive transfers worldwide this summer! Chukwuemeka will rank even lower. That shows just how much money is in the market.
Nevertheless, at times there was a lot of fan criticism on social media about your transfer policy.
I hate that BILD seems to be his favorite media outlet.
Oh look, its Bild again
I forgot we even got rid of Haller. Did we get any money from him? If memory serves, we didn’t get anything since his contract was so expensive for Utrecht.
Low quality source but it is an interesting interview. And I think some of it, in hindsight, makes sense. The complaints about BVB not doing anything on the transfer market made sense now. If it’s true, then that’s good, because it means there was a transfer development happening for weeks (Silva) that wasn’t leaking, a welcome change to the past few years.
I guess Kehl, like every other sports director, will be evaluated in the future based on how his past actions turn out. If the new arrivals perform well and the market value doesn’t decrease, he might receive less criticism. If not… well, there’s plenty of headwind already coming his way.
I don’t know how many here are old enough to remember but Zorc, in his first few years, didn’t have too much of a good reputation either (in terms of his business abilities, obviously he was always loved as a player/person). Basically Kagawa was a huge turning point. We’ll see if Kehl can find his own Kagawa. A 350k deal won’t happen anymore though in this new economy, and Kehl is correct in that. Also this year seemed mental, there was probably about a billion in transfer value being moved just on the final 2-3 days of the window.
The thing that annoys me here is he is saying English teams have money so they can afford to wait for higher bids most of the time. Ok, then quit shopping exclusively in England. We signed Jobe, Silva, Chuck, and Anselmino (loan) all from England. Cuoto was also signed from City.
Just because we secured players at the deadline doesn’t mean it will always work out like that. We could have just as easily been rejected by these clubs or the player could have chosen somewhere else. And then we are left with hardly any time to sign a back up option.
It’s a catch 22 because while I don’t want us to sign everyone from England, I don’t want us to default to only bundesliga signings again either. Spread the love, scout creatively, find some decent deals or take some risks on smaller stature players. We should be aiming for more Svensson like deals than Jobe deals.