Football: Salary System - Chapter 168: Winter Transfer Window (Part 1) (Patreon)

During the final days of 2018, Zayn enjoyed a rare stretch of leisure at home.

While he was enjoying the warmth of family life, Dortmund's management team was working nonstop.

Watzke, Zorc, and Favre, the three men with the greatest say at Dortmund, held a meeting shortly after Christmas.

In the final two league matches of the first half of the season, Dortmund had first suffered their first defeat of the campaign away at Düsseldorf. They then returned to the Westfalenstadion and conceded first against Borussia Mönchengladbach. If not for Zayn's explosion in the second half, they probably would have entered the winter break on the back of two straight defeats.

Combined with the injury crisis in defense, those matches had forced Dortmund's hierarchy to recognize one thing clearly.

The current squad was not deep enough to fight on multiple fronts all the way to the end.

They could hardly expect Zayn to produce a superhuman performance in every match.

Pepe's signing had already been finalized. The only thing left was to announce it once the winter transfer window opened.

The Portuguese veteran could solve the defense's lack of experience, but he could not solve every problem.

The midfield needed more depth as well. Witsel and Delaney had played together in the double pivot for almost the entire first half of the season precisely because both Weigl and Dahoud had obvious shortcomings as alternatives from the bench.

When Favre had previously discussed the squad with Zayn, Zayn's suggestion had been to strengthen both defense and midfield.

The problem was that Dortmund did not have much money left in the account.

Most of the transfer budget had already been spent during the summer window.

Pepe might be arriving on a free transfer, but his signing bonus and salary were still significant. Add Zayn's new contract on top of that, and Dortmund's wage budget for the season was already approaching its limit.

If they wanted to bring in a midfielder capable of contributing immediately during the winter window, the Black and Yellows first needed to trim the squad, recover some funds, and create room in the existing wage structure.

Simply put, they needed to sell players or send them out on loan.

...

January 1, 2019.

The Bundesliga winter transfer window officially opened.

Dortmund immediately announced Pepe's arrival.

The Portuguese center back, signed on a free transfer, would wear his trademark No. 3 shirt.

Coincidentally, Dortmund's No. 3 had been vacant for an entire season and a half.

The signing immediately sparked widespread discussion online.

Many experts praised Dortmund highly for managing to land Pepe on a free transfer.

From a purely tactical perspective, the Portuguese center back fit Favre's 4-2-3-1 perfectly.

Dortmund's defending that season emphasized dropping into shape in their own half and maintaining a zonal structure. Their center backs were not required to step out and press constantly, but anticipation and positioning were extremely important.

Those were exactly the areas in which Pepe excelled. His ability to read defensive situations remained elite, and he also possessed the experience Dortmund's back line lacked.

However, outside analysts also believed the transfer came with several risks that could not be ignored.

First, the veteran had already left Europe's top leagues and spent an entire year winding down his career in the Turkish Süper Lig. He would turn thirty-six in February 2019, and no one knew how much he still had left in the tank.

Then there was the dressing-room question.

Pepe had been famous throughout his career for his fiery temper. At Real Madrid, he had even developed irreconcilable conflicts with two celebrated coaches, Mourinho and Zidane.

A veteran with such a formidable reputation, such an aggressive style, and such a powerful personality was now joining a team dominated by young players.

Could he become a destabilizing influence in the dressing room?

And would Favre, an experienced coach who had never managed a player with this kind of championship pedigree, possess enough authority to keep him in line?

That was why the experts believed Pepe did not merely strengthen Dortmund.

He also placed a bomb inside the Westfalenstadion dressing room that might one day go off.

Excited Dortmund supporters had already thrown all those rational concerns out the window.

They had signed a three-time Champions League winner without paying a transfer fee.

The club had made its intentions obvious. Dortmund were showing ambition.

This season, they wanted more than just the Bundesliga.

...

With Pepe's transfer settled, Dortmund's management immediately shifted all its attention toward sales and loans.

The first name on the list was Christian Pulisic.

Captain America's contract would expire in the summer of 2020.

He had his heart set on moving to the Premier League and had long made it clear that he had no intention of renewing. If Dortmund refused to sell, they risked eventually losing both the player and the transfer fee.

Klopp had also never stopped thinking about the young American at his former club.

After several rounds of talks, Dortmund and Liverpool had gradually moved toward an agreement.

Then Chelsea suddenly entered the race.

After Zayn signed his improved contract and Dortmund clearly sent the message that none of their core players would be sold during the winter window, the "Iron Lady" Marina quickly adjusted her strategy and decisively turned her attention to Pulisic.

The Blues offered far more than Liverpool.

Chelsea, who would have to deal with a FIFA transfer ban the following season, even accepted the outrageous condition that after signing Pulisic, they would allow him to remain at Dortmund on loan until the end of the season without Dortmund paying any loan fee.

Chelsea looked so desperate that even Zorc could not help wondering how much they might have offered if the player in question had been Zayn.

But Zorc was not foolish enough to say yes just for the immediate profit.

If Zayn led Dortmund to several trophies that season, he would not only add silverware to the club's trophy room. His market value would rise even further. If they ever did sell him afterward, the price would be on an entirely different level from anything available in the winter window.

Chelsea were hardly the only rich club in football.

Ultimately, Pulisic joined the Blues for a transfer fee of €64 million and would officially report to Stamford Bridge after the end of the season.

An impatient Chelsea announced the deal on January 1 as well, confirming a transfer that set a new record for an American player.

Dortmund's squad trimming did not stop there. Zorc immediately moved on to a group of players who were not part of Favre's plans.

Sebastian Rode was one of them.

The German midfielder had suffered repeated injuries ever since joining Dortmund from Bayern in 2016 and had never managed to establish himself.

He had not made a Bundesliga appearance for Dortmund since May 2017. This season, he had not even made a single matchday squad.

Rode himself desperately wanted to leave and was even willing to accept a pay cut to facilitate a return to his former club, Eintracht Frankfurt.

His serious injury history, however, made Frankfurt unwilling to buy him outright. They preferred a loan.

If he recovered well and rediscovered his form, the clubs could discuss a permanent transfer in the summer. If not, Frankfurt could simply send him back when the loan expired.

Since Rode, like Pulisic, had only a year and a half remaining on his contract, and there were no other clubs willing to take him, Zorc had little choice but to accept Frankfurt's loan proposal.

At the very least, Dortmund could remove half a season of wages from their books.

Rode, who had won the Bundesliga twice with Bayern, was so determined to leave that he voluntarily gave up half of his salary. During the loan spell, Frankfurt would only need to cover the other half.

Before leaving, the midfielder described his time at Dortmund to the media as a "terrible period."

Zorc did not care in the slightest. Creating enough wage space to strengthen the squad mattered far more.

The next player he needed to deal with was the "new Swedish Ibrahimović."

Alexander Isak.

Two winter windows earlier, Dortmund had beaten several European giants, including Real Madrid and Manchester United, to sign the seventeen-year-old Swedish striker for roughly €8.6 million.

At the time, the youngest goalscorer in Sweden's national-team history had been widely viewed as Dortmund's long-term answer up front because of his height, long legs, and refined technique.

Two seasons later, however, Isak's development had fallen far short of the club's expectations.

After Zayn arrived, things became even more difficult for him.

During the first half of the season, Isak had been reduced to playing fourth-tier football with Dortmund's reserve team.

Unlike Rode, though, Dortmund were not trying to clear Isak out permanently.

The club still had hopes for him. A loan was simply intended to give him as much playing time as possible.

For that reason, Dortmund planned to send him to Willem II in the Eredivisie.

Zorc himself was not particularly optimistic about Isak.

Or rather, after personally witnessing Zayn's ability and terrifying rate of improvement, Zorc now found it difficult to get excited about most young strikers.

...

Of course, if Zorc had known that Isak's next two transfers would eventually be worth more than €200 million combined, he would have kept the Swede at Dortmund as long as necessary before selling him for a fortune.

Next on Zorc's list were Shinji Kagawa, Jeremy Toljan, Dzenis Burnic, and several others.

The long string of names was enough to give the longtime Dortmund man a headache.

At the same time, Favre had already settled on a specific candidate he wanted to bring in to strengthen the midfield.

This time, however, before telling Dortmund's management team who he had in mind, the veteran Swiss coach planned to ask Zayn first.