The sad and rapid demise of Nuri Sahin

As the Borussia Dortmund players trudged off the pitch in Bologna, amidst the jubilant home players celebrating their first ever champions league victory, they must have been conscious of the position they had put the club's head coach. Prior to the game Nuri Sahin, Dortmund’s 36-year-old coach, was told by the club's leadership that defeat would be the final straw and he would be fired. The following morning the German media were reporting that Sahin had said goodbye to the players and had left the club.

Sahin was born in Ludenscheid, close to Dortmund and joined Borussia as a boy. He progressed through the youth ranks and became one of the Bundesliga’s most dynamic midfielders. He was key to Jurgen Klopp’s title winning Dortmund side in 2011 and made over two hundred appearance in two spells at the club. He returned to Dortmund a year ago this month, this time as a coach supporting Edin Terzic. He is credited for having improved the team in the second half on the 23/24 season in which Dortmund finished fifth in the league after a bad opening half of the season, and of course they had a fantastic a run to the Champions League Final which ended in defeat to Real Madrid at Wembley.

In the summer, Terzic was let go and Sahin, whose only previously management job had been at Turkish League club Antalyaspor, was handed the responsibility of masterminding Borussia Dortmund’s title challenge. A challenge that never materialised.

After a decent start to the campaign of four wins and a draw from the first fiv, came defeats to Stuttgart, Union Berlin, Augsburg, Wolfsburg, and Mainz. The mood was buoyed somewhat in Europe with wins over Zagreb, Graz, Celtic, and Brugge but defeats to Barcelona and Real Madrid exposed the squad for what it was: not strong enough to live up to the club's ambitions.

Sahin’s final stanza was a tragedy. Home defeat to champions Leverkusen, a humiliating 4-2 loss to newly promoted Kiel and another defeat at Eintracht Frankfurt. Then came Bologna and then the sack; one of Borussia’s most popular players in modern times, and local lad, has had his coaching career at Dortmund cut short. While the decision to fire Sahin was easy to justify, the decision to take such a risk with the reputation and legacy of one of Dortmund’s favourite sons, in the first place, is hard to understand.

To ask an inexperienced coach to take on a club of the size and ambitions as Dortmund was ill conceived. At 36, Sahin is not the youngest man to coach a Bundesliga team but he is among them. As a regular Champions League side and until recently the unofficial second-best team in the Bundesliga, Dortmund could and should have recruited a coach with experience and pedigree. Instead, they opted for the romantic choice: the golden boy who would lead the club to glory as an authentic Borussen; as one of their own. Quite simply the club leadership were either pre-occupied with mythmaking or were unwilling to pay the salary of a more established coach.

The men in charge of recruitment are Sporting Director Sebastian Kehl, and CEO of Sports, Lars Ricken. Both are beloved by the clubs fans for their exploits as former player and both probably allowed themselves to get caught up in the Sahin narrative. They must take responsibility for the current situation. For some time now the club’s recruitment policy seems disjointed and there is no discernible playing philosophy unless you count vibey football.

As for Sahin’s successor: former United boss Erik ten Hag has been seen hanging out at the club. He was at the Bologna game. However, the Dutchman is still under contract at United and Dortmund would need to pay big to release him. The latest reports are that the job will go to Niko Kovac who was last at Wolfsburg but has coached at Bayern, Monaco, and Frankfurt.

Whoever he is, the next coaching appointment must stick this time or the club could genuinely descend into chaos and mismanagement. As Hamburg, Schalke, Stuttgart, and Frankfurt have shown in recent years, it is perfectly possibly for big clubs to drop into the Bundesliga 2 after a relatively brief period of mismanagement. This is far from inevitable and Dortmund can still go deep in the Champions League and may even finish in the top four this season. But nothing should be taken for granted. The Bundesliga is not like the Premier League where there are perhaps four or five clubs effectively immune from relegation. Only Bayern Munich can make that claim.

In the meantime, Nuri Sahin must count the cost of his over-promotion. Hopefully, he’ll be back at work soon.