Borussia Dortmund appear to be growing increasingly frustrated about the situation around Jobe Bellingham, who is yet to prove worth the money paid to sign him from Sunderland.
That’s at least according to BILD, who cover the situation today and the growing frustration at Dortmund about the constant talk around the former Sunderland man.
They say that Bellingham continues to be the dominant topic at Dortmund this week, despite the 4-4 draw madness against Juventus in the Champions League.
The focus was on Bellingham as he was left on the bench for the second game running, leading to more questions about his €30.5m move from Sunderland this summer. At the moment, the midfielder hasn’t lived up to that and is an ‘expensive worry’.
This has been well detailed over the last few weeks and BILD say Dortmund’s bosses are now extremely annoyed about the ongoing debate around him.
Sebastien Kehl is the latest to have commented, telling reporters “we worked very hard to get him and we don’t need to talk about him every three days. At the end of the day, we have a very, very large squad, which gives the manager several options.”
Those have not been seen as positive though. On the contrary, BILD say that they represent yet another setback as ‘loosely translated’ they’re saying nothing more than Dortmund’s expensive summer signing from Sunderland is replaceable and not standing out in terms of quality.
Niko Kovač has certainly suggested as much as well, pointing out the strength of his midfield options in his own comments.
“I understand the questions, but we are at BVB and at BVB there is a lot of competition and quality in the team. I know what he can do, he is 19 years young and new to us,” he said.
“That’s why we don’t need to write anything that is totally unimportant. The key thing is that we perform well as a team, and everyone is part of that.”
It’s a complete turn from Dortmund, who started the summer giving him chances and raving about Bellingham whenever they were asked. Now it seems the summer signing needs to earn his place and they’re sick of talking about him in public.
For now, Bellingham is ‘providing little justification’ that he deserves a starting role or was worth the money paid to sign him from Sunderland this summer.
