Borussia Dortmund

Damn, so Götze didn't just mess us up, he destroyed Klopp's seemingly endless pool of energy and optimism for a day. I remember Steve and I were here on footytube talking about the rumour and we just expected it to be false. But deep down inside I had that feeling you have when you know it's true. The whole night I kept looking for information about it. Hell, I even tweeted Götze himself to have him speak out that it was a silly rumour and he'd never leave, like he said before.

Then of course it turned out to be true and my favourite youngster in football instantly became a nemesis. It's like a good friend confessing he secretly slept with your girlfriend for months but he doesn't even show remorse.

...

Aaaanyway, it's a great interview, and a revealing one too. I'm happily surprised Kloppo didn't know about Götze's transfer and that it hit him, hard, just as it hit us hard.

The best part of the interview though:
"But I'm not interested because, for me, this is the most interesting football project in the world. In three or four years, if someone wants me, we can speak. But, for now, this is the best place for me."

Or perhaps this:
Klopp comes from a small village in the Black Forest – "There were 1,500 people there when I left and 1,499 live there now."
Hahaha, good ol' Kloppo.

"Shinji Kagawa is one of the best players in the world and he now plays 20 minutes at Manchester United – on the left wing! My heart breaks. Really, I have tears in my eyes."

Me too Kloppo, me too...

Gotze.. How could you...?!

The part about Shinji almost made me cry... why, oh why!?

' When asked about the cruel loss of Götze, the 45-year-old is initially philosophical. "It's absolutely normal that people go different ways. At 18 I wanted to see the whole world. But I am only in Mainz and Dortmund since then and … [Klopp laughs] it's not the middle of the world. It's OK that they want to go to different places. But they get there and, s**t, it's not the same. Look, you work for the Guardian, and sometimes you see your colleagues and think: 'Oh no, the same old thing every day.' Maybe you want to go to the Sun? More money, less work. More photographs, [fewer] words." '

brilliant

Can I have some wine with that?

But Ulf Kirsten didn't top the score sheet this year.

That'll mess it up :D:D

Wembley Ramin, Wembley.

Khaotik's and Ramin's jokes are always so amusing. :P

Written in the stars. CMON DORTMUND!

1997:
-Aqua has a huge hit with 'Barbie Girl'
-J. K. Rowling's first Harry Potter book "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", a book of fiction, is published
-Diana, Princess of Wales and Deng Xiaoping, former leader of the People's Republic of China, die
-Hong Kong begins to kill all the chickens within its territory
-The Pokémon Trading Card Game is blessed by the Vatican

2013:
-Justin Bieber is a real-life Barbie girl
-Uli Hoeneß' book "Meine Steuern", a book of fiction, is published
-Margaret Thatcher, Princess of evil and Hugo Chávez, former leader of the People's Republic of Venezuela, die
-Bayern win the Bundesliga
-Dortmund play the Champions League final

So many similarities...

O...k... AFG. Whatever parallel world you live in.

I was complimenting you, you do know that right? :P

Thatcher a princess of evil?? Are you a coal miner Jeroen?

Is that because I'm black Mike? I find that offensive and inappropriate.

Yes I do, complimenting me on telling Ramin to f**k off felt like an Insult however. Maybe it's just me being drunk, thank you though. :)

No insult, just a compliment. :)

Oh you ;)

Lol wut? I meant because Thatcher is generally hated most in the coal mining towns in Britain where her economic reforms had the biggest impact when state controlled mines and energy producers were sold and subsequently closed down...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_miners%27_strike_%281984%E2%80%931985%29

Personally, based on what I've read (given that I wasn't alive then) I think Thatcher was great and quite frankly the single biggest reason that the UK isn't finding itself in the same economic boat as Ireland, Spain, Greece, Portugal... and so forth.

Although, you've piqued my interest here... What does being a coal miner have to do with being black?? Honest question. Because I have no idea where that came from

Edit: nevermind, I get it now. I don't know how you jumped to that conclusion though, since by calling Thatcher "evil" I assumed you were familiar with why that's a commonly held position

Haha Mike, you're so naive :) I'm as white as snow and I was just horsing around. Of course I know about Thatcher and her coal mining policies and how it made her hated in lower-class England.

And that's also the reason why I do not think she was great. She was great for the rich upper class and the entrepreneurs. She should've dealt with the closing of the coal mines in a more subtle way to say the least.

She was a ruthless Queen Victoria (who was also far from a great person) wannabe if you ask me. Perhaps you can argue the UK needed that sort of politician at the time, but here in Belgium we had a huge coal industry as well and we dealt with it in a much better way. Germany did too, in the Ruhr. You should know as a Dortmund fan :)

Haha damn. Well you got me, but I won't give up that easily...

I suppose this is not the place to be arguing economic policy, but Britain in the early 80s was in a much different position than Germany or Belgium when they started undergoing similar changes. It's the old argument of do you rip the band-aid off or do you peel it back slowly. Well that depends on how bad the wound underneath is. Germany and Belgium had the luxury of being able to act proactively by starting earlier. Britain on the other hand was hit hard by recession, which was how Thatcher was elected in the first place. I guess Wikipedia isn't exactly a trustworthy source but according to this article, it seems like the end-game of the mining industry in Belgium wasn't really much different from the UK in that in both cases the result was lingering unemployment (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sillon_industriel). It's just that in Belgium there wasn't a single public figure people could tie it to. So maybe from a political standpoint you could argue that Thatcher was unwise to care so little about her popularity. That doesn't mean it wasn't the right thing to do.

Maybe you are right. I'll have to do some more reading before I re-enter this debate because you clearly don't base your opinion on thin air, which is something I respect. I really have to go to sleep now, gotta work all noon and evening tomorrow, but I'll catch up with this after the week-end. You'll hear from your black as coal friend from Belgium asap ;)

And the award for most dynamic discussion on the internet goes to.... BVB forum on footytube.com!
Hooray!

Lol winner by default? Yay!! I'm surprised you were still up so late (or early I guess), but it's a long weekend here so I probably won't be spending much more time in front of the computer for a little while :)

(Basically this is the point in the debate where I run away so that I don't take a chance with being made to look silly)

And for the record, I love all of my BVB brothers; black as coal or white as snow... or yellow as gold?...

.......I gotta stop visiting the BVB page. You guys are strange.

Strange would be an understatement. We are insane.

He'll forget all about us when he's rolling in a giant pile of money next year... f*cking mercenary

sahin is actually doing really good, his passing is awesome, got some assists hes back in form

AFG, I noticed you like turkish footballers, you should check the league to, its only getting better and better, the players are really stepping up to, check up on burak yilmaz, selcuk inan, and arda turan, fantastic footballers if you have the time cheers

Well I find that very reassuring that Sahin is still doing well. For some reason I can't stop admiring him even though he's clearly not the same player he was 3 seasons ago. I'll continue to support him. I know he'll produce that beautiful football that made me become a fan of his.

I tried watching Turkish football but my issue is good quality streams. Unless it's Real Madrid, I find it difficult to enjoy a match unless the stream is good. I've known about Inan for a while, and I certainly know Turan. Yilmaz I discovered this year, and with such quality I'm surprised Turkey isn't doing better in the WC Qualifiers. They have everything to get through.

Is it the manager?

Turkey have a very good team, on paper to, The manager doesn't know what the hell he is doing and i am surprised he didn't get sacked yet, I think he knows people thats the reason why he didn't get fired. he got into a fight with our starting GK and he doesn't want to play for us anymore. I wish a manager like fatih terim can manage Turkey, oh well the manager now will get fired soon and hopefully his replacement will be awesome.

Sahin will get his 100% form back, he is enjoying life and where he is right now. He is only getting better, He will be the key for dortmund again like he was before, just watch next season.

he's going places...

Next stop: Dortmund

He's not going places, plural. He's going to a place, singular. As in Dortmund singular ;)

Good, although I'd have liked it if he went on loan. Unless Kloppo plans to use him a lot next season?