Football
Stephan Uersfeld, Germany correspondent 9y

Jurgen Klopp is still the right man for Borussia Dortmund, chief insists

Borussia Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke has said there is no reason to doubt coach Jurgen Klopp -- but refused to comment on reports that he had been blocked from joining Manchester United last summer.

Watzke said there was no "seven-year itch" in the relationship between the 2013 Champions League finalists and Klopp, who has been in charge since 2008.

Dortmund have shone in the Champions League but found the going tough in the Bundesliga this season, spending the winter break in the relegation zone.

The 2013 UCL finalists have 17 games left to stave off the threat of what for many would be an unthinkable relegation.

But Watzke told Suddeutsche Zeitung on Thursday that the club were right to stick with Klopp.

Describing claims that the coach had been prevented from moving to United as "wild speculation," he said: "Maybe I am stubborn or pig-headed -- but if something functions that well for six years, it can't just be that it's not the case in the seventh year.

"We all have the same opinion -- there is absolutely no reason to doubt Jurgen Klopp."

#INSERT type:image caption:Klopp and his players have struggled in the Bundesliga this season. END#

The coach, however, has come under increasing scrutiny from sections of the media in Germany.

In an interview with Die Zeit, philosopher Wolfram Eilenberger put Dortmund's struggles down to what he said was the club's transformation into "the cult of Klopp."

Eilenberger, who has a DFB coaching license and stars for the German authors' national team, told the paper: "Dortmund are Klopp, Klopp is Dortmund."

He added: "Those responsible should have never allowed that. That's the biggest management mistake for a club of that size.

"Dortmund, as they presented themselves towards the end of last year, were no longer a club but a cult, with all the classic attributes like a ban on articulation, total community suggestion and unconditional belief in the saviour.

"Klopp's narrative is dead. His potential appears to be exhausted, but that of Dortmund as a club is not."

In 2013, the philosopher put forward the argument that Pep Guardiola, now at Bayern Munich, had "feminised" football.

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