Borussia Dortmund’s chief executive has criticised a former Liverpool player for their comments about Sadio Mane.
Mane recently completed a £35million move to Bayern Munich for the Reds, ending his six-year stay on Merseyside.
This promoted former Liverpool player Dean Saunders to state that he did not understand why Mane would have wanted to leave Liverpool, and questioned the standard of the Bundesliga:
“I’m still baffled why he’s gone,” Saunders had told talkSPORT. “Why would you leave Liverpool when everybody loves you, the manager loves you, your teammates love you?
“You’re playing in the best front-three you’re ever going to play in, in your life. You’re never gonna go to a better team than he’s in right now.
“It’s not a challenge. He will get in his armchair, light a cigar up, he’ll play for Bayern in third gear and he’ll coast for two years and ruin the best two years of his life as a footballer.”
Following Saunders’ comments, Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke has labelled the former Liverpool star as an ‘arrogant idiot’ for his remarks about the Bundesliga.
Watzke also made a dig at English clubs for their efforts in Europe last term:
“There are always some arrogant idiots like this one,” Watzke told Bild on Saunders’ comments. “As a member of the board of Europe’s club association ECA, I know that German football still has a good reputation. The English didn’t win any of the three European Cup titles in the past season!”
And whilst Mane may never come out and state the exact reason he chose to leave Liverpool for Bayern, one explanation does seem to stand out.
That being the fact that the Bundesliga, especially now Erling Haaland has left Dortmund, is very much a one-club division, meaning Mane should have little issue adding a decent amount of silverware to his collection in the next few years. Whereas had he stayed at Liverpool, the Reds have the much harder task of competing with Manchester City.
Watch: Lionel Messi’s top 10 greatest goals of all time
Watch: Cristiano Ronaldo’s top 10 greatest goals of all time
