In Leverkusen, those responsible are puzzling over why something that was working in the spring suddenly went wrong. The best thing that can be said at the moment: that the club will keep their nerves when it comes to coaching.
Mykhailo Mudryk knew all the ins and outs of his footballing fortune at Bayer Leverkusen before he had an international match for Ukraine, before an English club had offered him 30 million euros and before he made a big appearance in the Champions League game had laid down at RB Leipzig. Before the gold rush for the highly talented 21-year-old left winger from Shakhtar Donetsk could begin, Bayer 04 had already approached, persuaded and convinced him. Just like in the old days, when the Rhenish industrial club was always a bit smarter and a bit faster than the more solvent and attractive competition from the big and cosmopolitan cities.
In the case of Mudryk, the prerequisites were already clarified in June: Mudryk wanted to go to Bayer 04, Bayer 04 wanted Mudryk – and Shakhtar Donetsk agreed to a change, but the transfer did not take place due to circumstances that remained unclear. Three months later, the speedy winger is still at the Ukrainian club. He scored one goal and set up two more in Donetsk’s furious 4-1 win in Leipzig. Bayer Leverkusen officials were able to watch it on TV on Tuesday night while waiting for their own team’s next game, which promptly ended in another defeat in the Champions League the next day.
The 1-0 loss at Club Brugge – a good, but not a great place in top European football – was the sixth defeat in the seventh competitive game for the Werkself: knocked out in the DFB Cup in Elversberg, lost four times in the Bundesliga and in the European Cup now also inferior to the outsider of group B. The supervisors responsible, including coach Gerardo Seoane, are puzzled as to why something that worked on call in the spring suddenly went wrong. The best thing that can be said about the club at the moment is that it has kept its cool and been patient when it comes to coaching.
If Bayer 04 becomes normal then that’s not a good sign for this club
Nobody knows whether Leverkusen would have had a better record with left winger Mudryk. But the top transfer, which was given priority A, fits into a summer in which some plans didn’t work out. In addition, an unfavorable trend has crept into the club in terms of atmosphere, which has always benefited from its clarity and familiarity in the good times.
Bayer still employs top players like Tapsoba, Frimpong, Diaby and Schick, but also an extraordinarily expensive squad that has too great a difference in level and contains too many dissatisfied employees. No unusual problems for an internationally ambitious club. But if Bayer 04 becomes normal then that’s not a good sign for this club.