After an extensive rebuild, are Bayer Leverkusen ready to challenge for the Bundesliga title?
Bayer Leverkusen have undergone what American sport enthusiasts would call an extensive rebuild. With Xabi Alonso in charge and a critical mass of talent in place are Leverkusen a title challenger?
“Successful rebuilds are always very difficult,” Chicago Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer recently said on Starkville: The Athletic Baseball Show. “It is really about just making a series of right decisions, and at one point, you reach a critical mass of talent, and things click into gear.”
You may ask, why does this author bring up a baseball show in a Bundesliga newsletter? It is the notion of rebuilding that I want to focus on for the sake of this article.
After all, the Cubs, as baseball enthusiasts may know, are currently at the latter end of a rebuild and, after a slow start to the season, are on a late run to make the playoffs. A baseball season is a marathon with 162 games, even before the playoffs. Clubs like the Cubs, who have undergone an extensive rebuild, often go through ups and downs, but usually, the talent will shine, if not this season, then perhaps the next.
The notion of an extensive rebuild with ups and downs reminded me of Bayer Leverkusen — a Bundesliga club that might finally be on the cusp of having reached a critical level of talent. But reaching that critical level of talent was far from linear and needed several seasons with ups and downs and might not even have come to its conclusion this year.
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