At the start of pre-season, sporting director Sebastian Kehl participated in a media round in which he fielded questions from journalists on the start of pre-season, transfers and the season objectives.
Sebastian Kehl on the first days with the team:
“Last season was very disappointing in the end. We all needed some time. In my role, I had to switch gears again quickly because several challenges awaited. The team had sufficient time to process things. The international players are still away and will only return to the team next week. I have perceived those who are here to be very motivated. There’s a good atmosphere and a great desire and excitement for the new season. Of course, you can also feel that we have different squad situation with players from the U23s and the U19s. But that’s a good opportunity for the lads to showcase themselves. It will of course get more crowded next week.”
…transfers:
“We’ve recently signed Ramy Bensebaini and Felix Nmecha. But we’d already made two acquisitions for this summer in advance in Julien Duranville and Julian Ryerson. If you add the five transfers from last summer, we’re already talking about nine signings. That’s a big number. But we still want to do some business in one or two positions; we’re observing the market and thinking a great deal about what the profiles look like. Of course, we will also wait to see if something happens on the sales front. It’s a process at the moment, but it’s going according to plan. We have a clear idea, a clear structure.”
…a possible overhaul like last year:
“We bonded together and matured last season. The performances in the second half of the season in particular make us feel very hopeful. We’ve kept the majority of the team together, the potential is there. We also believe that we can develop this potential further. We will try to strengthen ourselves in places. Causing an even bigger upheaval this summer than last year would mean things needing time and integration. I believe that things also have to grow in a squad. Nevertheless, we have to react if we feel that we’re missing something. That’s the process we’re in.”
…Jude Bellingham’s replacement:
“It will not be possible to replace Jude Bellingham through one single transfer because he gave us so many dimensions and enhanced the club so much with his style of play and his personality. But it is our and also my responsibility to develop creative solutions and to try to allocate topics to several people. We’re very optimistic that we can still develop the team even further because it’s a long way from the finished article.”
…the goal for the season:
“We will not state our objectives on the second day of pre-season. We’ll see how our squad changes, how the situation in the league changes. I think there’ll be a favourite that we all know. We have nevertheless shown, especially in the second half of the season, that we can produce good performances, that we have real potential and that we have to perform at a high level in order to challenge Bayern Munich and get ourselves back in the situation that we recently put ourselves in. If we can manage that across two half-seasons, I’m confident that we can get just as close and perhaps take the final step that we were missing. Now is not the right point in time to formulate some clear objectives. We’ll do that at some point.”
…the competition in the Bundesliga:
“This constellation is very exciting. You could also see last season how exciting the Bundesliga can be, both in the upper reaches but in the fight against relegation too. It was a highly exciting league. I’m expecting it to be similar this season. Leverkusen have already completed one or two transfers, Leipzig will do something new, Bayern will definitely do something too. There are many teams that are going into this season with great ambitions and are investing too. So every fan can only be happy if there is ultimately that level of competition for the various positions in the league. I’m looking forward to it.”
Transcribed by Christina Reinke