Report: Borussia Dortmund Interested in Yussuf Poulsen

Borussia Dortmund’s season is just underway, and with one flat performance against a relegation candidate already in the books, the club has decided to go out add some depth in the final days of the transfer window:

Yussuf Poulsen has been with RB Leipzig since before the club’s promotion to the Bundesliga, but in recent years has struggled to find a consistent spot in the starting XI. He had one great season in 2018-19 when he played more than 2,400 minutes and notched 15 Bundesliga goals, but since then he has barely cracked reached half of either total. His contract is winding down next summer, and at the age of 29, he appears to be looking towards the future at another club.

I’d hate to be a pessimist, but this really reminds me of the Modeste move last year. Don’t get me wrong, Poulsen is a better player than Modeste, but he’s not going to move the needle to turn this team into a league title contender, and with how late this is coming in the transfer window, it reeks of a panic buy. The front office knows that they’re going to miss Sebastien Haller for at least a month due to the Africa Cup of Nations, and they’ve known this for months, yet they’ve chosen to leave it until the very last minute to find a player that can be added to the depth chart up top.

Moreover, for a staff that is so often obsessed with financial responsibility, throwing €10 million, plus wages, at a striker just to make sure you don’t have to rely on Moukoko for a month seems like an appalling waste of precious transfer funds. Remember, these are the same guys who apparently couldn’t afford €20 million for Armel Bella-Kotchap, a 21-year old center back at Southampton with a ceiling arguably as high or higher than any center back currently in Dortmund. Those are the types of long-term transfers you want to make, ones that either give you a core piece of a championship squad, or moves that you can double or triple your money on in a few years.

Multiple sources have reported this move, but not anything concrete about Leipzig accepting an offer. It remains to be seen, if the move does transpire, how Dortmund will incorporate Poulsen into their squad planning.