Borussia Dortmund ‘Pressured’ to Improve Jobe Bellingham’s Slow Start to Protect £900m Asset

Borussia Dortmund should be feeling the pressure of Jobe Bellingham’s slow start to life in Germany more than he should.

That is the belief of European football journalist Andy Brassell, who revealed the club’s status as the place for elite starlets is at risk.

The Bundesliga giants are renowned across the continent for their role in the development of some of the world’s best young talents.

Dortmund’s iron-clad status for nurturing has seen them rake in over €1 billion (£872m) in outgoing transfers across the past decade.

Robert Lewandowski, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Ilkay Gundogan, Ousmane Dembele, and Jadon Sancho all joined the club as relatively unknown players, but they were eventually sold for significant profits.

However, their transfer strategy has evolved in recent times to invest in established youth such as Erling Haaland and Jude Bellingham.

The latter’s younger brother, Jobe, looked seemingly destined to be the next player on the conveyor belt after joining this summer.

The 20-year-old held talks with Eintracht Frankfurt before completing a £31m switch to BVB from Sunderland in June.

He started Dortmund’s first two fixtures in the Bundesliga, but has since been relegated to late cameos as a substitute.

Jobe is yet to complete a full 90 minutes for Dortmund, clocking up a total of just 167 minutes in the German top-flight.

“I believe there’s considerable pressure on Dortmund to ensure this move is successful, as he took quite a leap of faith by choosing them,” Brassell exclusively shared with talkSPORT.com.

“I think it would have been easy to avoid those comparisons and go to another club.

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“For instance, Eintracht Frankfurt had a strong interest in him, similar to James McAtee, who visited and was very impressed. Eintracht Frankfurt excels in developing players.

“One could argue that Frankfurt might now be better at player development than Dortmund, considering the era of Jurgen Klopp when many players thrived and became stars there.

“Whether it was Mats Hummels, Lewandowski, or Nuri Sahin, it didn’t always have to be academy graduates, but rather young talents who were given a chance to shine.

“If you look at recent trends, Dortmund has started recruiting older, more seasoned, and pricier players, such as signings like [Marcel] Sabitzer and obviously, Pascal Gross. These are signings they wouldn’t typically have made in the past.”

“So there’s a different profile of player they’re going for. Of course, there’ll be people reading this saying, ‘Oh, well, you know, they did develop Erling Haaland and Jude Bellingham.’

“I’m sorry, I’m not giving them those, because you’re talking about generational talents.

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“Of course, Dortmund do have a part to play in their story,” European football expert Brassell continued to talkSPORT.

“There’s no doubt about that, because they became more complete players there. And that’s something that speaks for Dortmund and will continue to speak for Dortmund.

“But if we’re talking about them as prolific developers of young players, using players who are generational talents to be indicative of what the club does, I don’t think it’s a fair comparison.

“So what they do with Jobe, and if they get it right, and if he becomes the player that he wants to become and they want him to become, that is something that’s really important for the next lot of players that they try and sign.

“Jude Bellingham is a player with a huge future, who had a choice.

“Maybe if this doesn’t go right, the next one goes, ‘Well, all right, maybe I’ll go to Eintracht Frankfurt. Maybe that’s the place for me to develop.’

“In terms of Dortmund still making itself a finishing school for elite young talent, that this works is really, really important for them.”

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Jobe’s slow start to life at Dortmund

Despite an encouraging start in the Club World Cup, the England U21 star’s gametime in each Bundesliga game has gradually reduced.

Niko Kovac revealed that high competition within his squad is why Jobe has struggled to force his way into the starting line-up.

The Dortmund boss claims that while the younger Bellingham is a ‘very talented player’, he ‘obviously comes from the English second division’.

“You can’t make the mistake of applying too much pressure, despite the name,” Kovac said.

“I think that’s not doing the boy any favours, and the boy isn’t doing himself any favours.”