It's not like Mislintat signed **** BVB players. Aubameyang was arguably their best player along Reus. Mkhitaryan was great for them and only got it wrong joining Mourinho. Add @Batman 's "Honestly Mkhi and Auba seem more like cases of right place/right time signing coincidentally helped by Sven's former position more than the beginning of any real pattern." and I think you've got these transfers figured. Sokratis is a good defender in a Dortmund team that's been underperforming recently for various reasons, not only lack of quality depth and peak quality.
They are still dealing with the outfall of that bus bombing, which was apparent during the trial, when most players were reported as being traumatized when testifying.
The aftermath of that was the internal bust-up between management, coach and Mislintat which resulted in both their priced head scout as well as Thomas Tuchel leaving, although they were successfull on the pitch.
Then came Bosz and they started playing some great football, but they got figuered out and somehow that came as such a shock to the team, that they completely fell apart. Their season was basically over when they picked up Koln's crumbs in the form of Stoger as an interim solution. It was clear as day that the guy who couldn't turn around Koln's bad run wouldn't be able to turn around Dortmund's bad form and stay on after the season. That whole appointment sent all the wrong signs to the players. It is clear they were checked out and mentally drained.
Add the severely sentimental clinging to certain longstanding by now subpar players as well as the just as sentimental resigning of certain ex-players, along the loss of key figures/players like Hummels, Gundogan, Mislintat, etc., plus the increasingly erratic behaviour of Aki Watzke, and you're very close to what's wrong at Dortmund right now. It's surely not just the quality of players, and certainly not the quality of their better players, to whom Sokratis certainly belongs.
I'd start worrying if Arsenal were linked to the likes of Gotze, Schmelzer, Sahin or Burki.
They are still dealing with the outfall of that bus bombing, which was apparent during the trial, when most players were reported as being traumatized when testifying.
The aftermath of that was the internal bust-up between management, coach and Mislintat which resulted in both their priced head scout as well as Thomas Tuchel leaving, although they were successfull on the pitch.
Then came Bosz and they started playing some great football, but they got figuered out and somehow that came as such a shock to the team, that they completely fell apart. Their season was basically over when they picked up Koln's crumbs in the form of Stoger as an interim solution. It was clear as day that the guy who couldn't turn around Koln's bad run wouldn't be able to turn around Dortmund's bad form and stay on after the season. That whole appointment sent all the wrong signs to the players. It is clear they were checked out and mentally drained.
Add the severely sentimental clinging to certain longstanding by now subpar players as well as the just as sentimental resigning of certain ex-players, along the loss of key figures/players like Hummels, Gundogan, Mislintat, etc., plus the increasingly erratic behaviour of Aki Watzke, and you're very close to what's wrong at Dortmund right now. It's surely not just the quality of players, and certainly not the quality of their better players, to whom Sokratis certainly belongs.
I'd start worrying if Arsenal were linked to the likes of Gotze, Schmelzer, Sahin or Burki.