Borussia Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp does not expect to see players line up to leave the relegation-threatened former champions if they fail to bounce back this season and secure a European spot.
Borussia Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp does not expect to see players line up to leave the relegation-threatened former champions if they fail to bounce back this season and secure a European spot.
The 2011 and 2012 German champions are in 17th place, level on 15 points with last-placed Freiburg. They have lost 10 of their 17 league games so far this season and have won just four.
"As things stand now I have no problem staying in the league and spending next season training a lot," Klopp, who led Dortmund to the Champions League final in 2013, told SportBild magazine.
"At the moment I am not in the least bit interested in qualifying for the Champions League next season."
Despite their domestic form, Dortmund have advanced to the knockout stage of the Champions League and face Juventus in the Round of 16 next month.
With the league resuming on Jan. 30 after the winter break, Klopp said he was confident his team would stay up and failure to play European football would not necessarily trigger a mass exodus of players.
"If there is a player who would want to leave just because of a one-year absence from the Champions League, then I must have completely misjudged him," Klopp said.
Dortmund have allowed key players such as Mario Goetze and Robert Lewandowski to be snapped up by rivals Bayern Munich in the past seasons.
Current players Marco Reus and Mats Hummels are also on the wish list of many top European clubs.
Failure to qualify for the Champions League would also put a dent in the annual turnover of the club, listed on the stock exchange, missing out on millions of euros of potential revenue.
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