“It's going to be tough”

It had been more than a decade since Borussia Mönchengladbach were able end the season in the position they did last year – a well earned fourth place. However, manager Lucien Favre and sporting director Max Eberl have had to let a few top-class players go as a result of their success. With the switches of Marco Reus to Borussia Dortmund, Dante to Bayern München and Roman Neustädter to Schalke 04, putting a new team together has been no easy task. Favre says “it's like Barcelona losing Messi, Xavi and Piqué all at once. It's hard to replace players of that quality, but we'll try.” It seems that Gladbach have done just that by compensating their departures with the arrivals of Luuk de Jong, Alvaro Dominguez and Granit Xhaka, strengthening their side and adding some experience of foreign leagues. The season's aim: bring about success with patience and the talent that the young squad has to offer.

Along with the start of the Bundesliga, Borussia have even more important and future-shaping games to play in the Champions League qualifiers against Dynamo Kiev. After 16 years of waiting, Gladbach are back on the European stage, but they will have had their comeback planned a little differently, having suffered a 3-1 defeat in the opening leg. But even if there isn't a dramatic turnaround in the return fixture, there's still a place waiting for Borussia Mönchengladbach in the Europa League, which should still be seen as a great success.