Adeyemi's Barcelona pre-season has fallen flat, but BVB shouldn't gloat
So Karim Adeyemi is gone. Four seasons in black and yellow, then off to Barcelona he went.
His goodbye tugged a few heartstrings. BVB Buzz covered the emotional farewell at the training ground. He hugged his teammates and scribbled his old number 27 on a few shirts.
Then came the football. And the early returns from Spain have been mixed.
A flat night in Birmingham, England
His first Barcelona outing came against Birmingham City in a pre-season friendly. It flopped.
No goal, no assist, little spark. He looked a step off Flick's tempo. The new system clearly still felt strange.
Flick didn't dress it up either. The Barcelona boss said he'd "seen better in training already," a blunt public verdict on his new signing. Ouch.
He looked far livelier a few days later. Barcelona played a triangular in Udine on the 8th August. Adeyemi caught the eye across both 45-minute halves, and even forced a smart save on the counter against Nottingham Forest.
The Udinese half was a throwback to the old frustrations. He went it alone when a pass was on. The effort got blocked.
Now, it's still only pre-season. Adeyemi has landed in a fresh league, a fresh dressing room and a demanding system, and settling in takes weeks. Judging him on ninety pre-season minutes would be daft.
Still, that early wobble carries a lesson for die Schwarzgelben.
What BVB got, and what comes next
The deal itself looks tidy for Dortmund. Barcelona paid an initial €22m. Another €9m could follow in add-ons, plus a cut of any future sale.
For a player who ran hot and cold, that's decent business. Adeyemi could dazzle one week and drift the next.
Look at the four-year record, though. The Germany international played 146 games for die Borussen. He scored 36 and teed up 25 more. BVB Buzz even looked back at his five best goals in yellow, and there were some belters in there.
Here's the thing supporters should accept at Dortmund. This is the club's whole model in action. Buy talent, polish it, cash in, reinvest.
Jude Bellingham went to Real Madrid and funded the next wave of talented youngsters. Now the Adeyemi money helps bankroll another summer of teenage recruits.
So no gloating over a rough first night in Spain. If Adeyemi clicks under Flick, that sell-on clause fattens up nicely for Dortmund.
The kinder read is this. A gifted, frustrating winger got a big move, the club got a fair fee, and both sides can win from it. That's how the Ruhr giants have operated for years.
Verdict: a stodgy debut then a livelier showing says he's still finding his feet, not a bad buy, and between fee, add-ons and resale cut, Dortmund win either way.
