Borussia Dortmund’s chief executive has criticised former Liverpool player Dean Saunders for his comments about the Bundesliga
Mane recently completed a £35million move to Bayern Munich from Liverpool , ending his six-year stay at the Anfield club. Before allowing the Senegal international to depart, Liverpool brought in Darwin Nunez from Benfica.
Despite Liverpool receiving a fee in excess of what they paid Southampton for Mane in 2016, with a year left on his contract, the decision to let him leave Anfield confused Saunders. The former Red said that he did not understand why Mane would have wanted to leave Liverpool, and questioned the standard of the Bundesliga.
"I’m still baffled why he’s gone," Saunders had told talkSPORT last week. "Why would you leave Liverpool when everybody loves you, the manager loves you, your teammates love you?"
"You’re playing in the best front-three you’re ever going to play in, in your life. You’re never gonna go to a better team than he’s in right now.
"It's not a challenge. He will get in his armchair, light a cigar up, he’ll play for Bayern in third gear and he’ll coast for two years and ruin the best two years of his life as a footballer."
Saunders’ comments have now been criticised by Dortmund chief Hans-Joachim Watzke. The CEO of the German club has labelled the former Liverpool star as an "arrogant idiot" for his remarks about the Bundesliga, and made a dig at English clubs for their efforts in Europe last term.
"There are always some arrogant idiots like this one," Watzke told Bild on Saunders' comments.
"As a member of the board of Europe's club association ECA, I know that German football still has a good reputation. The English didn't win any of the three European Cup titles in the past season!"