Watzke: Sahin should have stayed

Borussia Dortmund chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke believes Nuri Sahin’s decision to leave for Real Madrid was a mistake.

Turkey international Sahin has featured just once in La Liga since signing for Real at the end of last season.

It is widely rumoured the midfielder could move on when the 2011/12 campaign comes to an end.

Sahin has been linked with a return to the Westfalenstadion, but Watzke is remaining coy on whether or not the German champions will attempt to re-sign the midfielder, merely claiming the 23-year-old never should have left Dortmund in the first place.

“Nuri’s transfer to Real was a mistake,” Watzke told Bild.

“It would have been better for him if he had stayed with us. But Nuri is a fighter. A return is currently not an issue.”

Turning his attention to the Bundesliga title race, Watzke dismissed suggestions Dortmund looked nervous in their 0-0 draw with Augsburg last week, a result which allowed rivals Bayern Munich to reduce the gap at the top of the table to five points.

“Why should we get (the) jitters? Our goal was to qualify for international competition again,” Watzke said.

“That we will most likely qualify for the Champions League again only shows that the team has accomplished something remarkable.”

“Of course we want to stay up there and win as many games as possible. But I would be satisfied with second place.”

“But we cannot expect that we will win all the games … the draw in Augsburg we can live with.”

“There were times when we were 20 to 30 points behind Bayern – it’s something nice to feel the breath of a pursuer.”

“Bear in mind: Bayern were and are the top favourites. We have only one-third of Bayern’s budget.”

Dortmund’s next Bundesliga outing comes at home to Werder Bremen on Saturday.