Jurgen Klopp has admitted that Robert Lewandowski will definitely join rivals Bayern Munich next season.
Borussia Dortmund have blocked the Poland international from leaving the Signal Iduna Park this summer and will keep him until his contract runs out in 2014.
Klopp has accepted that it would be impossible to keep the 24-year-old from Pep Guardiola’s reach beyond this season.
“I think it is a known fact that Robert is going to play for Bayern after the upcoming season,” he told Welt am Sonntag. “Now the only question is how to shape the time until then.
“That is our concern and it is our commitment to our fans and members to ensure that we will have a more competitive team in the upcoming season.
“Up to a certain point we were with Robert’s desire for change and were ready to talk. But nothing happened so we had to eventually say: ‘[A sale] now no longer works for us.’
“And now we want to prove that, with a quality player like Robert, we can be successful in the coming year. Our results in the coming season is what we’re all about. I know that Robert and I see it the same way.”
The Dortmund manager also revealed that Mario Gotze’s €37million move to the Allianz Arena, was more upsetting than the club’s defeat to Bayern in the final of the Champions League.
“That was the bigger disappointment in the moment [than the Wembley loss],” Klopp stated. “Mario was, until mid-April, a key part of our planning. And suddenly we were confronted with the reality that he wasn’t.
“That was pretty tough. Basically, it is normal if a football club want to sign a player from another team. We do, too. But it was the timing of the notification of the transfer, the day before our important semi-final against Real Madrid, which was something disreputable. But, otherwise, there was little in the last season that was painful.”
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