It is, according to Borussia Dortmund’s sporting director Hans-Joachim Watzke, the biggest upheaval in a decade at the club.
Captain Mats Hummels has left for detested rivals Bayern Munich, Henrikh Mkhitaryan – the Bundesliga’s best player – joined Jose Mourinho at Manchester United while Ilkay Gundogan – who when fit is among the finest midfield players around – has decamped to Manchester City where he will work with Pep Guardiola.
There have been other marginal players to leave – Moritz Leitner to Lazio for example – but the heart of the team has well and truly been ripped out.
Watzke though has spoken about the need to build a new, strong, hungry team for the season ahead. The quality of the new additions to the Dortmund squad explain in part why the club is not in doom and gloom mode despite the departures.
Dortmund can be pleased to have added some of the most highly-prized young talents in the European game over the summer. Ousmane Dembele, signed from Rennes, was wanted by Barcelona among other suitors. Emre More, the Turkish jewel, was just beginning to appear on the radar of bigger clubs when Dortmund announced his signing from Nordsjaelland. Raphael Guerreiro has just become a European champion with Portugal.
Dortmund have also added some of the finest German talent out there. Sebastian Rode is a shrewd acquisition from Bayern while World Cup winner Andre Schurrle has also been added from the Wolfsburg ranks. Leading the summer arrivals however is the Prodigal Son Mario Gotze, returning to BVB after three frustrating seasons with Bayern.
Having retained - for another season at least - the services of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Dortmund are in pretty good shape despite the triple blow in losing the spine of their team.
They play Bayern in the German Super Cup on Sunday night having finished second to the record champions in the Bundesliga and also being vanquished by them in the DFB-Pokal final too. A more appropriate Super Cup might pit Bayern against Bayern B but nonetheless Thomas Tuchel has an early chance to measure his team against the best in the land.
Last season – after losing Jurgen Klopp – Tuchel was charged with putting Dortmund back together again. He started well – winning five matches in a row at the start of the campaign – but the first Klassiker of the season against Bayern ended Dortmund’s title hopes.
They were embarrassed - 5-1 - in one of the club’s worst-ever afternoons. Any vain hopes Dortmund might have had of going toe to toe with Bayern were extinguished that day; any effort – however gallant – that they might make in standing alongside Bayern would be futile when it came down to the crunch.
Dortmud’s tally of 78 points would have been enough to win 46 of the previous 53 Bundesliga titles and it was a closer run thing that Bayern would have hoped for but their quality told in the end.
This season and it’s Bayern who are dealing with a change in the dugout. Pep Guardiola has left and although it has been reported that the Catalan wanted Tuchel to replace him the job has gone to Carlo Ancelotti. A serial winner of European Cups – five as a player and coach – his success has not always translated into domestic league campaigns.
Bayern are ready to face the season though – albeit with fitness question marks over Jerome Boateng and new signing Renato Sanches. They have also added Hummels, of course, and have one of the most settled and imposing squads in all of Europe.
They have something of a hex over Dortmund in recent seasons – beating them to league titles, cups and European Cups as well as snatching Gotze, Robert Lewandowski and now Hummels from their ranks.
Tuchel, though, regards this season not as a turning point but as a new beginning.
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