What we’re hearing about Jamie Gittens’ future

Jamie Gittens’ future is not likely to be resolved as soon as the transfer window officially reopens in early June.

While Borussia Dortmund have accepted that the 20-year-old English forward is likely to leave this summer, his valuation depends on where they finish after the final two games of their season.

Gittens has a release clause in his contract, which runs until the end of the 2027-28 campaign, but its valuation will be determined by which European competition Dortmund qualify to play in next season.

Should they make it into the Champions League — they’re currently fifth, a point off fourth, and the top four finishers in Germany’s Bundesliga go into the recently-revamped 36-team league phase of UEFA’s top-tier club tournament — then Gittens will be available for a fee of €60million (£50.9m/$67.6m). That figure will be reduced if Dortmund participate in the Europa League (by finishing fifth), third-tier Conference League (sixth) or miss out on Europe completely.

In that worst-case scenario, Gittens’ release clause would be well below €50million, which would not be ideal for Dortmund. While a summer rebuild is planned and several players are expected to leave, Gittens is currently their most valuable asset.

There are four interested parties: Chelsea, where he spent time in the academy before the age of 10, Bayern Munich, Arsenal and Barcelona.

For Chelsea, Gittens is a long-term target, but one of several names under consideration. Their recruitment has become increasingly broad over recent seasons, and part of their summer business will depend on whether they qualify for the Champions League. They are fifth with three games to go, which would be enough to get in this season.

Currently, there is no momentum behind a swap deal involving Gittens and Carney Chukwuemeka, who has been on loan to Dortmund from Chelsea since January. The Germans are keen to extend 21-year-old midfielder Chukwuemeka’s stay and Chelsea’s interest in Gittens is well-established, but the players will be treated as separate cases, rather than be subject to any combined part-exchange deal.

Deco, Barcelona’s sporting director, is a keen admirer. The Spanish league leaders have monitored Gittens’ situation, but have other financial priorities, including the cost of their Camp Nou stadium’s extensive ongoing renovations and new contracts for existing players.

Gittens has his backers among the Arsenal hierarchy, but reports of advanced negotiations with Dortmund over a transfer are inaccurate. If Arsenal were to follow through on their interest, it might require the departure of Gabriel Martinelli or Leandro Trossard from the club.

New German champions Bayern are currently focused on reducing their wage bill.

Their interest in Gittens was reported by The Athletic in December. In the five months since, though, Jamal Musiala and Alphonso Davies have signed new contracts and there’s also an agreement in principle to extend Leroy Sane’s deal, which expires at the end of June. Sane is yet to sign anything, though, and has recently changed representatives, becoming one of leading agent Pini Zahavi’s clients.

There is now significant doubt over whether Sane will stay in Munich, and if he does leave as a free agent this summer, his place in the squad will need filling.

Back home in England, Tottenham informally expressed an interest in January, but did not maintain that initial pursuit.

Gittens’ form, which has dipped since the turn of the year, is a complicating factor.

His autumn and early winter at Dortmund were explosive, and he was easily their standout player at that time, despite the team struggling for stability and consistency under inexperienced coach Nuri Sahin. The club then sacked Sahin in January and while they have recovered impressively under replacement Niko Kovac, their improved run of form through the spring and early summer has depended on attacking players other than Gittens — Karim Adeyemi and Serhou Guirassy, especially.

Kovac has brought a more direct style of football, one which is more dependent on wing-backs. Gittens, by contrast, is a more front-foot player who wants to attack defenders in the kinds of situations that Dortmund’s current 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 formation rarely creates.

Gittens has had a harder second half of the season (Ina Fassbender/AFP via Getty Images)

But this has also been a season of adaptation, and Dortmund’s dependence on Gittens through late 2024 has come at a cost.

This has been his first campaign as a full-time starter. Whereas he played just over 1,200 minutes in total across the Bundesliga and Champions League in 2023-24, with two games to go, he has already accumulated more than double that in this one and regularly played two games a week for the first time as a senior professional.

Kovac made reference to this in a recent interview with the local Ruhr Nachrichten newspaper, describing how Gittens was “not used to the rhythms” he has experienced this season and urging patience with a player who is still in the development phase of his career.

Tactical changes under new management have certainly impacted Gittens’ level of performance but his confidence with the ball has also noticeably declined. Conversations about his long-term future are a factor, too, but there is no question that the workload has been at least partly responsible for the deadening of the England Under-21 international’s effect.

A quick decision is not expected. While staying at Dortmund is unlikely, it is not impossible, and there is a good chance that, at the least, Gittens spends pre-season with the club, with the window not closing until September 1. Before then, Dortmund will compete in the Club World Cup in the United States, a competition which Gittens is eager to be involved in, given the global stage and standard of opposition it potentially offers.

Beyond that, the emphasis for the player will be to find the option which gives him the best chance of playing his way into Thomas Tuchel’s England squad ahead of the World Cup finals next year.

Reporting by Sebastian Stafford-Bloor, Simon Johnson, James McNicholas, David Ornstein and Pol Ballus

(Top photo: Sebastian El-Saqqa – firo sportphoto/Getty Images)

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