T his being their maiden season in the German top flight, it is nigh on impossible to profile RB Leipzig without focusing on their controversial journey to the Bundesliga summit. Constructs do not get more artificial, so it is little surprise they have become the most hated football club in Germany. There have been numerous protests against them. For all their detractors, this garish and rather tacky vehicle for the Red Bull group give every indication they are in the Bundesliga for the long haul and look set to become a European footballing force.
They are not without their supporters, not least those east German locals who have been starved of any kind of success since VfB Leipzig were relegated in and have warmly embraced their new club in its infancy.
I have the right people around me and I am still at a young age. Raw talents with plenty to prove and, perhaps more importantly, malleable and open minds.
Having steered his energetic, swashbuckling RB Leipzig side to the top of Bundesliga within five months of taking charge, he claims they will be difficult to dislodge. Nobody has gifted us our league position. Everybody here believes in what we are doing. On and off the pitch, Leipzig are well equipped to deal with any of the aforementioned challenges. Defensively stout, they have conceded 10 goals in 12 matches so far this season, while their energetic pressing and lightning fast counterattacking play is grist to the mill of ambitious young players and enthusiastic supporters who appear to adore their inspirational manager.
RB Leipzig are by no means the first nouveau riche arrivistes to ostentatiously buy their way to the top and are far from unique even in Germany, where Wolfsburg, Bayer Leverkusen and Hoffenheim enjoy similar corporate backing. Located in an otherwise barren football hinterland that was in dire need of a top-flight football team, they have been welcomed by the locals in their catchment area. For all the envious, bitter and often justified carping of their many detractors, it is probably only a matter of time before they are grudgingly accepted on a more widespread scale.
