Elected as club president in November with just under 60 percent of the vote, Watzke was speaking to Ruhr Nachrichten about the road ahead under the new leadership structure of Lars Ricken as managing director of sport and Ole Book as sporting director.
"We need to further refine our approach," Watzke said. "Jadon Sancho, Erling Haaland and Jude Bellingham are good examples from the recent past: they didn't arrive as stars, but we made them stars. Ousmane Dembélé even became World Player of the Year."
That model, he argued, is the only realistic route back to competing with Bayern Munich and Europe's financial heavyweights. "Ultimately, we need to generate enough money to build a good team across the board. We constantly need game-changers, one of whom we can sell for a very high price every two years."
He was broadly positive about the current season despite the gap to Bayern. "I'll tell you: 80 percent of the fans go home satisfied," he said, though he acknowledged a title remains out of reach this time around. The squad, he said, needs reinforcing — but in a specific way. "I think a bit more experience would do us good. And, I'm sure this is what you all want, one or two more players who can make the difference, so that at the end you might say: 'Oh my God, what a wonderful backheel!' — that would also do us a lot of good. But it's difficult."
The difficulty is financial. Finding that profile on a tight budget is what Watzke called the hardest task facing the new sporting director. "That's truly the most difficult task for our new sporting director, Ole Book. Finding exactly what we need isn't easy."
Transfer business may drag beyond the World Cup window into August, particularly given the uncertainty surrounding Nico Schlotterbeck's release clause situation. On the subject of Sancho, whose Chelsea contract expires in the summer, Watzke was open. "We're looking at whether players can improve our team. That includes Jadon. He's currently playing more and better. And he'll be available on a free transfer in the summer. The cost-benefit ratio certainly wouldn't be the worst. But that's a decision for the sporting management."
He also used the interview to call on Lars Ricken and Carsten Cramer to be more assertive publicly. "Sometimes you have to stand a little wider so that everyone else has a certain amount of respect for you," he said — while stressing he trusts the management fully and would only raise any criticism internally.