AFP PHOTO

After the worst top-flight season in their history, RB Leipzig underwent a club-wide reckoning, led by new head of football Jurgen Klopp.

The result was a massive summer overhaul, with Leipzig saying goodbye to their entire forward line.

Xavi Simons moved to Tottenham, Benjamin Sesko went to Manchester United and Lois Openda joined Juventus.

When the trio arrived at Leipzig in 2023, they were expected to establish a new period of success in Saxony.

They all left without winning a trophy.

"To be honest, maybe we lost a little bit of our DNA," RB Leipzig sporting director Marcel Schaefer told AFP and other media in September.

- 'Back to the roots' -

After winning a second successive German Cup in 2022-23, it looked like the Red Bull-backed club were finally delivering on the promise that followed their debut promotion in 2016.

The following campaign, however, Leipzig finished fourth, 25 points behind champions Bayer Leverkusen.

In 2024-25, Leipzig lost seven of eight matches in the Champions League and finished seventh in the Bundesliga, missing out on European football this season altogether.

The club sacked Leipzig-born mentor Marco Rose -- a friend of Klopp's and the longest-serving coach in their history.

By trying to mimic Europe's biggest and best, Leipzig had lost their way.

"What makes RB Leipzig so successful?" Schaefer said of the club's extensive post mortem.

"Red Bull style means high intensity against the ball, high pressing, counter-attacking.

"We cannot change the whole philosophy and say, 'OK, now we are a team who just wants to play and play, and have possession and possession and possession'.

"We're not a team like that. It's not authentic."

In the summer of 2023, Leipzig had spent 40 million euros ($46.7 million at current exchange rates) on Openda, more than Bundesliga rivals Dortmund or Leverkusen have ever spent on one player

The next summer, Leipzig spent 50 million euros to make midfielder Simons's loan deal permanent.

In Klopp's first summer transfer window at the helm, Schaefer said that "the main target was getting back to the roots".

- Heavy metal Leipzig? -

Schaefer said there was no-one better suited to leading the overhaul than Klopp, a manager known for a high-intensity style which the former Liverpool coach called 'heavy metal football'.

"Jurgen Klopp is the head of global football. He's responsible for all the teams, for the playing identity, for the playing philosophy."

"Of course, it's not really a big surprise when we talk about counter-attacks, high pressing, intensity against the ball, intensity with the ball.

"This is Red Bull style, but if you followed the career of Jurgen Klopp, it was the same in Mainz, the same at Borussia Dortmund and the same in Liverpool.

"So there's a match."

In Rose's place came manager Ole Werner, who joined after years of overachieving at Werder Bremen.

"In total, we made 26 transfers. It was really a big, big change and everyone knows it," Schaefer said.

Leipzig brought in several promising youngsters. Newcomers Conrad Harder, Arthur Vermeeren, Yan Diomande, Johan Bakayoko and Ezechiel Banzuzi have an average age of 20.

Leipzig have been a stepping stone for several of Europe's best including Christopher Nkunku, Josko Gvardiol, Dayot Upamecano, Ibrahima Konate, Dominik Szoboszlai, Dani Olmo, Joshua Kimmich and Matheus Cunha.

Schaefer admits that unearthing the next diamond is becoming more challenging, saying that "they're not harder to find, but harder to buy".

"Five to six years before, there were just a few clubs who really focused on young, hungry, high-potential players and developed them.

"Now, even the top teams in England try to sign the best talents."

In Klopp, however, Leipzig have a recruitment trump card.

Coveted by clubs across Europe, Bakayoko told AFP in August that a phone call with Klopp was the "trigger point" in his decision to join Leipzig.

"When I had the talk with Jurgen Klopp, for me I thought 'OK, I have to go'."