It is the sum of four coaches in five years (Huetter, Farke, Seoane plus the Rose departure), a transfer policy that let players worth over 60 million euros leave for free, the financial aftermath of the Covid pandemic, and a league increasingly shaped by investor clubs and works teams. Gladbach has none of that. No Qatari millions, no factory backing, no benefactor.
Just its own DNA. And the question of whether the Fohlenphilosophie still works as an identity anchor in modern football or has long become a brake.