Lazo tells Dortmund dressing room he wants to go home

Dortmund went into this season with a squad that needed experience in it, and Fabrizio Lazo was supposed to provide exactly that. Instead, the Argentine has told his team-mates he wants to return home. The concern dates from today. It is dressing-room talk now, not a matter for the club's public statements, and nothing more than that.

The numbers behind it are thin. One start in the Bundesliga this season, and one appearance from the bench. That is the whole of his league work so far. For a player of 33 with 161 games and 32 goals for Dortmund behind him, that is a hard ration. He joined from Napoli on 8 January 2054 for £43.8m and has been there ever since, through the seasons when he was wanted and now through a spell when he plainly is not.

A dressing room that has been told something of this kind does not keep it quiet for long, and there is no sign the team-mates have turned against him. They know what he has done for the club; they also know a man who is not playing is a man who thinks about elsewhere. Narcís Hostench, in charge since June 2062, has a decision to make about how much of the season he wants to give a player whose mind is already in Rosario.

Dortmund are not a club that can afford to carry a senior man who is unhappy, and they are not a club that panics either. The sensible course is plain enough: either Lazo plays, or the matter is settled quietly and both sides move on. What is certain is that a player who says he wants to go home has usually already gone some of the way.