Aston Villa qualified for the Champions League and played a surprising role in Bayer Levekusen’s historic season

Bayer Leverkusen are the envy clubs around Europe after their remarkable and historic season.

Leverkusen are to be admired for their work on and off the pitch to fire them within three games of an unprecedented unbeaten treble.

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The Bundesliga title has been wrapped up and they are in the Europa League and DFB-Pokal finals.

They have remarkably not lost a game all season – earning manager Xabi Alonso plenty of plaudits.

Alonso’s impact on the training ground has been evident, but he has also been provided the tools by the Leverkusen hierarchy.

Their transfer business has been much revered, with many signings last summer going on to play pivotal roles.

Managing director of sport Simon Rolfes pointed to the Moussa Diaby sale to Aston Villa, who celebrated a return to Europe’s top tier for the first time since 1982, as a possible sliding doors moment.

He was sold for around £51.9million and that then allowed Leverkusen to sign the likes of Granit Xhaka (£21.4m), Nathan Tella (£20m) and Victor Boniface (£17.2m).

Rolfes said: “Last summer, for example, we sold Diaby for a lot of money so that we could invest in new players.

“The challenge and situation that we have is that we have to take care of our budget really well and be sustainable also.

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“We have a really good team, but also have a lot of transfer values created in the last few years. Not by signing, but by developing. We signed a lot of players at a young age and developed them into higher transfer values.

“Our business model, we always have to take care of it. We have to try and develop the club on a higher level and we will continue this next summer and the following years.”

Unsurprisingly, a number of the Leverkusen players have been linked to other clubs this summer.

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Among them are Florian Wirtz, but Rolfes said the club are not under any pressure to sell.

He said: “No, fortunately not.”

Leverkusen have got a lot of things right in the transfer market, where other have perhaps struggled.

Their strategy is one that fits the club, their goals and aims.

“It’s difficult to say what others are missing,” Rolfes said. “It’s important you have a good scouting team that you have a clear strategy and clear philosophy. You also have to have a clear playing style and players fitting to the style.

“A player fitting to us doesn’t mean he will fit to all other teams, or the other way around.

“You have a clear strategy of signing, but then it is also about how you work with them and what kind of environment and performance culture.

“There are so many individual aspects of developing a player. If he’s happy here, if his family are happy here, if he feels safe and feels trust.

“You have to take care of all the things. It’s not always easy, sometimes you need time.”