The six Dortmund footballers in danger of being axed

In the first group, Marcel Schmelzer, Nuri Sahin and Gonzalo Castro are all in danger of being culled as the club attempts to improve its image following a disappointing season. 

Schmelzer and Sahin came up through Dortmund's youth system and between them have almost 500 appearances whilst Castro arrived in 2015 from Bayer Leverkusen.

Jeremy Toljan, Andrey Yarmolenko and Andre Shurrle will also have their futures evaluated despite two being recent signings. 

Schurrle looks the most likely to leave given strong speculation in January about a departure whilst Tojlan and Yarmolenko have failed to impress in their respective debut seasons.

Tojlan's saving grace could be his age, at 23 years old he could be given another chance under a new manager, following Peter Stoger's resignation at the end of the campaign.

Nice head coach Lucien Favre has been heavily tipped to take over in the technical area next year.