Why Tottenham must follow Dortmund’s route to reach the top

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Tom Collomosse18 March 2016

As they watched the men in yellow shirts move about the pitch in perfect harmony, Tottenham’s hierarchy saw what can be achieved if they plan cleverly over the next few years.

Even with their strongest team, Spurs would have struggled to live with Borussia Dortmund. The quality of passing and movement was better than anything seen in the Premier League this season.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s two goals underlined the superiority of the German team, who advanced to the last eight of the Europa League. Tottenham rarely got close to playmakers Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Julian Weigl, who ran the show for Dortmund.

When Son Heung-min scored for Spurs in the 73rd minute, Tottenham still needed to do so five more times in 17 minutes. With their best team, they might have pushed Dortmund closer, but not close enough.

Yet Tottenham are ambitious. They believe they will be playing in a £400million, 61,000-seat stadium from the start of the 2018-19 season. Their head coach, Mauricio Pochettino, believes they are now one of the most attractive clubs in Europe for talented footballers. They need an example to follow and Dortmund would be an excellent place to start.

Dortmund are some distance ahead of Tottenham. They were Champions League finalists in 2013 and won the Bundesliga title in 2011 and 2012. As Pochettino said, this Dortmund team are “Champions League level”, but are in the Europa League this term because of a disastrous start to last season, which made it virtually impossible to qualify for the premier competition.

Barring a Manchester City-style takeover, Spurs will not become one of the world’s richest clubs, so Dortmund’s work should serve as inspiration.

In recent years, they lost key players like Robert Lewandowski and Mario Gotze to Bayern Munich. Ilkay Gundogan and Aubameyang may depart this summer. Even if they do, the structure at Dortmund should ensure their success continues.

Dortmund have combined intelligent signings from abroad —Lewandowski, Shinji Kagawa, Mkhitaryan, Aubameyang — with buying young German talent for relatively low prices. Matthias Ginter cost about £7m, Marco Reus about £13m — he is now worth treble that — and Weigl, a 20-year-old midfielder who shone last night, less than £2m. The club made a pre-tax profit of £43m in the last financial year. Tottenham are getting there. They have a shrewd coach and a clear policy: give opportunities to players in the academy, sign others from abroad in their early twenties for relatively modest transfer fees, and if they can pick up the odd gem from the lower leagues, like Dele Alli, so much the better.

Unless they implode during their final eight Premier League games, Tottenham will be in the Champions League next season and they should be encouraged by the opinion of Thomas Tuchel, Dortmund’s thoughtful coach.

“They are able to compete in the Champions League, I am pretty sure,” said Tuchel. “They have their own, special attacking style and a lot of brilliant technical players. It’s difficult to play against them and if they reach the Champions League, they will be ready next year.”

Qualifying once is just the start. Reaching it regularly is the next challenge, but Dortmund have shown Spurs the way.

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