Back in December, in the run up to Christmas, Tottenham’s technical director Johan Lange travelled to Stockholm on a special assignment.
Lange’s mission was to persuade Lucas Bergvall, one of the most exciting young players in Europe, to visit Spurs in the New Year.
Bergvall already had an invite from Barcelona and, when Lange sat down with the teenager and his family, Spurs were rank outsiders to sign him.
Lange, though, laid out the club’s vision, explaining what they were building under head coach Ange Postecoglou and how they would play.
Over and over, Lange came back to the style - it was at the heart of everything, he told the Bergvalls - using video clips to show how the midfielder would fit in to Postecoglou’s front-foot team.
“[It was] not with the aim of him saying yes but the aim of him coming with his family to visit us,” Lange told Standard Sport in his first newspaper interview since joining Spurs last year.
When Bergvall - accompanied by his parents and agents - arrived at Hotspur Way on January 29 (the day before they flew to Spain for lunch with Barca’s sporting director, Deco), Spurs pulled out all the stops.
Having already heard from Lange, the Bergvalls were given the hard sell by Spurs chairman Daniel Levy and Postecoglou, as well as Lucas’s international team-mate Dejan Kulusevski and Spurs Women’s coach, Robert Vilahamn, another Swede. “They felt at home,” says Lange. “They’re very intelligent people who really wanted to make an informed decision and feel that we were right for him.”
Bergvall was bowled over by Spurs; by the club’s pristine training centre, Postecoglou’s zealous belief in his football and Kulusevski’s infectious enthusiasm for the project. On February 2, his 18th birthday, Bergvall snubbed Barca and signed a five-year contract in north London.
‘Destination for the best’
The deal capped a strong winter window for Spurs, who had pulled off another coup by beating Bayern Munich to the signing of highly-rated Genoa centre-half Radu Dragusin - again, following a charm offensive by Postecoglou and Lange.
The deals underlined the club’s growing momentum, and demonstrated that their fervent commitment to a style of play was winning over players.
“Everyone at the club should feel proud that those two players, one had the opportunity to go to Bayern, one had the opportunity to go to Barca, and they chose to come here,” says Lange. “That’s a huge compliment to everyone at the club.”
Bergvall was one of three teenagers to join Spurs over the summer, along with Archie Gray and Wilson Odobert, while 17-year-old Croatian defender Luka Vuskovic and South Korean forward Yang Min-hyeok, 18, will arrive next year.
Add in the likes of Mikey Moore, Spurs’ prodigious 17-year-old, and Ashley Phillips, 18, who is on loan at Stoke, and Tottenham’s potential is frightening.
“It is important to say we’re building a squad to be competitive here and now,” says Lange. “This is not a project [for] five years’ time. We want to be a natural destination for the best talent out there and those things go hand in hand.
The players [signed] are some of the best talents in Europe. They’re here to play now but of course with their age they have the potential to become even better, and that is exciting for everyone at the club.”
It’s a team effort
Lange, 44, joined Spurs in October last year from Aston Villa and, as technical director, is responsible for overseeing the club’s recruitment, working with the scouting department, Levy and Postecoglou to identify targets and complete deals.
It appears a smart set-up, with Postecoglou’s crystal clear vision of what he wants in a player complemented by Lange’s intimate knowledge of the market and Levy’s know-how and contacts book. The chairman remains hands-on at negotiating deals but has no say in deciding the targets.
“Daniel has great experience and a fantastic network,” Lange says. “Not to play to that strength would be silly. Ange and I have ongoing discussions all the time about the squad. It’s far from only about transfers... [but] of course, when we come close to the window, it’s about how we want to ideally end up after the window.
“When I speak with Daniel and Scott Munn [chief football officer], it’s more about strategy and developing the club overall. Daniel’s network can play a part of some transactions, case by case, but he will never go in and have an opinion about whether a certain player is a good fit or not.”
New ruthless approach
Over the summer, Spurs also signed Dominic Solanke from Bournemouth, while eight first-team players left the club.
In trimming the fat, Spurs showed a ruthlessness that has not always come naturally; Tanguy Ndombele was paid off with a year of his contract to run and the club released Ryan Sessegnon and Japhet Tanganga.
“[Being ruthless] is definitely deliberate,” says Lange. “A lot of players who left in the summer came to a natural conclusion of their time at the club. I think they also saw it that way themselves.”
Spurs might have done more, however, and the decisions not to sign a defender or cover for goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario were surprising.
“If you have too big a turnaround in a window, that’s not necessarily positive,” says Lange. “We had a lot of players leaving, but building a squad is not something you do overnight. It takes a lot of careful consideration.”
Not just a numbers game
Lange is enthusiastic about using data in the market, but he brushes aside the claim from David Pleat - whose long association with Spurs came to an end when he was let go as a scout in July - that he was told by the club: “It’s all data driven now, we don’t need eyes and ears.”
He says: “You need both. No player has been signed in my time at the club without us watching the player multiple times live and speaking with the player in person. We do a lot of background checks, speak with other coaches, former team-mates.
“One thing is the player’s technical and tactical ability but personality is highly important as well. We are data-informed, but which job today doesn’t have an element of data?”
Lange sees himself as “the bridge between the board and the football technical departments”. He is responsible for ensuring every member of staff is clear on the club’s strategy and it all comes back to the style of play - shared by Postecoglou’s first-team, Vilahamn’s side and all age-groups.
We are playing at a very high level and we’re on the right path. We have a clear identity
Every department - sports science, medical, analysis, scouting, loans, academy - must work with the club’s DNA in mind.
“The way we prepare our players has to be in line with the style of play,” he says. “How we analyse the games and our opponents has to be in sync. Everything is aligned.”
This holistic approach could scarcely feel more different to Spurs’ pre-Postecoglou strategy, which largely came down to hiring managers with a history of success, namely Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte.
Room for growth
The scope of Lange’s role is significant. He has, for example, set-up a partnership with a local school to ensure youngsters can continue their education.
The club is also investing in the academy, and developing more Harry Kanes is essential in what Lange believes is an “increasingly complicated” market, thanks to financial fair play rules, Brexit and global restrictions on loans.
Lange sees huge room for growth. “We are playing at a very high level and we’re on the right path. We have a clear identity,” he says.
“If you compare our squad to the teams that finished higher than us last season, those squads have played together for more seasons. To have more games together will improve us even more.”
