Spurs' new technical director Johan Lange has big transfer shoes to fill
With the exception of Morten Olsen, Ebbe Skovdahl, Thomas Frank and a few others, Danish coaching personalities have historically been extremely sparse in Europe's biggest leagues. Which makes it all the more interesting when one of them finally managed to kick down the door at one of Europe's big clubs.
Johan Lange became part of this exclusive club when Tottenham hired the former FC Copenhagen technical director on November 1st in a similar role, replacing Italian Fabio Paratici.
The Italian resigned from the club at the end of April due to the 30-month ban imposed on him by FIFA and the Italian Football Federation for his role as former Juventus CEO in the accounting fraud case.
For Lange, the Tottenham job is the ultimate recognition of the work he has done for FC Copenhagen and Aston Villa in particular.
As sporting director of "The Villans", Lange has been instrumental in bringing in Leon Bailey, Emiliano Buendia, Danny Ings, Ashley Young, Bertrand Traore, Morgan Sanson and Matty Cash, which has created part of the foundation for the club's rising form.
Lange put together a talented data team at Villa's training centre at Bodymoor Heath and a key part of his role at Tottenham will be to continue the club's use of smart analytics in the transfer market, which has helped them locate several highly underrated players in the likes of Guglielmo Vicario, Destiny Udogie and Pape Sarr.
Unlike Paratici, however, Lange will not be responsible for the running of the club's entire football operations - a responsibility that has since been handed over to new Head of Football Scott Munn - and the Dane will instead manage recruitment, analysis and talent identification across Tottenham's senior and academy teams.
Lange will report to Munn, who will then embark on a lengthy recruitment process with chairman Daniel Levy.
Leaving aside Paratici's scandal-plagued exit from the north London club, the Italian can only be praised for sorting out the mess that Tottenham looked like in the summer of 2021. The club had just finished in 8th place, their worst position since 2014, just before Paratici arrived.
When evaluating his time as Tottenham's CEO, there are far more successes than failures. In fact, of the 13 senior players he brought in on permanent deals or those who later became permanent, only Bryan Gil and Djed Spence can be considered failures at this point.
The others are Cristian Romero, Sarr, Emerson Royal, Rodrigo Bentancur, Yves Bissouma, Richarlison, Fraser Forster, Udogie and Ivan Perisic, as well as Dejan Kulusevski and Pedro Porro (the latter two technically not made permanent transfers until after Paratici's time).
However, it certainly can't be denied that he also had a hand in James Maddison and Micky van der Ven's arrival in north London over the summer. Two players who, despite their long-term injuries, have had a huge impact on the tactical attacking revolution that Ange Postecoglou has initiated following the sacking of Antonio Conte.
The fact is that the ban imposed on Paratici by FIFA and the Italian Football Federation did not prevent him from taking up a consultancy role with Spurs, where, as in the past, but in a less obvious capacity, he is still likely to have been pulling the strings behind the club's transfer plans.
It remains to be seen whether Paratici will take on the same role after Lange's arrival, but it is a fact that Lange, who is known as a quiet and very thoughtful character, will need all his analytical skills if he is to match Paratici.
At the same time, Lange will have to perform transfer miracles with the financial straitjacket that all sporting directors wear when they join Daniel Levy's regime.
In recent football history, the club has missed out on players such as Paulo Dybala, Eden Hazard and Joao Moutinho at the peak of their careers due to Levy's tough negotiating tactics, and it is feared that the same frustrations will be shared by Lange.
With all men fit for fight, Tottenham belong among the championship contenders, but with long-term injuries to some of the club's most important players, the autumn of 2023 has underlined just how vulnerable the Tottenham squad is and how big the difference is between the best and the second best in the squad.
This means that a huge responsibility immediately falls on Lange's shoulders to identify players who can strengthen the squad - preferably at affordable prices.
However, unlike other sporting directors such as Paul Mitchell, Franco Baldini, Damien Comolli and Frank Arnesen, who all worked under difficult conditions at Tottenham, the appointment of Postecoglou and Scott Munn seems to have initiated a clear strategy in terms of the culture the club aims to implement.
And that could make all the difference for Lange as he endeavours to live up to the club's motto in the January transfer window:
"Audere est facere", "To dare is to do", "Nothing ventured, nothing gained".
