Erik ten Hag has nice words for Matthias Sammer, his former colleague at Bayern Munich. The former sporting director of of the Rekordmeister and current adviser to Champions League opponent Borussia Dortmund is, according to the Ajax trainer, a ‘guarantee of success’ and ‘a great strategist’, he says in an interview with BILD. Ten Hag and Sammer still have sporadic telephone contact.
Sammer worked in Munich between 2012 and 2016, where Ten Hag trained the second team of the German top club between 2013 and 2015. Despite the fact that Bayern II played at an amateur level, the two maintained good contact and Ten Hag managed to learn a lot from the German. “Matthias always thinks one step ahead,” the Ajax coach told the newspaper. “Often two, sometimes even three. He is innovative, has new ideas and, above all, always has a plan to introduce them.”
Ten Hag indicates that he does not often speak to the former DFB boss, but when that happens ‘these are very long conversations’. He believes that Dortmund’s current success is partly due to Sammer’s advice. “Where Matthias is, there is success.” Ten Hag explains the statement with a summary of Sammer’s successes: “He is the youngest champion coach ever in the Bundesliga, his work as DFB boss created an important basis for the German World Cup title in 2014 and when he joined Bayern in 2012 they immediately won the triple. And Dortmund also won a prize last season by winning the cup.”
The two meet again on Tuesday evening, when Borussia Dortmund visits Ajax in the Johan Cruijff ArenA for the Champions League. The team from Amsterdam is currently at the top of Group C with six points from two matches, as many as the Germans. However, on goal difference, the team of coach Marco Rose loses: +2 against +6.