They do a lot of number-crunching at Borussia Mönchengladbach. According to their sporting director Max Eberl, they use every available metric and statistic as they scout and scour Europe for the best young talent in Europe. “A lot of numbers,” he says in his office at Borussia-Park. “All the numbers that are possible today.”

Those numbers have led Eberl and his colleagues to conclusions that are backed up every time they watch the England youth teams or indeed the Premier League’s competitions at under-23 and under-18 level. “We follow every English national game — under-16, under-17 and so on — and we know every top player in England,” he says. “They develop great players. That age group [born in] 2000 in England, you could take