Gotze's clause alert English giants

There is a strict hierarchy in football that dictates which clubs can have a stab at signing up players from other clubs and have a reasonable chance of signing up that player.

This hierarchy is made up of a strange mixture of a club's current standing, it's past prestige and it's financial clout and all of this together can essentially rank clubs in order of their standing and thus their desirability for players to join them.

As in all hierarchies, there are strange anomalies in the structure and Borussia Dortmund are one of those teams.

Dortmund have a relatively strong history, are certainly doing well currently and have a relatively strong financial standing- so why are so many clubs seen to be able to snap up their talent at will?

The latest plater to be linked with a move away from the club is Mario Gotze who The Sun reports that Arsenal and Manchester United are interested in with news breaking that Gotze has a £30millon release clause in his contract.

The paper reports that the buy-out clause expires in July and clubs need to make a bid to Dortmund submitted in writing by April in order to trigger the clause.

The 20-year-old is one of the most sought after players in Europe currently after bursting on the scene for Dortmund, helping them to back-to-back titles and racking up 20 caps for Germany.

The Sun reports that Arsenal have tracked the player for a number of years and United are now looking into bringing him to Old Trafford.