Nils-Ole Book hoping to "develop the potential" in Dortmund's next chapter | OneFootball

Growing up less than half an hour away from Dortmund in a town called Beckum, it comes as no surprise that Borussia Dortmund's new sporting director Nils-Ole Book grew up adoring stars who donned the famous yellow and black kit.

“Because I was a midfielder, first it was Andy Möller. And at some point, of course, he had to  come down from the poster. Later it was Tomáš Rosický. My position was a direct reflection of them," said Book, in an interview with the official Deutsche Fußball Liga (DFL).

The 40-year-old, who built a name for himself at 2.Bundesliga side SV Elversberg, earned his stripes in the Saarland. However, Book revealed that it was always a lifelong dream of his to reach the German topflight – Elversberg didn't stand in his way either. 

“Yes, it was absolutely a goal to work in the Bundesliga. Of course, when you do good work over years, maybe also as a club, as a team, and then personally as well, and you are successful, then it also becomes a realistic goal to go that way. 

“In the end, it [my release clause] came from my conviction that this is a club where I would not want contractual matters to prevent me from taking that step. That was always communicated openly, including in Elversberg. 

"My confidant, the president [Frank Holzer], knew exactly what the situation would be if Dortmund got in touch. Because this is a special club for me, there was also this special clause for it," Book said, underlining his delight at joining the Westphalians.

Despite coming in during a blaze of drama at Dortmund involving Sebastian Kehl's exit, Book has kept a low profile. His intentions are clear -- work first, play after. He also kept relatively tight-lipped on the difference between operating at BVB compared to Elversberg.

“Work was the focus at first. But in the first few days, there are introductory rounds and press conferences, and enough comes along. And maybe you do not have that many substantive topics in the first three days to give interviews that fill newspapers. That is certainly true. The primary focus should always be on the work.

“We will see [which is more tricky]. I cannot judge that yet. At the end of the day, in Elversberg it was also a long process to put everything together until every gear meshed with the other; then we were very, very successful over many years. It was not all completely smooth from the first day. 

"Here, the situation is certainly that there are more employees and the structures are somewhat different. But at the beginning, you always have to work your way in a little. At my previous club, especially when I arrived, I still had implement a lot of things.

"Now it is more about getting to know the structures and processes, but I had already become more and more familiar with that over the last few years," Book said, as he hopes to further understand the Ruhrpott club's layout.

Already labelling his relationship with coach Niko Kovač as "very good" so far, Book is looking forward to his work to come with Lars Ricken and Matthias Sammer. His intentions are to combine with all three to maintain the squad's solid spine and flesh it out with some potential around it. 

“I think it is always very important to orient yourself around what you have and that is a very, very stable foundation. We are playing an extremely successful Bundesliga season. We have a very high point average. That is something that really distinguishes us this year.

"Niko came in at a difficult time and stabilised the team extremely well. We have collected a lot of points this year and qualified comfortably for the Champions League very early. That is the strength we want to build on. I firmly believe that we will build on that while also developing those elements where we all perhaps see a bit of room for improvement. 

"Given the low number of goals conceded, that is likely to be in attack. Maybe we can add a little more creativity and optimise the composition of the attacking play a bit. We now have time for that in the transfer market. The coaching staff likewise has time now and then in the summer to prepare well.

"I also believe the boys are ready for the next step because they have seen how much fun it is to win a lot of games in Dortmund. That can become addictive, too. That should be our idea: keep our strengths and perhaps develop the potential further," he explained. It's clear Book's chapter at BVB has only just begun.