How Borussia Dortmund Could Best Replace Ilkay Gundogan

The Ilkay Gundogan saga could finally come to an end in the summer, it seems. The Borussia Dortmund midfielder has agreed to join up with Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, per Charlie Wyett of the Sun.

The Times' Rory Smith, meanwhile, reported this week that City have informed "the Bundesliga side that they are prepared to pay €18 million (£13.95 million) with a further €5m (£3.88m) depending on performances." 

It seems highly unlikely that Dortmund would find that offer sufficient, but let's assume a deal gets done eventually.

Some fans of the Ruhr side would rejoice at a resolution to the drama, seeing as Gundogan was ready to leave the club last year. Dortmund even put out a statement on their Facebook page in April, reporting that the midfielder had decided "not to renew his contract" and that the two sides would part ways "by 30 June 2016 at the latest." 

Gundogan, of course, extended his contract two months later, but only until 2017.

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The whirlwind of speculation has died down, with City the clear frontrunners for his signature. While fans won't miss the drama, they'll likely come to miss Gundogan.

Dortmund's No. 8 is playing a fabulous season. He's arguably the most important midfielder in first-year head coach Thomas Tuchel's system.

Fully recovered from a mysterious back injury that kept him out of football for 14 months between August 2013 and October 2014, he has rediscovered his form and re-established himself as a world-class central midfielder.

As such, the Black and Yellows will find it impossible to replace him like-for-like. The few midfielders who could come in and play at the 25-year-old's level from day one are out of their financial reach—Real Madrid's Luka Modric, Paris Saint-Germain's Marco Verratti or Bayern Munich's Thiago Alcantara come to mind.

Dortmund will need to search for a replacement in a lower tier of the market.

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Someone like Borussia Monchengladbach's Mahmoud Dahoud would make sense, but the club from the Lower Rhine are set to lose Granit Xhaka to Arsenal, per Bleacher Report's Dean Jones, which makes it unlikely that they'll sell the 20-year-old this summer as well.

That being said, Gladbach's Syria-born midfielder represents the kind of player Dortmund should go for: young, talented, affordable. The Black and Yellows don't necessarily need to find a direct replacement for Gundogan's spot in the starting lineup right away.

Last year, they signed Gonzalo Castro from Bayer Leverkusen when they still thought Gundogan would be gone in the summer of 2015. The 28-year-old has had an up-and-down season, jumping back and forth from the bench to the starting XI throughout the campaign, but he is experienced enough to hold the fort while a new signing gets accustomed to Dortmund's rather unique playing style.

If not Castro, Henrikh Mkhitaryan could fill that role, too, as Lewis Ambrose detailed in a piece for YellowWallPod.com in March: "Having the season of his life, the Armenian is an elegant dribbler and, at the top of his game, approaches perfection. Dortmund fans have seen him in more central areas recently and, should Gundogan leave, the idea of watching that on a weekly basis is incredibly exciting."

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It might seem like a waste to pull Mkhitaryan away from the danger zones, where he's been incredibly productive this season—23 goals and 30 assists in 49 matches across competitions, per Transfermarkt.co.uk—but the 27-year-old has shown a number of times that he can influence games from a deeper position.

If Dortmund manage to sign an attacking player in the summer—rumours about Mario Gotze making a sensational return to the Westfalenstadion won't die down after chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke told German TV channel Sky the door will always be open for him (h/t ESPN FC)—Mkhitaryan's move to the middle of the park could be an enticing idea for Tuchel.

It would allow Dortmund to take their time with a replacement for Gundogan. That player could develop on the training ground without the pressure of having to play in a full-time role right away.

Lars Pollmann is a Featured Columnist writing on Borussia Dortmund. He also writes for YellowWallPod.com. You can follow him on Twitter.