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For the first half of this season, Eric Dier was almost a forgotten man.
He was Tottenham Hotspur’s fifth-choice centre-back, at the bottom of new head coach Ange Postecoglou’s pecking order, called on only in emergencies. His near-decade of service to the club was ending with barely a whimper.
But in 2024, his career has undergone the most remarkable rebirth. In January, he signed for Bayern Munich. He has already started nine games for Thomas Tuchel’s Bundesliga champions. And now he is sitting, relaxed, in one of the bright red dugouts at their Allianz Arena, his new home, and maybe the only ground in Europe better than the one he left behind.
To some people, this juxtaposition is a surprise. Not many players would go from the bench at Spurs to being a regular for one of the top teams in Europe, a side who begin a Champions League quarter-final against Arsenal next week. But Dier does not quite see it this way. Because Dier is proud — not just of the move, of his new life in Germany with his young family, of his instant importance to Tuchel’s team. But also proud of the way he handled himself when he found his position at Tottenham transformed — never complaining, always working hard, doing his utmost to bring through the next generation of players even though they were ultimately replacing him.
So for Dier, that good behaviour in difficult circumstances was not only about being true to himself and his club, and the standards to which he has always held himself. It also helped him earn the move to where he is today. Even if he never saw this reward coming.
“Being here now, the thing I’m most proud of about myself is that I just persevered,” Dier says. “I trained hard every day. Tried to stay as fit as possible. And it’s pure blind faith. Because you don’t know if you’re going to go anywhere in January, where you’re going to go, or what’s going to happen. You don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
If Dier had switched off during the first half of the season, who knows whether Tuchel would have turned to him in January when on the look-out for a new centre-back? Or, indeed, whether Dier would have been ready to go straight into the team here? There is almost a sense of cosmic justice about it.
“Suddenly, I was here,” he says. “It was a great feeling when I arrived, that for six months I behaved in the way I did. It made me very proud that I behaved in that way. It’s what opened the door to coming here.
“And it’s also why, when I came, I was ready to play.”
Dier has settled well in Munich (Jonathan Moscrop/Getty Images)
The move happened very quickly in the end. All it took was one phone call from Tuchel to Dier, the former Chelsea coach explaining what he was looking for, how Bayern play and what he wanted from the 49-cap England international. As soon as Dier was off the phone, he was “desperate” to make the move. And in an instant, his career changed course.
Dier talks with maturity and perspective about how difficult those last few months at Spurs were. There is no resentment and plenty of graciousness.
This season was his 10th at Tottenham and, even though it was the last year on his contract, he was determined to make the most of it under their new manager. He “very much enjoyed” pre-season under the Australian, and loved the ideas and the fresh energy around the place.
No one had told Dier his position at the club had changed.
But it was clear, as soon as the season started, where he ranked.
Cristian Romero and new signing Micky van de Ven were the first-choice centre-backs. Ben Davies and Emerson Royal were the backups, as was Davinson Sanchez before he was sold to Turkey’s Galatasaray in September. Even Ashley Phillips, a teenager signed from Blackburn Rovers of the Championship in the summer, was initially making the bench ahead of Dier, who did not feature in a matchday squad until the sixth game of the season.
He came on against Chelsea on November 6 after Romero got a red card, started the next game against Wolves with the Argentinian suspended and Van de Ven out injured, but then returned to the bench and saw full-backs Emerson and Davies preferred to him in central defence. He played as a substitute against Everton and Bournemouth in December, but that was it.
As tough as he found it, there is no anger or bitterness over the decision. Dier accepted it was time for the old guard to make way for the next generation.
A dejected Dier after Spurs’ loss at Wolves in November (Matthew Ashton – AMA/Getty Images)
“It was the most challenging six months of my career,” he says. “It’s really not a nice position to be in. I tried to stay calm and analyse it in a practical way. I understood it was very clear there was a new manager and he wanted to start something new. I understood what my contractual situation was, that I only had a year left. The club wanted to start something fresh. I understood that. So I didn’t take it in a very personal way.”
Some players might have complained, whether directly or indirectly, or sulked. Or just counted down the time until they could sign as a free agent with another club. Not Dier.
“That’s just not me. And I was mentally and physically in great shape. I felt I was always training well at Tottenham. So I felt ready. It was just waiting for that opportunity. I’m just proud of myself that I did that, and I’m proud of the way I carried myself for those six months.”
Neither did it occur to Dier to confront Postecoglou about it and demand an explanation as to why he could no longer get a game. “I never spoke to him once. I’m not someone that would ever go and knock on the manager’s door (about selection). If you’re going to speak to them about how can I improve — ‘What do you want me to improve on?’ — it makes complete sense to go and speak to them. But I’ve never gone to speak to a manager and said, ‘Why am I not playing?’. For me, it’s just a pointless conversation.
“You try and understand as best as possible what the manager wants from players in your position. And then you try and execute as best as you can in training. And then, hopefully, get picked to play.”
So there was never any personal animosity from Dier towards Postecoglou over what happened? “That’s football.”
Dier applauds the fans after what proved to be his final Spurs appearance – against Bournemouth (Chloe Knott – Danehouse/Getty Images)
The first half of this season became an educational experience. “I learned a hell of a lot in those six months about myself. And I learned a lot about football. And I enjoyed working under a new manager and seeing the way he works.”
If there is one moment Dier did not like, it came in the first week of January when Spurs beat visitors Burnley 1-0 in round three of the FA Cup.
Emerson and Davies had played at centre-back that night, and the latter picked up an injury. Postecoglou was asked in the post-match press conference whether the injury crisis meant that he could still afford to let Dier go in the January window. Postecoglou, who knew £25million ($31.7m at the current exchange rate) centre-back Radu Dragusin was about to arrive from Italy’s Genoa, replied with an emphatic “yes”.
Dier admits he was “disappointed” to hear that at the time, but even then caveats his own feelings by saying he does not know exactly how the comment was intended, and is reluctant to criticise Postecoglou. “I don’t like to say anything publicly if I haven’t said it to the person. It’s difficult to judge, I don’t know in what context he meant it. If he meant it in that way, it would be disappointing, purely because of the way I carried myself in my time there. I don’t know if he meant it that way or not.”
Ultimately, any hurt feelings Dier has are hugely outweighed by the admiration he has for Postecoglou and his curiosity about the Australian’s methods. Dier does not know yet if he wants to be a manager after playing, but he would love to spend more time with his previous head coach and have those conversations about how he works.
“Ask most players if they like the manager and, if they’re playing, they say yes, and if they’re not playing they say no,” he says. “I’d like to think we can try to be a bit more sensible about it.
“I didn’t take it personally, him not playing me. If he doesn’t like me, it’s not a problem for me. Lots of people won’t like me, lots of people like me, it’s irrelevant. I try to look at it through my own point of view: do I like the manager, for who he is as a person, and the way he is as a coach? It doesn’t matter to me if I’m playing or not. And I really, really enjoyed working under him, and I learned a hell of a lot. I’d love to sit down and talk to him now.
“I have so many questions — about the way he does certain things and why he does them. Hopefully, one day, I’ll be able to.”
Throughout his time at Tottenham, Dier was more than just a good player. He was the glue in the dressing room, someone who united the various cliques and groups, never bounded by nationality. He even taught himself Spanish so he could be close to the squad’s Spanish and Latin American contingent. And, while he was never club captain, he always took on a leadership role helping new players to settle in. He did that even last summer, taking the new arrivals under his wing. It did not matter to him that one of those signings, Van de Ven, was ultimately to take his place in the team.
Dier almost bristles at the suggestion he might have been territorial about it.
Dier feels he learned from Postecoglou despite his lack of game time (Nick Potts/PA Images via Getty Images)
“I don’t care what position someone is,” he says. “They’re a person. If they play centre-back or they’re the kit man, I don’t care. For me, it’s just about trying to help them settle as a person, to settle into life in a new country and a new league. I’m sure it must be extremely difficult. I don’t take that responsibility lightly. It’s something I’ve always tried to do. With Micky, with Ashley, Brennan Johnson, Guglielmo Vicario, Destiny Udogie… I tried to do that with every new player.”
Now Dier is on the other side of the fence, the new boy in the dressing room, surrounded by players who have been here for years.
He is very aware of what it means to be a good team-mate in those circumstances. (“How did I do at it? Was I good at it? What should I have done better or worse?”) And he has found the Bayern dressing room welcoming and receptive. He mentions Serge Gnabry, Manuel Neuer and Joshua Kimmich as being especially helpful. He loves Thomas Muller — “Very funny, very charismatic, very comfortable in his own skin.”
And Dier cannot hide his enthusiasm at now counting them as his colleagues. “It’s just great they’re my team-mates now. You get confidence from being around players like that. You learn from being around players like that. You see what they do every day.
“Obviously, a player like myself who hasn’t won, it’s fantastic to be in a dressing room and at a club where you can learn a lot about that.”
Neuer has been welcoming to Dier since his move in January (Tom Weller/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Dier’s learning process extends to the language.
Life at Bayern is conducted mainly in German but with English as a “strong second language”. Team meetings are in German, with the non-German speakers given an earpiece so they can listen to simultaneous translation into English. But half-time team talks, when there is no interpreter on hand, are done by Tuchel in English instead.
Bayern employ a German teacher who gives lessons to those who need them, and Dier enthusiastically takes one every morning before training. He speaks Portuguese, having lived there as a youngster, and Spanish, but says German is a whole new ball game. “It’s a very difficult language. They just construct their sentences in a completely different way to us.” Dier has the physio and fitness coach speak to him in German.
“Speaking other languages has given me that confidence where I’m not embarrassed to just try it out. When I think I can say something, I’ll go for it.”
There is no getting past the fact that this has been an unusually poor season for Bayern.
They are 13 points behind leaders Bayer Leverkusen with seven games to go, meaning they will almost certainly fail to win the Bundesliga for the first time in 12 years. Dier is experienced enough to know that football means bad times as well as good — you don’t make 365 appearances for Spurs without grasping that — and, as a player, he prefers to focus on the daily basics rather than the bigger picture.
Dier has joined a Bayern team who are struggling to retain their Bundesliga title (M Donato/FC Bayern via Getty Images)
But Dier knows there is one huge prize still to play for this season: the Champions League.
On Tuesday night, Bayern visit Arsenal for the first leg of their quarter-final — a chance for Dier and Kane to return to north London. Dier, focused on his new club and their shared goals, does not want to think about it in terms of his own personal journey. “In a way, it’s almost disrespectful to Bayern to talk about it in that way. It’s about Bayern Munich going to Arsenal and trying to win. It’s not really about me or Harry going back to play against Arsenal.”
There is courage to be drawn from Bayern’s victory over Lazio in the last 16. They lost 1-0 in Rome but then won 3-0 in the Allianz, with Kane scoring twice.
“Just to be playing here against Lazio in the Champions League was a very, very special day for me. To play in the Champions League again, to play in the Champions League for Bayern. And now it’s about doing more than that.”
For Kane and Dier, this will be their first involvement this deep into the Champions League since the 2018-19 season.
Neither played in Spurs’ memorable semi-final against Ajax (Kane was injured), but Dier still counts that miracle 3-2 second-leg win in Amsterdam, when he was an unused substitute, as the greatest moment of his career.
“If you were just to go off pure emotions, it was the most emotional I’ve ever felt. It was the greatest feeling I’ve ever had in football. It was 10 minutes that you can’t even imagine… Completely overwhelming.”
Dier and Spurs celebrate their remarkable late comeback against Ajax in 2019 (Adam Davy/PA Images via Getty Images)
That season convinced Dier that, in the Champions League knockout rounds, anything can happen. And whether Bayern reach the final — also back in London, at Wembley — or not, Dier is loving his time in Munich. His contract has already been extended for next season. “I’m 30 now, I think this is my prime, and I’m going to be in my prime for a while. These are going to be my best years.”
Maybe part of the issue is that Dier arrived at Spurs as a mature 20-year-old — physically dominant, vocal in the dressing room, versatile on the pitch — and got tagged as being older than he really was. After almost a decade at one club, people assume he is now a veteran.
“That was a bit frustrating for me,” he says. “I felt like people were looking at me as if I was 37.”
Dier was quickly convinced to come to Bayern by Tuchel (Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)
Now that Dier’s Tottenham career is over, he can look back on it with real warmth.
He left in a rush, only able to say a few goodbyes, but he has talked to the chairman Daniel Levy (with whom he has a “very good relationship”) by phone, including about Bayern’s pre-season friendly at Tottenham on August 10. A proper goodbye is being prepared for that day. “From speaking to Daniel, they plan for something for us (him and Kane) there. I don’t know, but he told me that was in the works.”
Dier would love the chance to say goodbye to a place where he spent so much time.
“I look at it in a very fond way; I spent some incredible times there with incredible people, incredible players, great managers,” he adds. “Playing in the Premier League, playing for England, making friends who are friends for life outside football. I played for a fantastic football club.
“Obviously, within a nine-year span, there are going to be ups and downs. You look back at certain situations with regret, you look back at certain situations with disappointment. You look back at certain situations where it’s very easy to hyperanalyse. I look back at it with great fondness.”
(Top photo: M. Donato/FC Bayern via Getty Images)
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