mats hummels is in the frame to leave for manchester united, ilkay gundogan has yet to sign a contract extension and can leave in 2016 and even the much vaunted re signing of marco reus might have simply been a stalling tactic to wait for a move to barcelona next summer on top of all that, borussia dortmund, the club which charmed the world two years ago on their rampaging run to the champions league final, have battled relegation all season and were comprehensively beaten by juventus in the champions league last week you might be forgiven for thinking that here was a club on the slide but what about the notion of dortmund in europe next season? it would seem a non starter borussia dortmund are starting to look up again following a nightmare start to the season  part of dortmund's remarkable 10,000 strong support in hannover for their bundesliga match last weekend  defender mats hummels has been strongly linked with a summer move to manchester united  for most of the world, their last sight of dortmund's plight in the bundesliga were those infamous photos of captain hummels and goalkeeper roman weidenfeller climbing the surround fencing to reason with angry fans from the 'yellow wall' after the home defeat by augsburg last month left the team bottom yet the 3 2 win at hannover at the weekend was a sixth victory in a run of eight games undefeated and sparked some crazy talk 'now we need to focus our eyes in the direction of the europa league,' said double goalscorer pierre emerick aubameyang club chairman hans joachim watzke was a little more cautious 'it's more important to put some distance between us and the relegation battle first,' he said while manager jurgen klopp and hummels struck some sensible middle ground 'we're no longer in the middle of a relegation battle,' said klopp 'let's get to the point whereby we mathematically can't be relegated and then let's see how many games we have' hummels, looking ahead to what would normally be a title deciding clash with bayern, said: 'we want to beat bayern at the moment we're in no man's land but we could still slip back if we beat bayern, then we'll see' star man marco reus has signed a contract extension but could still move to barcelona in 2016  ilkay gundogan (right) has yet to commit to a new dortmund contract and could leave in the summer  after an upturn in form, dortmund find themselves just five points off a europa league place  manager jurgen klopp (second right) with sebastian kehl and jakub blaszczykowski after saturday's win  whether europe is realistic or not   they are five points off the europa league places with eight games to play   dortmund are in a much better place than a couple of months ago no one truly believed they could go down, yet at times they seemed intent on testing the proposition to the full but reus signing a new four year contract was an enormous boost, all the more so as it contained no release clause it may well be that reus joins barcelona in the summer of 2016, the catalan club where his friend marc andre ter stegen already plays understood to be his preferred destination even so, reus should be at the westfalenstadion next season hummels may not be louis van gaal attempted to bring him back to bayern munich when coach there; he will undoubtedly try to do the same again this summer, though he will have to meet the £35m asking price interestingly, sources at dortmund are already putting it about that £35m would make up for the shortfall of missing out in the champions league, which sounds like a pre sale process of softening up the fans the lowest point in dortmund's season came when players like hummels had to front up to the fans  but an upturn in fortunes has lifted them out of relegation danger   pierre emerick aubameyang (left) and marco reus here wear masks to celebrate a goal in the 3 0 defeat of rivals schalke  the dortmund player salute their travelling support after last weekend's 3 2 win at hannover  the key question remains about the man who has come to personify dortmund, klopp like sir alex ferguson at manchester united and arsene wenger at arsenal, klopp's personality, tactics and energy seem to embody every area of the club understandably klopp is always considered when top jobs come up he was on the shortlist to replace roberto mancini at manchester city but did not impress in interview   the passion that drives his teams sits uncomfortably with the increasingly corporate world of football executives it looks as though those pushing for him as a natural replacement for arsene wenger at arsenal overplayed their hand somewhat the intensity of the rivalry with bayern munich means he is highly unlikely to end up there when pep guardiola ends his time in 2016 striker pierre emerick aubameyang poses for a photo with dortmund fans after saturday's win  former manchester united man shinji kagawa celebrates with reus after scoring at hannover  and there is a feeling that many teams are now adept at dealing with the frenzied counter attacking style and that he needs to add nuance to the tactics that so recently shocked europe's best sides for now it looks as if klopp and dortmund's fates are bound together at times, the rollercoaster season has seemed a projection on the ups and downs of klopp's own volatile personality yet it's not so long ago he was a genuine wunderkind of european football if he can emerge refreshed and re energised from this season's chaos, there seems no reason why dortmund shouldn't rise again in europe the next few weeks should tell us much if dortmund do make the europa league, then you might conclude that the rebuilding process is already underway
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