The 40-year-old in charge of Mainz has shown how shrewd management can help compete with the big spenders

There was not much in it before the weekend began but by Friday night one of the most extraordinary records in recent Bundesliga history was guaranteed to remain intact. The 2-0 win over Hannover confirmed Thomas Tuchel’s Mainz as the fifth-best Bundesliga team (by points) since the 40-year-old’s reign at the Coface-Arena began in 2009-10. Only the big four of Bayern, Dortmund, Leverkusen and Schalke have done better in the same period.

It is an achievement that underlines Tuchel’s reputation as one of the brightest managerial prospects in Germany and beyond. But do these numbers also tell us something different and altogether more puzzling about this league? It is not just that all of those second-tier clubs that you would have expected to have done better than little, €20m-a-season-in-wages Mainz have done worse. Most of them are currently where Mainz should be, in terms of financial power: down at the bottom of the table.

It could simply be a coincidence, of course. The league’s volatility over the last few years has been such that at least one of the bigger clubs has always found itself fighting relegation rather than for a place in Europe over the last few seasons. Maybe this year’s cluster-Schei