Paul Lambert has sought help from Borussia Dortmund and his former European Cup winning team-mates as he attempts to build a team worthy of the Premier League.

The City boss had a year in Germany, where he won Europe's biggest prize in 1997, playing alongside such greats as Matthias Sammer, Paulo Sousa, Andreas Moller, Karl-Heinz Riedle and Jurgen Kohler.

More than 13 years later, the bond between the Scot and The Borussians is still there – and is helping Lambert to plot City's return to the top flight.

Lambert has found the emergency loan market a frustrating one, but explained yesterday that his overseas contact could help.

'I've spoken to a few people that I played with abroad who are at football clubs at the minute,' he said. 'It's good to have people that I can phone up and ask them. The club that I played with over there is absolutely massive and I have a good relationship with people there and the lads that I played with are at certain teams and I can pick up the phone to.'

Overseas recruitment is a possibility for Lambert who, while a stickler for quality character references, doesn't believe the distance between countries will be an issue.

'If you get the wrong one it can be,' he said.

'But if I am going down that route, the lads I played with know what I was like and I know what they were like, so they can try and compare that to what somebody else is like.

'That is all you can do, but you have got to get the right type, the right mentality.

'It's not just when they walk in the door they show enthusiasm for about three seconds and then shut it. You have to be able to sustain it. Those are the ones we want.'

Lambert has signed Rob Edwards from Blackpool, but has drawn a blank in his search for a striker on a similar emergency deal. He has until the end of March to do business – and says he will use all the time allowed.

'We have not done too bad so far so I am going to lose my nerve over it and think if that is the group I have to go with I will go for it,' he said.

'But I am not bringing somebody in just to give them games and get them fit when we are in this position we are in.

'I have tried loads. People don't want to come, that is one problem you have got. Two: if they don't want to come I am not going to go back for them three or four weeks down the line and say, 'do you want to come', again, because it just shows you their actual answer is, 'I don't want to come', so you are getting the wrong type of person.'