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reHuub Stevens’ successor has been found. According to information from “Bild”, the decision has been made as to who will be Schalke’s new coach. It is Christian Gross who should save the bottom of the table before relegation from the Bundesliga for the fourth time.
Sports director Jochen Schneider proposed the Swiss successor to Manuel Baum (41 / sacked last Friday) during a conference call with the supervisory board on Wednesday night. Basically, the bosses agreed to put Schalke’s fate in Gross’ hands. Also a vote of confidence for Schneider (contract until 2022), which a “no” from the supervisory board would have almost stripped of his power. After David Wagner (49), Baum and Huub Stevens (67 / assisted for two games), Gross is Schalke’s fourth manager in just four months.
Stevens, whose mission was completed Tuesday afternoon with a 3-1 (1-0) win over SSV Ulm at DFB-Pokal, had already hinted immediately after the game that something would soon happen to his position. “I had fun these five days, but as of tonight I am no longer coach of Schalke,” he said. End, end, off.
Then Stevens, who jumped last Friday with a great need to somehow lead the bottom of the Bundesliga table in the last two competitive games of the year, left something behind. One of those self-deprecating jokes that I had recently entertained reporters over and over again. According to the motto: What is safe at Schalke? What if there is still no successor until January 2, when the league continues at Hertha BSC?
Gross is also only a year younger than Stevens
“I hope we have found a new coach in Berlin. Otherwise, I would have to renew my license again, ”Stevens said, grimacing as if his wife Toos had already threatened to divorce him in this case. Of course, this is not the case, but if so: Stevens would have bad cards in court, due to repeated broken promises on his part. Several times he had already terminated his career and then allowed himself to be broadcast again.
But this time, the “Kerkrade growler” can say goodbye to retirement. Anything else wouldn’t have made sense either. “It’s difficult for an old coach to get players off the court,” he said.
However, that shouldn’t be easy for the man who will follow him either. Gross is 66, just a year younger than Stevens. According to information from “Bild”, he will receive a contract until the end of the season. No extension clause, instead with redemption bonus.
The man from Zurich attaches great importance to discipline. He was Swiss champion twice with the Grashopper Club Zurich and four times with FC Basel. He also knows tough situations: he saved both Tottenham Hotspur and VfB Stuttgart from relegation.
However, Gross has also been out of the European football business for a while. For the past six years he has worked in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. In February he was released from Al-Ahli Jeddah, and in May he declared the end of his coaching career. This is also a certain parallel with Stevens. But regardless of the fact that Gross, who will lead the first team training session on December 28, does not exactly represent a departure to new shores for many fans, the Royal Blues’ problems are complex.
2020 will go down in the club’s history as a year of terror: 29 Bundesliga games in a row could not be won. With David Wagner and Manuel Baum, two coaches fell victim to a team that had long been problematic in its makeup, repeatedly dragging itself down. Schneider is convinced that Gross can discipline Schalke’s difficult cockpit and, through his authority, fulfill the anti-relegation mission.
There are some pillars where it was clear how strong the centrifugal forces are in the squad, which means that there is no really homogeneous team. When the team resumed play on May 16 after the Bundesliga’s nine-week lockout, they were in notably poor physical condition. Schneider entered the new season with Wagner anyway, although for financial reasons the previously loaned players had to return with Nabil Bentaleb, Hamza Mendyl, Sebastian Rudy and Mark Uth. It was Wagner who had ordered the quartet beforehand.
Baum, Wagner’s successor, was more the victim than the culprit of the misery. Desperate attempts by him and Schneider to set an example by suspending unsuspecting professionals did not have a lasting effect.
Persistent atmospheric disturbances made things even more difficult: fans first worked with the chairman of the supervisory board, Clemens Tönnies, after his resignation in late June, Schneider and marketing director Alexander Jobst felt their anger. Barely a week has gone by without banners calling for the dash to be replaced. The club failed with an open letter and asked for a truce to join forces in the battle for relegation. The Ultras reacted with new complaints, again in the form of a banner, hung next to the office: “For Alex and Jochen, their ‘painful’ mistakes are no longer excused. Terminate your contracts, for the good of the association. “
Jobst and Schneider don’t think about that. And the supervisory board, at least so far, has shown no tendency to fire board members. It is also unclear whether the new coach can expect reinforcements in January, when the transfer begins. It is indisputable that this would be necessary, but it is not entirely clear how the financing could be. The only viable options would be to sell more players, like defensive talent Ozan Kabak, who Liverpool FC are said to be interested in, or inject money from a benefactor.
Clemens Tönnies had volunteered in the summer to help with the financing of new players, probably on the basis of a personal loan. Schneider had rejected this and made the Tönnies offer public, causing irritation among the meat manufacturer. However, it cannot be ruled out that Tönnies is still willing to help, provided Schalke reconsider their position under the pressure of the otherwise threatened relegation. However, this is likely to again provoke protests from fans.
Huub Stevens would soon have to face these difficult questions again. After his work as a trainer, he is once again on the supervisory board. Therefore, he assumes that his advice will be asked in the next few days. Neither he nor his successor Christian Gross should have a quiet Christmas.
