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Schalke 04 criticized by fans in Bundesliga

Jochen Schneider looks pale and tense. No wonder, because the 50-year-old sports director of FC Schalke 04 is also coming under increasing pressure in view of the many construction sites at the Bundesliga club, which has fallen to the bottom of the table. The financial worries exacerbated by the corona crisis, the negative club streak of 24 games without a win, the fan protests and necessary personnel decisions – all of this has left its mark on the tailor, who is responsible for sports and communication.

After separating from executive planner Michael Reschke, with whom Schneider was no longer on the same wavelength, the focus is even more on him. Together with licensed player manager Sascha Riether, sports coordinator René Grotus and the former professional Mike Büskens, the Swabian is now also responsible for the transfer business. Because there is no money, it will be difficult for the quartet to adequately strengthen the incorrectly put together squad during the transition periods in winter and summer 2021 and to collect points with transfer coups. A vicious circle.

While a fire letter from the influential supporter fan club was directed primarily against the team and trainers on Thursday, banners began to appear around the Veltins Arena that also denounced the work of board members Alexander Jobst and Schneider: “Shameful public image, haphazard board and characterless Team. The result of your years of mismanagement, ”it says.

When Schneider joined the Revierklub in March 2019 as the successor to Christian Heidel, he was already having to manage the shortage. With the separation from the ultimately hapless coach Domenico Tedesco, who was replaced for the rest of the season by Schalke’s coach Huub Stevens, Schneider managed to correct the course. The worst case, relegation to the Bundesliga, could just be averted. But now Schalke’s fear of falling into the second division with unforeseeable consequences is greater than ever in the past 30 years.

Not least because of this, Schneider’s focus is now on only one goal: staying in class. “It’s about keeping the first team in the Bundesliga. That’s the only thing that matters, ”he said on Wednesday when he had to explain the suspensions of professionals Nabil Bentaleb and Amine Harit and the separation of Vedad Ibisevic and Reschke.


Responsible: the Schalke board member Jochen Schneider
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Image: dpa

Schneider honors that he is very self-critical. So he conceded a recently “devastating” external image. “Of course I made mistakes too, of course. I’ll be the first to point at me. If decisions like the one on Tuesday were necessary, everything may not have gone right in the past few months. ”Is Schneider, whose contract runs until summer 2022, too late?

It is unclear whether the supervisory board around the new chairman Jens Buchta will panic at some point. He spoke up for the first time on Friday in a club interview: “In the current situation, the supervisory board and management board are of course moving even closer together,” said Buchta. “We are in a very difficult situation that may put us under pressure until the last match day. But everyone who is important to Schalke 04 and who cares about our club must do everything to stay up until the last day of the match. ”The strongest force was“ always the unique team spirit ”.

In this situation, coach Manuel Baum has to bring a team that has been decimated by releases and injuries, which has lost all self-confidence after ten months of failures, back on track. How the turnaround in Mönchengladbach will succeed on Saturday (6.30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and Sky) is a mystery. The fact that Gladbach was the last Bundesliga team to date to defeat Schalke (2-0 on January 17th) does not give encouragement. Baum only wants to use players who put their heart and soul into the club and give full throttle: “The decisive thing will be that we appear as a team: aggressiveness, passion and solidarity. Then you have a chance against any team, ”is his credo. Like Baum, Schneider is dependent on the success of the team.

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