The pre-Christmas period is anything but reflective at FSV Mainz 05. Coach Jan-Moritz Lichte is about to end, the pressure on sports director Rouven Schröder is increasing – and now the club is apparently forcing ex-manager Christian Heidel to return.
Uncomfortable Christmas presents instead of a contemplative Christmas: The staggering Bundesliga club FSV Mainz 05 plunges deeper and deeper into the crisis shortly before Christmas Eve. Coach Jan-Moritz Lichte is about to end, sports director Rouven Schröder is under pressure and ex-manager Christian Heidel is apparently about to return. Before the DFB Cup game against VfL Bochum on Wednesday (8.45 p.m.), the carnival club is sinking into an almost inscrutable chaos.
The club had actually planned the mandatory sporting press conference with Lichte and Schröder for Tuesday lunchtime. However, this was canceled at short notice around half an hour before the start.
The club management will explain this in the course of the day, it said. According to several media outlets, supervisory board chairman Detlev Höhne and club boss Stefan Hofmann want to gain time with the tricky personnel issues – speculation is boiling.
Apparently, after less than three months, Lichte is facing a curious and at the same time unworthy farewell. According to the Bild newspaper, those responsible are using a delaying tactic: The separation is probably a done deal, but should only be carried out after the cup game. On Christmas Eve? Board boss Stefan Hofmann had previously announced that after the game against Bochum “everything will be on the table” and that this could mean “drastic measures”.
Mainz: Christian Heidel apparently before returning
According to several media outlets, the club is also vehemently pushing Heidel’s return. The name of the ex-manager has haunted the Bruchweg since autumn, but now the Mainz-based company is said to have presented him with a contract as a board member that is ready to be signed. As the Allgemeine Zeitung reports, members of the supervisory board have heard that Heidel has made it a condition that Schröder remain.
The actual sports director, who had only extended his contract to 2024 on better terms in February, could lose some of his powers and his position would be considerably weakened. According to the report, Schröder is said to have spoken out against Heidel’s alleged desired solution.
Along with Schröder, Hofmann and CFO Jan Lehmann, Heidel would be the fourth member of this body. The 57-year-old, who left Rheinhessen in 2016 after 24 years for Schalke 04, had been significantly involved in Schröder’s commitment before leaving.
Bo Svensson the favorite to succeed Lichte?
In the coaching bench, Mainz, like the taillight Schalke 04, would pull the ripcord for the second time this season. The previous assistant coach Lichte had only taken over from his previous boss Achim Beierlorzer after the second match day, who had been dismissed after the team’s training strike. However, the new impulse on the bench completely fizzled out – the club staggered towards the abyss.
According to Sport1 Former player Bo Svensson is the ideal solution for the Lichte successor. The 41-year-old Dane played for Mainz from 2007 to 2014 and later worked as an assistant and youth coach for the club. He currently looks after the RB Salzburg farm team, FC Liefering.
Lichte managed only one win and three draws in eleven games, and the mission to stay up in the league will be a mammoth task in the new year. Mainz are in the Bundesliga with only six points on the penultimate place in the table, the relegation place is already four points missing at the turn of the year. In the recent three direct duels with the relegation opponents from Bielefeld, Cologne and Bremen, it set three defeats.
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