Clemens Tönnies has already offered financial help several times after retiring as Schalke boss – now the club seems to be seriously considering
Source: pa/RHR-FOTO/Tim Rehbein
FC Schalke is deep in the relegation battle in the first year after returning to the Bundesliga. Sporting director Peter Knäbel has announced that new players will be signed for the winter. The money for this could come from an old friend.
VBefore the relegation duel against Hertha BSC this Sunday evening (5.30 p.m., in the WELT sports ticker), Peter Knäbel, sports director of FC Schalke, commented in detail on the current situation in the troubled promoted team. The 56-year-old also commented on the ongoing search for a coach.
“Of course there are still several candidates. It’s not like saying you only have one left that you’ve already committed to. And we have decided that this process will take longer than this weekend, ”explained Knäbel on the BILD television station. For this reason, Schalke are going into the duel against their direct competitor from Berlin without a new coach.
Against Berlin, Matthias Kreutzer, the former assistant coach of the dismissed Frank Kramer, is on the bench. A decision about the new head coach should be made in the new week, confirmed Knäbel.
Schalke boss Peter Knäbel
Source: dpa/Tim Rehbein
The Schalke sports director confirmed that the table 17. want to strengthen in the winter on the transfer market. “We will definitely upgrade,” emphasized Knäbel, referring to the squad that has not been sufficiently balanced so far and “long-term injuries”. It is therefore “our very first duty to reforest and strengthen this squad in winter”. The sporting management recognized “that the relegation battle and the competition in the Bundesliga this year is as tough as it has probably been in any of the years before”.
Does Schalke take money from Tönnies?
When asked how the club wanted to sign new players despite its tight financial situation, Knäbel commented on a well-known Schalke supporter. External financial help, for example from the former chairman of the supervisory board, Clemens Tönnies, is not to be “fundamentally closed off”.
Apparently there have even been some talks between the club and Tönnies. “Bernd Schroeder (CEO, editor’s note) is in contact with him. The contact is still good. The board of directors will decide together whether we speak to him, ”said Knäbel. The 64-year-old meat manufacturer Tönnies resigned from his positions at FC Schalke in the summer of 2020 after several scandals. Afterwards, the club always rejected new financial aid from Tönnies.
