Max Kruse may be long gone, but he’s back on everyone’s lips in Wolfsburg. He received clear criticism for his criticism of Niko Kovac and his uncollegial statements regarding Yannick Gerhardt – including from ex-VfL boss Jörg Schmadtke.
Have nothing more to say to each other: Max Kruse and Niko Kovac during their time together in Wolfsburg. IMAGO/Christian Schroedter
The name Max Kruse doesn’t come up, and yet at the end of a very emotional press conference and possibly his last press conference as coach of VfL Wolfsburg, Niko Kovac immediately knows who it’s about. “Now I’m going,” said the 52-year-old and stood up.
And yet perhaps it was still important to him to react to his ex-player’s statements. Kruse not only made extremely negative comments about him in his podcast “Flatterball” (“absolute character disaster”), but also dragged his ex-teammate and still Wolfsburg player Yannick Gerhardt into the coach-ex-player conflict. The response immediately followed from several sides.
Gerhardt, Kruse had said, was part of a group that made negative comments about Kovac early on. “We said to each other,” says Kruse in the podcast, “he has no idea, when is he going to be gone?”
Gerhardt, who was suspended on Saturday against FC Augsburg (1:3), did not want to say anything about Kruse’s uncollegial comments. At Sky Looking back on the past season with Kruse and under Kovac, the 30-year-old simply explained: “That was my personal best season, I had ten scorer points, that’s answer enough for me. I don’t want to offer this whole topic any more platform.”
Kovac on Kruse: “A way that is not beneficial for our society”
Kovac then became clearer. “It’s not possible to drag someone into this,” he said, looking at Gerhardt, and then took on Kruse verbally: “The person who said something said more about himself than about us and me.”
His appeal: “We have to prevent that because it’s not possible. This is a way that is not beneficial for our society, not beneficial for young people.” Kovac’s final words: “Jörg said it right, and I agree with this opinion.”
The fact that people like him talk about character leaves me helpless.
Wolfsburg’s ex-managing director Jörg Schmadtke had on Friday in the WAZ Kruse placed in the laces. “I have the feeling that Max Kruse has a disturbed perception. The fact that people like him talk about character leaves me helpless.” The fact that Kruse also dragged Gerhardt into his campaign of revenge was, according to Schmadtke, “a bottomless impudence.” What Kovac underlined twice again on Saturday.
2024-03-16 19:45:34
#Kovac #counters #Kruse
