For fear of the impending hamburgerisation, Schalke throws out creative coach Dimitrios Grammozis. A logical step that would have been overdue in the summer anyway.
Another year in the 2nd league, as those responsible for the club finally admit publicly, at least in homeopathic quotation doses, must urgently be avoided. But is that still realistic with a six-point gap to relegation place 3?
At the latest, the embarrassing 3:4 bankruptcy against relegation candidate Rostock proved: Schalke football under Grammozis is too inflexible, predictable and inconsistent. Even more dramatic: S04 is completely dependent on goalscorer Simon Terodde!
The bitter truth: Without his 19 goals this season, Schalke would have lost eleven points and would be fighting to stay in the league at Rostock level. Problems that the Grammozis successor also has to face immediately.
If the royal blue does not want to become the new non-promotional club in the 2nd league based on the HSV model, further radical changes are needed in the future!
Gazprom out. Grammozi’s gone. Schalke are sorting themselves for the future. The Gelsenkirchen-based company still has what is probably the most important step ahead of it: the question of spinning off the professional department.
If Schalke wants to re-establish itself in the Bundesliga in the long term, the club cannot avoid this restructuring. Whether the traditionalists among the fans and the new board of directors like it or not.
The alternative for the debt club (237 million euros in liabilities) is: reduce sporting demands and sometimes set yourself up in the second class in the long term.
