Karel Geraerts was Schalke 04’s coach for almost a year before he was fired in September. Now the Belgian is settling the score and hardly leaving any stone unturned. Geraerts explicitly targets one player.
Former Schalke coach Karel Geraerts criticized his former club sharply in an interview with the Belgian newspaper “Het Laatste Nieuws”. “I experienced more in one year at Schalke than in my entire career,” said Geraerts. He describes the internal tensions in the club as enormous: “Everyone has their own agenda, everyone does their own thing.”
Geraerts did not spare criticism of the team. “Once I had a conversation with someone from the squad. The conversation ended, we parted ways, and less than 15 minutes later everything was online,” he said. He particularly criticized the player Timo Baumgartl: “For me, Baumgartl had a very bad influence on the group.”
Geraerts was coach from October 2023 to September 21, 2024, before being fired after a series of conflicts and a disappointing season. Now he did the math. Read the most important statements here.
Karel Geraerts about…
… Timo Baumgartl, whom he demoted to the U23: “For me, Baumgartl had a very bad influence on the group. I’ve been in locker rooms long enough to know when someone is giving off negativity. Before I sent him away, there were several conversations. On the other hand, Drexler behaved unprofessionally at a time when I had agreed with the locker room that from now on everything should revolve around ‘the team’.”
… the conflict with staff planner Ben Manga: “I think he mostly clashed with me. Frankly, I don’t know what the reason was. There was this big interview after the transfer window in which he openly criticized me. I have never heard from him again since then. This hit Germany like a bomb. Everyone was talking about it. And Marc and I had to explain it in front of the cameras. Among other things, Manga thought I wouldn’t field his players. After that interview, the shit hit the fan while I didn’t know anything about it.”
…sports director Marc Wilmots, who was also fired: “I didn’t know Marc, but he surprised me in every way. As a person, as a football expert, as a mentor… He supported me a lot – it was a godsend to have him by my side. He was there at every training session and we talked a lot about football. During my time with Marc, after his arrival in January, I had the best time. A straight line up, with a technical director and a managing director (Matthias Tillmann, editor.). We won eight out of twelve games. And then came manga.”
… his last game, a 3:5 against Darmstadt, in which Schalke led 3:0: “That was the craziest game of my life. I came into the cabin and said to Tim and Peter (the assistants Smolders and Balette, the editor.): ‘Guys, forget it. We won’t survive this’. Since Manga’s interview, the pressure from the media has been too much.”
… his Schalke conclusion: “I certainly don’t regret it. I always felt like I had things under control. Despite all the excitement and limited resources. A good working relationship with the players, the fans and the media. At the beginning the press also noticed that I was straightforward. I didn’t take part in any games either. I felt like they appreciated me for that.”
SUF
