Schalke in upheaval | Bundesliga at a bargain price

That’s why club icon Fischer wants one thing above all from Kramer: courage. What he means by that in concrete terms is made clear by the personal details of Simon Terodde:

“It was rumored that Terodde wasn’t for the Bundesliga because he hadn’t scored that many goals in his previous top-flight seasons. But why did he have such poor returns? Because his teams, like Cologne and Stuttgart, played too scared football. Terodde is a full-blooded penalty striker. When the ball reaches him in the penalty area, he always knows where the goal is. That’s why Kramer Schalke have to play brave football.”

So Fischer calls on Kramer to take sporting risks. After all: The ex-Bielefeld player will not become a big financial risk in the event of a possible failure at Schalke. Kramer accepts the local conditions without a murmur and does without a functional team that he put together himself. That means: In the event of a premature separation, Schalke would only have to get Kramer off the payroll. Bundesliga at a bargain price.

Should the Bavarian fail at Schalke, he is unlikely to drag Schröder down with him. The credit that the sports director has built up with the club management and fans over the past twelve months is too great.

This also became clear at the general meeting last Sunday. In his speech, one fan described Schröder as a “Kaiser transfer”, another thanked the 46-year-old that Schalke was able to get the fans excited again due to his squad planning. Even his boss joined in the hymns of praise: “Rouven Schröder is perhaps the most important commitment of the past summer,” said sporting director Peter Knäbel, “he has made a significant contribution to recovery with his 50 transfers.”

Club legend Fischer strikes a similar note. “Last season Rouven used his creativity to bring the best possible players to Gelsenkirchen for the small thaler Schalke had available. That gives me the feeling that Schalke are in good hands with him,” said the top scorer of 1976.

However, emphasizing the sports director’s strengths also gives Fischer food for thought – and makes him settle accounts with one of Schröder’s predecessors: “Rouven cannot be compared with a Christian Heidel, who spat big tones, had a lot of money available and did it for Incompetents like Sebastian threw Rudy and Nabil Bentaleb out of the window. It is also because of him and his transfers that Rouven is in the predicament he is in now with Schalke.”