Even Christian Streich is worried about FC Schalke 04. The second relegation is getting closer.
Christian Streich wished his fellow coach Thomas Reis “all the best” and went home – with mixed feelings.
His SC Freiburg is playing the best season in 23 years in the Bundesliga, is in the round of 16 in the Europa League and in the DFB Cup, but his secret love Schalke 04 worries him.
The situation of the bottom of the table is “difficult”, said Breisgauer’s cult coach after their 2-0 (1-0) victory to “SID”: “It’s about cohesion now, not so much unrest. But that’s not so easy in Such a big club. It’s easier for us.”
Streich had an offer from Schalke
Streich, the longest-serving Bundesliga coach, who met the youngest-serving coach on Sunday evening, could have sat on the Royal Blues’ bench himself. Nine years ago, after being asked by then manager Horst Heldt, he seriously considered a move to Gelsenkirchen, but decided against it. “It would have torn me to leave Freiburg,” he said. “I don’t even know if I could have coached another team.”
The self-confessed fan of the Ruhr area and its traditional clubs has now been the Freiburg head coach for almost eleven years. Reis is number 16 on the Schalke bench in the same period. Before the game on Sunday, he “rided his bike onto the dump,” said Streich, “the pot is unbelievable. It’s an experience to be here.”
Streich: Schalke used to have “a lot more money”
During the descent a year and a half ago, Streich had said goodbye to Schalke with a declaration of love. It is a “club that you just like”, he will “miss it totally”. Now, after the seventh competitive game defeat, which Reis was unable to prevent just three days after his commitment, there is a risk of another crash – and Streich names the main problem: “They used to have a lot more money.”
The figures that the Royal Blues recently presented are indeed alarming: in the first half of the year, Schalke again made a loss of almost 20 million euros, liabilities decreased only minimally to 182 million, negative equity grew by 20 to 109 million. A second relegation within three years would possibly be life-threatening, a renewed “exercise”, as CFO Christina Rühl-Hamers called the past second division year, probably hardly possible.
Reis will push for signings
Reis, who surprisingly led VfL Bochum to stay up in the league last season, said after his Schalke debut with regard to the performance: “There must definitely be more.” He will push for reinforcements during the World Cup break, he announced, “of course that’s my duty.”
However, the rigid austerity course will not allow many opportunities on the transfer market. Especially since Peter Knäbel, responsible for possible commitments after the sudden resignation of sports director Rouven Schröder, claims: “This squad is good enough.”