VfL is taking risks: After Adi Hütter and Daniel Farke, Gerardo Seoane signed a three-year contract as the new head coach of Borussia Mönchengladbach on Tuesday (06/06/2023). The two predecessors released sports director Roland Virkus after just one season – he now gets a new employee in addition to the coach.
His last name is well known in the Bundesliga. Nils Schmadtke will take over the position of “sports director license” at VfL, according to Virkus “Organizationally manage the licensed player area“In practice, the son of ex-keeper and now Liverpool manager Jörg Schmadtke should also take on larger parts of public relations. This has not been one of Virkus’ most popular areas of work so far, and he attended regular press conferences before Bundesliga games he takes part in a maximum of two-week intervals.
Several top players are leaving on a free transfer
But even with the upcoming complete sporting realignment of the squad, which caused Farke to fail, Virkus certainly needs every good idea and every helping hand. The big problem with that. There isn’t much money. As is well known, the top stars Marcus Thuram and Ramy Bensebaini as well as captain Lars Stindl went on a free transfer, a serious management error that many at VfL still blame on Virkus’ predecessor Max Eberl.
In order to provide Seoane with the players with whom the language genius (he speaks seven languages fluently) can implement his explosive switching football, Virkus, Schmadtke and Scoutig boss Steffen Korell should actually be able to do magic. Hütter despaired of exactly this approach, who admitted to the Sportschau request after his release in May 2022: “When I started here, I was promised new players who didn’t come.”
Farke would also have liked to have had faster players
It was similar with Farke, even if his football idea was never really recognizable. But at the end of the season he also clearly denounced the disparity between the composition of the squad and expectations: “Believe me that my team in Norwich was one of the best running and sprinting teams in the Premier League. Here the approach was a little different, the focus was on football, not on fighting and speed. Of course you want Florian Neuhaus , Chris Kramer, Alassane Plea, Lars Stindl, Julian Weigl or Tony Jantschke like to call out from the outside, now run faster. But that just wasn’t possible. And that’s why you have to add the things that are missing to this squad from the outside: speed, resilience, Appreciating every single league game and not just the highlight games.”
Farke would have liked to benefit from his clearly stated demands in the coming season. But Virkus apparently didn’t trust him with fast footballers what the club imagined. One of the pillars that Virkus had anticipated is now secured in Seoane. Farke let, and that went head-on against the DNA of the foals, the young players are largely on the left. Seoane, on the other hand, stands for the promotion of talent with his CV: he worked in Switzerland for eight years in the youth sector, then, with a lot of courage and youthful vigour, ensured the complete changing of the guard at the Young Boys Bern for FC Basel, which had dominated for years.
Departures from Neuhaus, Elvedi and Koné are possible
Virkus has to overcome a dilemma so that Seoane, who led Bayer Leverkusen furiously (80 goals) into the Champions League in his first season (80 goals), does not only have to rely on his talent for young players. First and foremost, he has to compensate for the departures, especially in the offensive area: Thuram and Stindl have 21 goals and 13 assists.
At the same time, Virkus and now Schmadtke junior also have to prevent several top-class players from leaving for free again next year: Nico Elvedi and Florian Neuhaus, among others, only have one year of contract left, if they don’t extend them, they would have to be sold now . The whereabouts of Manu Koné (contract until 2025) is also not certain, VfL would be willing to talk to him from a fee in the 30 million euro range.
Polanski and Geraerts in focus
Good new players aren’t here yet, good old players might yet go: Rebooting with Seoane couldn’t be more complicated. It is currently completely unclear with which staff the Swiss with a Spanish passport should implement his ideas. Virkus is all the more courageous to try such a long contract for a new coach for the third time in a row.
Virkus relies on Seoane’s “experience, which he has already gained despite his young age”. In the end, this spoke in Gladbach against the U-23 coach and ex-professional Eugen Polanski, who is currently building his UEFA Pro license and would have liked to take over the job. According to the Belgian newspaper “Nieuwsblad”, Karel Geraerts from the surprise club Union St. Giloise was also contacted. The 41-year-old is considered to be highly innovative, but has only spent one year as a coach at the top level. That was probably too risky for Virkus, given all the imponderables that had to be dealt with.