The intact European Cup winner world of Eintracht Frankfurt was quickly caught up again by reality.
The short Supercup trip to Helsinki without a title and 2-0 against the superior star ensemble from Real Madrid indicated the big construction sites in Hesse before a tough autumn: coach Oliver Glasner has to replace two leading players in Filip Kostic and Martin Hinteregger, sports director Markus Krösche has to finish August to provide supplies for the Kostic position and President Peter Fischer is so angry about the fan problem that he bursts into tears on the open stage.
“Real was a number too big and is not our benchmark,” said Krösche in Helsinki. While the Hessians dreamed of the next international coronation before the showdown with Toni Kroos and Co., after the one-sided duel they were left with only pride, many silver medals and memories of a memorable trip through Europe in the past twelve months.
Eintracht Frankfurt is threatened with a tough autumn
For the hard autumn with permanent English weeks, that will help Eintracht little. The 1: 6 against Bayern and the 0: 2 against Real were defeats against absolute top clubs. Nevertheless, even before the Bundesliga game at Hertha BSC with ex-sports director Fredi Bobic on Saturday (3:30 p.m. / Sky), there is an acute risk of a false start.
“It really gnaws at me inside. It’s hard for me to accept something like that,” said head coach Oliver Glasner late at night, his battered players had already left the Olympic Stadium. Then the Eintracht bus drove at 1.35 a.m. local time into the balmy summer night of Helsinki – this time the winner’s party, which was almost usual in 2022, was cancelled, and most of the around 10,000 Frankfurt fans present had already made their way home.
Eintracht has a lot of work ahead of them. Glasner is in demand as a moderator and mentor, the Austrian must also deliver results and a better placement than eleventh place in the Bundesliga in the first year after the intoxicating Europa League title.
This has to succeed without wing star Kostic, who is drawn to Juventus Turin and who will be missed by the Hessians with his pace, his crosses and his rapid dribbling. Only small things are missing to complete the transfer.
How does Eintracht Frankfurt deal with Kostic’s departure?
“I think Kostic’s departure weighs very heavily. That was the best player last year. I don’t know if they’re still going to do it,” said real star Toni Kroos.
Glasner firmly assumes that the expected transfer fee of around 15 million euros will be invested at least in part in order to strengthen the left side again. “I’m assuming that we’ll get external access. Besides Christopher Lenz, we don’t have a left foot for this position. Something will happen here soon,” said Glasner.
UEFA boss threatens Eintracht Frankfurt
The fan problem will also continue to accompany Eintracht. Club boss Fischer got angry at the Fanfest on Wednesday and reported a threat from UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin.
“Yesterday I sat at the table of the UEFA President, who said very clearly: I have great sympathy for you, you have taken a great path. But if shit happens to you, then that means a ghost game in Frankfurt afterwards,” said Fischer the meeting on Tuesday evening. The fans had repeatedly made mistakes in the recent past.
The 66-year-old rebuked a supporter from the audience, who repeatedly called in Fischer’s remarks from the first row, in clear words: “I’ll let you throw me out of here now, I’m not in the mood for such idiot shit anymore, you just come never go to the stadium again, what do you want here?”
In the long party summer with intoxicating nights in Seville and Barcelona, such a scenery would have been unthinkable.