Roland Virkus quickly realized how unpleasant the task of crisis manager for a Bundesliga club can be. Hardly promoted as sports director to succeed the resigned Max Eberl, the 55-year-old had to after the 0: 6 bankruptcy at Borussia Dortmund – not the first oath of disclosure under Eberl’s dream coach Adi Hütter – explain why the Austrian football coach still deserves every backing.
For Virkus, who had worked in the youth field for over three decades, answering questions in front of the camera was new. On the question of whether the Gladbach professionals can also fight relegation, the former youth boss assured: “I say yes”. However, his predecessor said no. To his whole job profile.
Jörg Schmadtke also wants to get out of the hamster wheel – like Max Eberl
Eberl’s honest admission that it has to be about people because they simply don’t have the strength anymore, has found a lot of resonance within the industry. And it is no coincidence that Jörg Schmadtke no longer wants to be involved either: the managing director of VfL Wolfsburg announced last Friday (February 18, 2022) that he would extend his contract until January 31, 2023, but in truth it is a Withdrawal on installments.
In seven months it will be over: Schmadtke, who has been good friends with Eberl for many years, no longer wants to be stuck in the hamster wheel. However, he feels obliged to one or the other project that he has started “Now to accompany you a little further”. Otherwise he wants to pass the baton on to the sports director Marcel Schäfer, who he himself installed.
The league loses formative figures
With Eberl, 48, and Schmadtke, 57, the league loses two formative, above all reliable faces. Highly regarded among colleagues like the well-connected Fredi Bobic from Hertha BSC. The Berlin sports director made a name for himself as a workaholic during his time at Eintracht Frankfurt, going to the running track on the banks of the Main at six in the morning to get some exercise. The appointment calendar was usually full well into the evening.
Many sports directors and managing directors, doers and decision-makers found themselves in Eberl’s description of a grueling everyday life without a break – and unreservedly agreed with his criticism of the everyday mechanisms. The daily media hype, the constantly changing news situation, but also the many rumors and false reports, often deliberately controlled by interested (consultants) side, are part of the job (and also bring more and more money into the cycle), but they also consume on the nerves.
The constant availability is annoying
In addition: Hardly any other guild demands constant availability as naturally as they do. Trainers are allowed to switch off their cell phones at least on Sunday after the departure for a day or a day and a half until the next training session. player anyway. But managers never. “There are many who have never taken a single day’s vacation without spending half the day on their cell phone”is it[called
The fact that sales in professional football have almost doubled over the past decade and the importance of social networks has multiplied has not harmed managers financially, but it is costing them their quality of life. And at some point the point comes when even the best salary is not compensation for not being able to switch off at all.
Felix Magath has also sounded the alarm
In an interview with the trade magazine “Kicker”, Felix Magath revealed just how much this job absorbs a single person. The master maker from FC Bayern and VfL Wolfsburg, who at times held all the reins in his hands like an unassailable general as manager and trainer at VfL Wolfsburg and later also at FC Schalke 04, spoke for the first time about not being able to withstand the pressure anymore. “After my time at Schalke in 2011, I clearly had symptoms and was on the verge of burnout.”said Magath.
“For a year I had to constantly defend myself against criticism there, despite great successes such as second place in the Bundesliga. That broke me.” He then had intensive discussions with a professor in Tutzing at the Clinic for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, who would have helped him. “So I can understand that Eberl was pretty exhausted”explained the 68-year-old: “Everything is public. You are not protected, but used as fair game.”
More money, more employees, more responsibility
Apart from the fact that Magath didn’t treat his players or his team-mates with kid gloves, his sympathy for the Mönchengladbach master builder must make us prick up our ears. Actually, on closer inspection, it is also amazing that in this position the risk of burnout, which Ralf Rangnick, for example, suffered as head coach of FC Schalke 04 influencing all areas, is so rarely discussed.
Because it is then interpreted as a sign of weakness in the many negotiations that managers inevitably have to conduct? Or because they just have to push that pressure away? We hear from the Bundesliga that there is another development that has increased the risk of stress: the number of employees not only around the team but also in the office has grown steadily.
More people, more problems. “And fewer and fewer people dare to make decisions. In the end, you’re in my office.”, says a sports director. Behind the scenes, it is being suggested whether the managers should not allow themselves at least a short period of time after the transfer period in the summer from September 1st, when everyone can go on vacation and really switch off. A kind of gentleman’s agreement as self-protection.
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge enjoys the freedom
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, longtime CEO at FC Bayern, who has vacated his board office, recently said that his life is, hardly surprisingly, less exciting, less stressful. “When I stopped in the middle of last year, I went to my favorite island of Sylt for eight weeks to counteract possible withdrawal symptoms.” Because being at the controls of power, basking in the spotlight of success, can also be addictive.
Just like Heribert Bruchhagen, who, after leaving Eintracht Frankfurt in the summer of 2016, succumbed to the temptation less than six months later to be appointed CEO of Hamburger SV. The East Westphalian paid a high price for this and was heading for the first Bundesliga relegation in history when HSV parted ways with him in spring 2018.
Since then, Bruchhagen has not assumed any operational role. At the age of 73, he has apparently realized that life can be good even in retirement. Others should play the role of crisis manager.