Contract was not renewed
Central defender James Lawrence has moved to 1. FC Nürnberg on a free transfer. The 29-year-old Welshman was active for FC St. Pauli for a total of three years until the end of June. He described the Hamburg club, for which he was on the field 54 times (one goal), in one Interview with the “Millerton” as “something very special”. With the brown and whites he noticed “how happy I was”. Lawrence had imagined the end of his time at St. Pauli differently – not because he was sad that his contract was not extended, but because the club management around sports director Andreas Bornemann had never communicated this decision to him in a reasonable way.
“It wasn’t fair,” said Lawrence, who revealed that he was apparently not the only player who was not told, or only very late, that St. Pauli was no longer planning with them. Before the expiration of nine player contracts head coach Timo Schultz had already noted critically in April: “It’s a pity that we haven’t had a new stand at all since December. Little has happened in the last three or four months. I’m in constant contact with the players and my assistant coaches and then we’ll wait and see.”
Lawrence stated: “I can only speak about my experiences and what I went through. I found out two days before the end of the season that my contract would not be extended.” In December there were still good talks about an extension – the club signaled that they wanted to take this step. In addition, there was a clause that would have automatically expanded the working paper for a certain number of operations. However, Lawrence missed seven games in the second half of the season due to injury and illness and was therefore no longer part of the permanent staff for the rest of the time.
Lawrence: Had St. Pauli said he had to go ‘that would have been fine’
“There was little to no communication then for the next six months,” Lawrence said. “We tried to get in touch, but there was simply no reply. I know I wasn’t the only one, it happened to a lot of players.” He was convinced that this lack of communication from the club caused a lot of frustration among the players: “In my opinion, they should have just talked to us. If they don’t know, that’s fine, but then at least they should communicate that. If they had said: ‘We don’t know yet, you can look for other options’, then that would have been fine, but they didn’t.”
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Even if changing clubs is not uncommon in professional football, Lawrence has played in London, Amsterdam, Trencin, Brussels and Hamburg since he was young, a certain degree of planning security is important: “We didn’t know where we would be next season, whether we would still live in Hamburg or not. We all have apartments, there were players with newborn children, families, daughters. I think we deserve a little more respect here. Not just because we still played for St. Pauli, but also for everything we gave to the club. It’s really a shame to be honest.”
There were even teammates who weren’t even informed about St. Pauli’s plans after the end of the season: “They didn’t have a chance to say goodbye to the fans. A player found out about it via social media. It really is a shame.”
FC St. Pauli lost promotion: Lack of communication a factor for Lawrence
In view of the long unclear situation regarding league membership, St. Pauli played for promotion to the Bundesliga until shortly before the end, it was not easy for the club to plan. However, Lawrence suspects that this lack of communication has also meant that some players have not reached their absolute maximum: “It’s tough, but we’re professionals, we have to put that aside and do our best. We can do that, but I don’t think it’s possible to completely block out these thoughts. I think something like that will always account for a few percent.”
St. Pauli have only won three of their last ten league games, dropping them from the top of the table to fifth place. Lawrence continued: “We can say that it shouldn’t affect our performances, but realistically it certainly will. It’s not a big difference in performance, we’re talking tiny fractions here, but it will have had an effect.”
What I find so strange about this whole story is that the media landscape knew for many weeks in advance which contracts should be renewed and which should not. In the end, the information was correct 1 to 1. And the players didn’t know about it then? Only in the case of Simon, Jannes and Adam were decisions really close to being made. Something definitely didn’t go quite right, but it all raises a lot of questions for me. James has in the inter …
Even if the club had told him in the spring that they didn’t want to extend, there wouldn’t have been this percentage loss, Lawrence said: “There are a number of reasons for this: First, because that’s how I am personally. Secondly, because I love the club and wish it the greatest possible success. And thirdly, because I have to find a new club, show myself fit and ready, show that I can play at a high level, because I want to go to the best possible club. And of course, when I come from a club that was very successful last season, for example promoted to the Bundesliga, then you have a completely different face on the transfer market.” The worst thing was “simply not knowing anything”.
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