2nd league
Gelsenkirchen (dpa) – The successor to Dimitrios Grammozis is still stuck in the home office. After parting ways with the previous head coach, second division soccer club FC Schalke 04 is waiting for interim coach Mike Büskens to return.
The previous assistant coach will initially look after the team from his desk at home after a positive corona test. “We hope that he’ll be on the bench for Sunday’s game at FC Ingolstadt and come back early,” said sporting director Rouven Schröder. “He will not miss any training. We will install cameras for him so that he can follow the units from home,” explained Schröder.
Schalke’s sports director emphasized that the separation from Grammozis on Sunday was not a gut decision, but a “development process.” After the 3:4 defeat against Hansa Rostock, the club saw its promotion goal in jeopardy. “We’re ambitious and we’ll try to do everything we can to achieve that. We still have a chance, even if we’re six points behind,” said Schalke’s sporting director. Now it is time to conjure up the community. In the last nine games he now expects “full throttle. Mike is the one who can do it. We feel the power from him,” said Schröder.
Simon Henzler goalkeeping coach again
To support Büskens, the club also hired an old acquaintance as the new goalkeeping coach. Simon Henzler, who parted ways last summer after working together for six years, is now taking over the job of his successor, Wil Coort. “He’s under contract with us and knows Schalke inside out. So it was the logical decision for us,” explained Schröder. Since the interim coach and his other assistant Matthias Kreutzer are already on Schalke’s payroll and Grammozis’ contract expires at the end of the season anyway, the club did not have to make any financial strides in its difficult economic situation.
For Büskens, who played for the club for more than ten years and won the UEFA Cup with Schalke in 1997 and later the DFB Cup twice, the task is not new. Born in Düsseldorf, he has stepped in as an interim coach at Schalke several times. And it shouldn’t be more. “He wasn’t waiting for it and didn’t have the right to work as a head coach,” said Schröder.
Büskens spoke to his family and long-time Schalke coach Huub Stevens – and then agreed. Until summer. Then Schalke want to reposition themselves again. “Then we want a head coach who represents what we want with the utmost conviction, who is satisfied with what he has and leads us into the future,” said Schalke’s sporting director.