Promoted with Schalke
“Back then we had lost a lot of what makes this club what it is. We no longer lived our own values, we no longer protected each other. It was all about ego. The condition of FC Schalke took me a lot at the time,” says Schalke coach Mike Büskens in “table football“ to the situation after the Bundesliga relegation last summer. Almost a year later, the 54-year-old is promoted and second division champion coach – and has a large part in the fact that the mood in and around the club has turned positive again. Nevertheless, Büskens wants to return to the second row. In terms of squad, the coach announces changes.
Büskens took over the “Royal Blues” at the beginning of March after the 3: 4 defeat against Rostock, after which the club parted ways with Dimitrios Grammozis. In an interview with the magazine, he revealed that he had problems with his new role at the beginning of his time as interim coach: “A few years ago I made a conscious decision not to want to be in this front row anymore. I have to admit that I wasn’t really able to fulfill the role as interim coach at first, at least for my own feelings. I felt somehow wrong, even after the decision had already been made. (…) I had already completed this part of my life as the person with the main responsibility in the front row.”
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Born in Düsseldorf, who, with 306 games played as an active professional, is one of the top 20 S04 record players, ultimately let himself be convinced of the task “in interesting and also wild conversations” with colleagues such as Gerald Asamoah (Head of the Licensed Players Department). “I won’t say anything about the content, but what I can say is that it was mostly honest talks,” says Büskens, who held the interim post in Gelsenkirchen in 2008 (from Mirko Slomka) and 2009 (from Fred Rutten ) had taken over at the end of each season.
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Büskens on pressure: “24/7 the only thoughts revolve around the club”
The role of the head coach at traditional clubs like FC Schalke is “amazing. It gives you an enormous amount of strength, but of course it drains you. (…) I don’t know when I’ve had a good night’s sleep in the past few weeks. 24/7 the only thoughts revolve around the club, the team and individual players. You don’t want to disappoint people’s hopes and meet your own expectations. I felt the pressure at the beginning of my interim job, when we had lost touch with the promotion places, was greater than it is now at the end of the season. Of course we were under pressure, but it felt different for me. I felt it and of course it gnaws at you, but I didn’t feel it as a burden.”
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Büskens started on the sidelines with a series of five wins in a row and put the team back on the right track. Overall, Schalke only suffered one defeat under his leadership against the later runners-up Werder Bremen – with an average of 2.63 points per game, the coach catapulted himself to first place in the club’s internal coach ranking.
The praise for the performance is due to his players: “These are positive crazy people, sometimes like wild horses that you have to catch, but you just have to love them. You just have to love this whole team.” How things will continue at FC Schalke 04 in terms of coaching and squad planning is open. Twelve contracts with the Knappen expire on June 30, including that of top performer and Man City loan Ko Itakura. Other personal details such as Andreas Vindheim from Sparta Prague on loan (one goal in seven games since January) are unclear.
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Büskens “didn’t want to talk about it in detail, because that wouldn’t do justice to the promotion team, which has achieved great things for Schalke. But it must be strengthened, in all parts. Of course we need reinforcements, and things will change again – if only because contracts are ending or players are perhaps not so satisfied with their role. That’s always the case. We need a replacement for every squad position that becomes available.”
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This job now belongs to Rouven Schröder, to whose work Büskens takes his hat off in view of the past year. The sports director had radically turned the S04 squad upside down after the Bundesliga relegation and got rid of financial inheritance. “How he dealt with the tricky personnel situations at the time and then re-equipped this squad with character and footballing class – I think Rouven was the king transfer for Schalke.”
It is clear for Büskens that he will retire to the second rank after a successful task, he told the “Kicker”: “I get along very well in my role as assistant coach. As mentioned at the beginning: This is what I want. where I feel good. Where I have a good and comprehensive view of young players and can support them on their way to becoming a seasoned professional. The new coach will know I’m not after his job. I only have one thing in mind: to support the new coach with words and deeds. What we need now is continuity. We have already made progress in many areas and should continue with the new coach.”
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