VfB Stuttgart: Wehrle believes there is a chance of Guirassy staying

Defends himself against accusations from Cologne

Alexander Wehrle believes he can keep top striker Serhou Guirassy at VfB Stuttgart. “Serhou also consciously decided to join VfB last summer. We are in very close contact here. He feels extremely comfortable in the club and with his family in Stuttgart. He has a prominent position here. Of course we have a chance,” said the Swabians’ chairman in an interview with “Cologne City Gazette“.

Thanks to an exit clause in his contract, the 27-year-old should be able to leave VfB early in the winter for 17.5 million euros, according to media reports. There should be no shortage of interested parties, including Nottingham Forest and Fulham FC who were recently traded. In nine league games so far this season, Guirassy has scored 15 goals for the third-place team, which was rewarded with an increase in market value from 14 million to 40 million euros. Guirassy also recently said: “Things can happen quickly in football. I am here, my focus is here. But no one knows what will happen in January.”

In the summer of 2022, VfB brought the attacker from the French club Stade Rennes to the Bundesliga, where he was also under contract with Wehrle’s then employer 1. FC Köln between 2016 and 2019. At the beginning of 2019, the Cologne team sold him to SC Amiens for 6 million euros.

Wehrle defends himself against allegations from former club 1. FC Köln

Wehrle also defended himself against accusations from 1. FC Köln that he had left the club as a “restructuring case”. “If it was meant that way, it would be difficult for me to understand,” said the 48-year-old. “When I came to FC in January 2013, the financial situation was also difficult. “We gradually managed to build up 38.5 million euros in equity from our own resources – without any special effects,” explained the Swabian native.

In a board letter addressed to its more than 130,000 members, the “Effzeh” recently wrote, among other things, that the club was “on the verge of financial collapse after Corona and because of legacy financial burdens”. The current managing director Christian Keller also spoke about the “FC restructuring case” in “Doppelpass” last Sunday. Wehrle worked as managing director in Cologne for nine years until his departure last year. He then went to VfB Stuttgart.

Wehrle said he could understand the term “restructuring case” if it wasn’t just applied to 1. FC Cologne. “No Bundesliga club could plan ahead for something like the corona pandemic. We are talking about a loss of up to 100 million euros in sales. We had to take measures to ensure the club’s existence. You have to say it so clearly: Without the 38.5 million euros in equity, 1. FC Köln would no longer exist in the form it does today.”

Those responsible were forced to “strengthen equity and liquidity”. Participation rights were collected and future sponsorship income was brought forward. However, these measures were “of course coordinated in detail with the current board and the joint committee”.

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