“Mistakes in sports planning”
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Clemens Fritz remains Werder Bremen’s sporting director even after a disappointing Bundesliga season. Following the long-planned season analysis, the supervisory board of the professional football company Werder Bremen GmbH & Co. KGaA voted 9-0 in favor of further collaboration with the 45-year-old former professional.
“Clemens demonstrated management skills during a major crisis and implemented measures during the season to significantly improve processes and coordination,” said a statement from the control committee. “Werder Bremen will consistently continue on the path of integrating young, promising players into the Bundesliga team, creating values and developing the club. Further groundbreaking steps were taken here with the signings of Kenny Quetant as well as the top talents Karlo Simic and Darwin Soylu.” Since Fritz’s promotion to sports director in the summer of 2024, the Green-Whites’ squad value has increased by 47 percent to 176 million euros.
However, the supervisory board also stated clearly: “Mistakes were made in the sporting planning and implementation, and there were also some misjudgments in the transfer policy. Unfortunately, the desired effect of the change of coach in the summer to Horst Steffen did not occur.” We therefore expect “stable development, consistency and offensive power” next season. Steffen’s successor Daniel Thioune has so far scored an average of 0.93 points from 14 games; under Steffen it was an average of 0.9 points (21 games).
Millions in revenue for Werder Bremen is the goal
As table 15th. With just 32 points, Werder narrowly avoided relegation last season. Fritz came under criticism primarily because of his squad planning last summer and his misjudgment of the loan arrangement. Centre-forward Victor Boniface, on loan from Bayer Leverkusen, turned out to be a transfer flop and Samuel Mbangula could not yet justify his transfer fee of 10 million euros. There were also many other loans that only partially worked out.
The sports director is currently working primarily on transfer income, which Bremen has been missing for years. Goalkeeper Mio Backhaus was sold to SC Freiburg on Saturday for 12 million euros. “The transfer of Mio Backhaus shows that Werder is able to train players at the highest level, create value and generate the necessary transfer revenue for the economic stability of our club,” said a statement from Werder. Jens Stage, who wants to go to TSG Hoffenheim, and Karim Coulibaly could also bring Werder high income. At 22 million euros, the latter is the most valuable professional in the squad, Stage is valued at 14 million euros.
Thioune announces “major change” at Werder Bremen
Coach Thioune also spoke about the team for the coming season, who has already discussed this with the new squad planner Markus Pilawa. “I presented him with the game idea and showed him which profiles we need. There will be a major change. Continuity is good, but sometimes changes are simply necessary,” said the 51-year-old in an interview with “Bild”. He “cannot yet estimate how many transfers there will be. The number of players on loan was high. We are still in discussions with some of them. What is certain is that we will change in some positions.” Werder had a total of seven players on loan in 2025/26.
The new arrivals must be physically robust, emphasized Thioune. “Above all, it’s about reliability. We had major concerns about injuries, many players were always out.” These problems should be avoided in the future, even with further changes in the regeneration phase.
Thioune doesn’t think much about his own future at the club. His working paper was extended by one year until 2027 due to his relegation. “When I was released in Düsseldorf, my contract ran for another two and a half years. It would no longer have been valid due to relegation at the latest. That’s why I’m not planning my future. I’m doing everything I can to stay in one place for as long as possible.”
