"Schalke's performance has really been bad. It's a microcosm of the entire season, and they've tarnished Schalke's history. The rankings in the standings are a true reflection of the team's performance, they make a lot of mistakes and many players don't come up with the performance they deserve. I just feel sorry for the fans, for the players and the club staff, they don't deserve sympathy. —Mateus
The "European Super League" incident continued to detonate the network, and the news of Schalke 04's demotion failed to stir up too much of a splash. For fans who have long followed Real Blue, it is more like a long-foreseen and belated "trial". From the Champions League final four to the Bundesliga runner-up, from a regular in the Europa League to a league deputy squad leader with a bottom record, Schalke 04 fell from the clouds at an astounding speed. Since the middle of last season, the curse of bad luck has plagued everyone at the club, and the century-old store may only be able to achieve rebirth in the extreme way of relegation.
01, the sad "millennium old two", the challenger chaos
Schalke 04 has a long history and a strong fan base, and the well-known European youth training dream factory continues to export talents. Although gelsenkirchen is only a small mining town with a population of less than 300,000, the commercial development capacity of Schalke 04 is not bad. Thanks to gazprom's huge sponsorship, decent TV share, and low signings and player salary expenses, Schalke 04 has maintained considerable cash flow and a relatively desirable debt ratio all year round.
The book data is very beautiful, Schalke 04 is now reduced to relying on salary limits to maintain operations, and the team's management level does not dare to compliment.
In the 2010/11 season, Rangnick led Schalke 04 to the final four of the Champions League, leaving a two-legged 7-3 victory over defending champions Inter Milan. After winning the UEFA Cup in 1996/97, Schalke 04 was once again at the centre of European football and the club's reputation reached new heights. 'Schalke will eventually bring the trophy back, sooner or later we will become Bundesliga champions, and if the title changes hands in the event of Bayern's defeat, Schalke has to be ready at all times." When Klopp led Dortmund to win the Bundesliga salad plate, Schalke 04, also from the Ruhr area, was not willing to be lonely, and Tunis's bold words were deafening. Surprisingly, Schalke 04 has not only failed to take off the hat of "Millennium Old Two" since then, but has lost its way due to the rush for success, and finally fell into the abyss in free fall.
The irreversible decline, meritorious coach Stevens is also helpless.
Since the founding of the Bundesliga (1963/64), Schalke 04 has been runners-up six times, four of which have passed the champions in the final round. Neither the meritorious head of the cult, Hub Stevens, nor the respected Ralph Lannick, nor the aggressive Domenik Tedesco, failed to help Schalke 04 complete the qualitative transformation. Rulder is hot year after year, but Schalke 04 has never built a "sub-space" between Bayern Munich and other Bundesliga teams like Borussia Dortmund.
After Rangnick left office, Schalke 04 entered a decade-long period of chaos. Neither Andre braitenwett, Marcus Weinzier, Domenico Tedesco and David Wagner, nor Jens Keller and Robert Di Matteo with the aura of a winner, nor the second-in-command coach Stevens and Lannick, who have the aura of a hit youngster, could not succeed in Schalke 04. In the ongoing 2020/21 season, Schalke 04 executives used the so-called "shock therapy" to the extreme, David Wagner, Manuel Baum, Hub Stevens, Christian Gross and Dimitrios Gramozis appeared, these different styles of managers were invariably defeated, and Real Blue was relegated to the Bundesliga with a poor record in Tasmania Berlin that year.
Before this bad season, Schalke 04 had spent too many years blindly changing coaches.
02, the springboard of the star, the waterloo of the young marshal
In the face of year-after-year brain drain, the top management of Schalke 04 has not been able to come up with effective "hemostasis" measures. Although he has also introduced a professional management team for the club, tried to emulate the Premier League club's introduction of an informal transfer executive committee to take charge of specific affairs, hoping to rely on famous coaches to enhance the competitiveness of the team, Tunis still took too many detours in the process of building a modern corporate management system for Schalke 04. Without the golden partners of Vátsk & Klopp, Reuter & Weinzier, the manager+manager's double-headed management system has brought only infighting to Schalke 04, and many young managers with good business ability but lack of management experience have paid a heavy price.
Tedesco fell from the clouds and Schalke 04 lost his last chance.
After Di Matteo and Breitenwright, Weinzier's defeat was a lament, and Domenek-Tedesco's high and low walk became the fuse for Schalke 04 to fall into the abyss. As a rising star on a par with Nagelsmann at Weissweiler Academy, Tedesco showed amazing boldness in his first season in the Bundesliga, first purging the "team committee" composed of Hvedes, Huntelaer, Gas and Ogo, and then launching a surprising tactical revolution around the three-centre-back system.
Although he eventually led Schalke 04 to a runner-up in the Bundesliga in 2017/18 and left behind the first leg of the Rulder derby Jedi strikes back to draw 4-4 with their opponents, in most of the games, Tedesco's team can not control the situation, can only passively cope with the opponent's attack, many victories come from the flexibility of the players in the frontcourt, and the traces of sharp offensive football in the era of Stevens and Lannick have disappeared. In the end, he finished second by 21 points behind the top team, which is enough to show that the Real Blues under Tedesco are far from the level of competing for the Bundesliga title.
Talented players have left the team one after another, and Schalke 04 has not only failed to make a lot of money, but also has not been able to find their replacement.
Compared to Dortmund, which is good at relying on an efficient scouting system to achieve low buying and high selling, Schalke 04's old-school model of relying on youth training to cultivate talents is thankless. The return that Matip, Sane, Goretzka and Max Meier brought for Schalke 04 when they left the team was less than a fraction of the proceeds from Dortmund's sale of Osman Dembele, and no club could afford such a serious blood loss. After the "genius four", Schalke 04 Academy did not emerge a successor of equal strength to them, and the first team's record immediately showed a catastrophic decline.
In the summer window of 2018, Schalke 04 helplessly let go of Tilo Korel, Goretzka and Max Meyer, but did not supplement accordingly, went to the United States to participate in training and warm-up matches but ignored the system's pre-season preparation, and suffered five consecutive defeats at the beginning of the league. The young Tedaisco lacked the means to survive in adversity, frequent changes in the starting lineup and the dethronement of the core of the organization, Amin Ali, all exacerbated the chaos to some extent, and the young marshal eventually hit the "second-grade wall". Falling from runner-up to 14th place in the league, suffering a bloodbath from Manchester City in the Champions League round of 16, Schalke 04's defeat in the 2018/19 season is a natural disaster, and Tedesco gave up his position and went to Sparta Moscow to continue chasing his dreams.
The summer window sent McKenni away, the winter window loaned Kabak, and the mired Schalke 04 is still sending away the powerful players, and the mysterious operation is puzzling.
03, irregular trial and error, no lower limit of depravity
Since the Timesco era, Schalke 04 has gradually moved away from the arms race of the Second Group, and operating costs have been repeatedly reduced. Known as "Klopp Jr." when he debuted, David Wagner has actually lost his aura during his time at Huddersfield, and the reason why he was able to win the favor of Schalke 04 senior executives was mainly because he had many years of experience in coaching middle and lower teams, "not afraid of failure" and "no requirements" for reinforcements.
This season, Schalke 04 coach is the banner of the city's changing king, and the chaos of the team can be seen.
Before the winter break of the 2019/20 season, Schalke averaged 1.75 points per game in 04 games, David Wagner became the highest average points manager in the history of the Royal Blue Team, Amin Alli, who lost his aura under Tedesco, regained the feeling of playing, and the likes of Salif Sane, Mascarel, Zelda and Nubel also played. However, from the 5-goal defeat at home to RB Leipzig (2020.02.03), Schalke 04 lost the feeling of winning and ended with an embarrassing 16-game winless record. At the time of the covid-19 pandemic, Tunis's meat factory was hit hard, and the club was not only unable to attract reinforcements, but also needed to further limit salaries, and even the cost of firing the employer manager could not afford it.
Tunis tried his best to reduce the club's expenses, and Reschke had nothing to do and became a "back cooker".
Unfortunately, Wagner did not cherish such a rare opportunity, Schalke 04 lost to Bayern Munich and Bremen in the first two games of the season, and the defense was penetrated by opponents a total of 11 times. In the face of overwhelming public criticism, Schalke 04 executives were forced to fire Wagner, and Manuel Baum became a firefighter. As the season progressed, Schalke 04's top brass made many adjustments to save the situation, including firing Reschke and Ibisevic, placing Naldo as an assistant coach to motivate the players, and heavily punishing Amin Ali and Bentaleb for "setting an example"... However, the effect of these operations did not improve the team's record, and the team of "many players who could not play in the Bundesliga" performed like a mess on the field.
Gross has been away from the top flight for a long time, unable to play the thorn in the locker room, and encountered "military advice".
When the top asked Christian Gross to make a final attempt, Schalke 04 was already hard to return. Too long away from the top league, lack of excellent resume, tactical deployment is difficult to convince the public, the Swiss coach is powerless to suppress the chaotic situation, with a record of 1 win, 2 draws and 8 losses hastily ended the Bundesliga journey. When Gramozzius took office, Schalke 04's point difference from the safe zone had reached double digits, and how to finish the season decently and prepare for the Bundesliga in advance became the main task of the Greek coach.
In a period of 15 months, Schalke 04 has won only two Bundesliga matches, and too many so-called big-name players have not contributed.
04
On the night of Schalke's 04 relegation, 500 fans invaded the training base and clashed with the players. The charm of Schalke 04 is rooted in the accumulation of history, but also from the passion of reality, fans can endure the torture of years without a chance with the championship, but cannot tolerate the team being "defiled" in an unacceptable way.
In the past, every match day, the prosperous scene of The Crowded Alleys of Gelsenkirchen has always pinned the emotions and beliefs of countless believers. Over the past year, the crowded Filtins have fallen silent, lost the support of the fans, and the blow to the Real Blues in the empty game is immeasurable, and relegation may be the best relief.
The Bundesliga history is full of inspirational dramas, with inspiring stories of Kaiserslautern, Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig. According to the "size" of Schalke 04, it is not difficult for them to return to the Bundesliga as soon as possible, and it is not a fool's dream to create glory again. However, with the lessons of Munich 1860 and Hamburg, and considering the recent series of mysterious operations by the top management headed by Tunis, the Road to the Bundesliga of the Royal Blues is destined to be uneven.