The sponsors are satisfied. A wall with the logos of the companies behind Domenico Tedesco, here in the cramped room on the large construction site at the park stadium. There they will train the same, the footballers of the FC Schalke 04, under the guidance of coach Tedesco. "Not public", as this is now also the registered club to the rule, who boasts of his fan-proximity.
The last table-13 unit. before the Bundesliga match at the 14th, the FC Augsburg, is on. "We need points, we can count, we can read the table," says Tedesco. He is 33 years old. His first season with the Schalke ended in second place. For a few months, it's the other way. "I would be lying if I said that it all leaves me cold, the situation is hugely painful," says the young coach.
The question and answer unit in the small booth is the replacement for the usual press conference. As a rule, there are coffee and Mettbrötchen in the big arena, as well as three employees of the FC Schalke, who give answers on the podium. Apart from Tedesco, the managers are Christian Heidel and Axel Schuster, the "Senior Director of Professional Football". Schuster is hardly known outside the royal blue community. Heidel knows him for a long time, at 1. FSV Mainz 05 Schuster was already the assistant of the manager.
Heidel has been silent since Tuesday
It has happened more often, especially in weeks with European matches, that Tedesco informs the journalists alone. The grumbling about it - if there was one at all - turned out to be very quiet. Anyone who wanted to know something about Heidel called him. Media with a permanent presence in the Schalke market have always and willingly received information.
Heidel has been silent since Tuesday. That may well be considered a strategy. On Tuesday, after the 1-0 in the Champions League against Lokomotiv Moscow, Heidel has made a plea for Christian Heidel. Tenor: Heidel tolerates no one on the side of Heidel, except the faithful and colorless Axel Schuster.
At (TV) -Stammtischen, fan forums, trams, barber shops and comment columns, the club after the 1: 2 in the derby against Borussia Dortmund has been suggested to undertake sporting competence, which advises Heidel in the future, who should be committed as a player.
Even the most powerful man in the club, Supervisory Board Chairman Clemens Tönnies, recommended this, albeit cluttered and a bit crowded. "Nobody needs to apply to us, there is no need," said Heidel, "attitudes below the board are decided by the board." At this reference to the statute hung a friendly greeting to Clemens Tönnies, with the Heidel wants to have pronounced.
Tedesco gets advice from the century coach
Since the hustle and bustle on Tuesday evening, managers and supervisory board chairman remain silent. So the volume in the discussion about Heidel transfer transactions should be down regulated. Tedesco helps: "When it comes to decisions, everyone is always on board." He also likes to get advice from Huub Stevens. That's new, at least Tedesco has never said it publicly before.
This too can be interpreted as a strategy. Tedesco, who likes to make football seem like a science, listens to the grumpy Dutchman, the counterpart of a laptop coach. Schalke of all generations, unite!
Stevens, who won the Uefa Cup with Schalke in 1997, has been voted "century coach" by the fans. He is currently on the Supervisory Board and therefore decides on the composition of the Executive Board. Stevens can lower or raise his thumb when it comes to Christian Heidel, whose contract is valid until 2020.
At Schalke, where turbines used to be almost always reliably turbulent, it had recently become quite atypical. Since the lost derby, however, is in public - sometimes relish - settled with the manager and his transfer policy. Sebastian Rudy, Omar Mascarell, Seat Serdar: Each of these players tasted ten million euros or more last summer. Their sporting value for FC Schalke has been very low.
This is now on the table, as the relegation places are close, the defense holey, the offensive harmless. Whether he was puzzled by the fierce debate over the public dispute between Heidel and Tönnies, Tedesco was also asked in the cramped booth. He hesitates for a long time, then he says: "Amazed? At Schalke?"