The managers at FSV Mainz 05 confirmed after the end of the Bundesliga season that they don't want to change anything about the size of their squad.

Bo Svensson wants to keep working with a manageable group where every player feels needed, where everyone has a chance to be in the squad at the weekend.

The coach accepts that this can lead to bottlenecks in exceptional cases, as was the case in the previous round due to corona on the first day of the game and in the middle of the second half of the season.

He prefers that to dragging around several dissatisfied actors who don't play a role and who might spread a bad mood.

In this respect, the club is currently on course with its transfer activities.

Four departures face four additions, after a year on loan Luca Kilian will also remain at 1. FC Köln for a fee of two million euros.

In terms of sport, only the loss of central defender Jeremiah St. Juste is significant.

Maxim Leitsch, brought from Bochum, has to stretch enormously to replace him.

Bo Svensson rightly points out "that we compensated Jeremiah for almost a year".

The fastest player of the season before last was hardly available because of two shoulder operations.

But the back three also worked with Stefan Bell, Moussa Niakhaté, Alexander Hack and the young Niklas Tauer.

"Silvan Widmer tried it a couple of times too" - the laugh with which Svensson accompanies this statement is his first admission that the Swiss right-back is not a man for central defence.

The approximately twelve million euros that Sporting Lisbon paid for St. Juste have a calming effect.

Money that Mainz needs to improve the quality of the squad, even if sports director Christian Heidel emphasizes that the club has survived the corona pandemic well, better than some comparable competitors.

Daniel Brosinski and Kevin Stöger, who could not get past sporadic assignments, have not received any new contracts.

And Jean-Paul Boëtius, it is said, was not one hundred percent enthusiastic about staying in Mainz.

However, it can be assumed that the sporting management of the club was no different.

The offensive man was always good for special moments, for brilliant passes or a goal - but only every now and then.

In his four years in Mainz, the Dutchman did not manage to develop from a scene player to a constant, reliable player.

In the less good moments, of which there were a lot, his style of play was counterproductive.

 future of the captain

It is one thing that the joker Boëtius will be missing from the team and also from some fans.

In terms of football, Mainz will certainly not get less from Aymen Barkok, along with returnee Danny da Costa one of the two additions to Eintracht Frankfurt.

One of the open questions is about the future of the captain: will Niakhaté also leave the club?

Or will he stay for another season and be able to leave on a free transfer in the summer of next year?

Or does he even extend to increased salaries and with an opt-out clause for a fixed sum?

Everything seems possible at the moment.

"We would not like to let him go next year without a fee," says sports director Heidel.

"But we will definitely not give him up now without having a plan B." In case of doubt, it is more important to play a good next season than to make money by selling the captain.

Niakhaté feels very comfortable in Mainz and doesn't feel the urge to leave.

Apparently there have not been any inquiries from other clubs that come close to the St. Juste size.

That's surprising because the Frenchman, unlike the Dutchman, contested an entire season at a high level.

The 05ers want to step up their game on the offensive, it should be a fast striker.

In this context, it might not be uninteresting that Hamburger SV missed out on promotion to the Bundesliga on Monday evening – this may mean that 22-goal man Robert Glatzel can be brought back to Mainz, where he is on loan in the second half of the 2020/21 season was.