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On Friday the personified past drove up to Berger Feld, the Schalke club area.
Hubertus Jozef Margaretha, called Huub, Stevens is back.
At 2 p.m. FC Schalke 04 presented their new old coach at a digital press conference - at 3 p.m. the Dutchman (“I'm not a Dutchman”) trudged onto the training ground with the team.
The whole day felt unreal.
Not least for Stevens himself. “I had other plans,” said the now 67-year-old, who a year and a half ago - on his last engagement at Schalke - said he would never return to the bank.
But things turned out differently again.
“The blue and white heart is still beating.
And if the club gets into trouble, you can't say no, ”he explained.
When he told Toos, his wife, that he would do it again, she only wished him "Merry Christmas".
When asked how he was personally motivated to approach the task, he replied: “I'm on fire.” Then he paused and grinned broadly.
Stevens takes his comeback again with a due position of self-irony.
There are no long-term considerations behind it
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The decision to release Manuel Baum with immediate effect and to instruct Stevens to take the team to the last Bundesliga game of the year on Saturday against Arminia Bielefeld (3.30 p.m., in the sports ticker of the WELT) and to the cup game against SSV Ulm on Tuesday to discontinue grew out of sheer desperation.
There is no concept, no long-term considerations behind it - it's just an attempt to do something, almost reminiscent of voodoo magic.
According to the motto: Since it cannot go on like this, we do something.
So that nobody can say we haven't done anything.
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“The home game against Bielefeld is of immense importance for our club.
The disappointing performance against SC Freiburg (0-2) showed us that the team needs new impetus in order to be able to play the game successfully.
We trust Huub Stevens and Mike Büskens to do just that, ”said Sports Director Jochen Schneider.
Büskens, who was part of the “Eurofighter” team under Stevens, which won the Uefa Cup in 1997, will assist Stevens as an assistant.
This is the fourth time that Stevens has taken on responsibility for a Schalke team, although he had built up his reputation in his first time from 1996 to 2002.
Back then, the royal blue world was still intact: Together with the charismatic manager Rudi Assauer, Stevens developed a team that could move up to the top tier of the Bundesliga.
An ultra-modern arena was built.
There were years of new beginnings in which Stevens acquired a reputation that led to the fact that he was chosen by the fans as Schalke's "coach of the century".
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His other engagements, however, were classic emergency solutions.
After Ralf Rangnick said goodbye in September 2011 because of a burnout syndrome, the "growl from Kerkrade" returned and led the team into the Champions League.
In the following season, despite a good start, he did not succeed in developing the team.
Even then it became clear that the development of football - towards an offensive style based on pressing - had passed him by.
After seven games without a win, he was given leave of absence by then manager Horst Held just before Christmas 2012.
"When I went to training and saw that Horst was already there, I knew what was happening," said Stevens at the time: "He's never been in the office that early."
In March 2019, Stevens had to step in in dire straits after Domenico Tedesco despaired of a team that was as desperate as the current one.
Together with Büskens, also at his side back then, Schalke scored ten points by the end of the season and secured a place in the class on the penultimate match day.
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Even so, the situation in 2019, as serious as it was, wasn't nearly as difficult as the one Stevens is currently finding.
The time to act on the team has never been so short - the mental state of the players has never been so damaged.
Schalke has not won 28 Bundesliga games in a row across all seasons.
Baum, who only took over from David Wagner at the end of September, could not win a single out of ten Bundesliga games.
In the end, he was downright let down by the team.
“I think it's harder than 2019 because we're at the bottom now.
The team has little confidence, ”said Stevens, also pointing out that it was currently being considered that he should only coach the team for two games.
But even he doesn't seem to be there for sure.
“Let yourself be surprised,” he said, quoting his compatriot Rudi Carrell.
Back: Huub Stevens was Schalke coach for 241 games the first time, 63 for the second and ten for the third time
Source: dpa / Fabian Strauch
This statement looks deep.
Nobody knows how things will go from bottom of the table.
The "decision-making" as to who should follow Stevens in January is "not yet complete," said Schneider.
Reports that Friedhelm Funkel would then take over from Stevens initially turned out to be false.
“There is no contact at all.
I am and will remain a pensioner, "said the 67-year-old Funkel the" Express ".
So at least he can enjoy his retirement.
240 million in debt, 85 million due this fiscal year
For Stevens, however, it remains to be hoped that he has already made the garden of his house in Eindhoven - a koi carp pond is his pride and place - ready for winter.
Because it does not seem impossible that he will be needed for significantly more than just the two games until Christmas.
After all, Schalke is not only in a sporting way, but also in economic difficulties: The club has around 240 million euros in debt, of which around 85 million will be due in the current financial year.
With Wagner and Baum, there are now two exempted trainers on the payroll and are an additional burden on the budget.
"It is important to keep contracts," said Schneider: "That is not nice, but we can handle it." The situation is not rosy, "but the wrong word is dramatic".
The question of overall responsibility for the catastrophic development was of course also asked - but, as expected, remained unanswered on the supervisory board, from which Schneider had to get his second coach change approved within three months.
“I can feel the trust,” said the visibly ailing manager: “I didn't offer my resignation.
In such a situation you don't run away.
If the board of directors says I'm no longer the right person, then I'll go home. ”But that has obviously not happened yet.
It would probably not help much in the current situation.
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