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It was an all-round blow that easily overshadowed a lot of what had already happened at Schalke in this not exactly uneventful season.
On Sunday morning, the professionals of the bottom of the table in the Bundesliga first learned that training was canceled.
Then they were told that Christian Gross is no longer head coach and that his assistant Rainer Widmayer will also be released.
It was then announced that Werner Leuthard is no longer an athletic trainer and that Sascha Riether has been relieved of his position as coordinator of the licensed players department.
And finally, last but not least, it was declared that Jochen Schneider will no longer act as sports director with immediate effect.
A dismissal tsunami, unprecedented even by Schalke standards, has rolled over the Berger Feld, the club's premises.
Five employees had to leave.
At the FC Schalke 04 training grounds, behind a gang, there is a heap of construction waste - in keeping with the condition of the club
Source: dpa
It took a while until everything that was discussed and agreed during the night from Saturday to Sunday could be officially announced.
At 12 noon, the club made a statement.
“FC Schalke 04 is now freeing up sporting leadership,” was the headline of the detailed list of who fell victim to the all-round personnel attack.
Knäbel and Büskens should plan the coming season
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At the same time it was announced that the "overall responsibility for sport until further notice" will be transferred to Peter Knäbel.
The director of the youth department will take over the job from Schneider and, together with ex-professional Mike Büskens and U19 coach Norbert Elgert, will push the planning for the coming season.
It remains to be seen whether Knäbel will permanently inherit Schneider, whose contract termination was announced on June 30th at the beginning of the month, at board level.
Gerald Asamoah will now act as coordinator for the licensed players department.
The former national player was most recently the manager of the U23 team.
It is also still open who will train the Bundesliga team in the future.
The training session on Monday will be led by the remaining athletic trainers.
Schalke throws Gross and Schneider out
Big effect on Schalke!
The Royal Blues react to the downward slide and are reorganizing the sporting leadership: coach Christian Gross, sports director Jochen Schneider and Sascha Riether were released.
Source: Stats Perform News
"The decisions made have become inevitable after the team's disappointing performances against Dortmund (0: 4, the editor) and in Stuttgart (1: 5, the editor)," explained supervisory board chairman Dr.
Jens Buchta.
The lawyer, who has headed the association's supervisory body since Clemens Tönnies' resignation, pointed out that the measures should only be viewed as an intermediate step with regard to a complete reorientation after a probable relegation.
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“We don't need to talk about it: the sporting situation is clear, so we have to think beyond the season for every personnel decision that has yet to be made.
At the same time, the team is now obliged to play the last third of the current season as successfully as possible.
The players owe that to the club and the fans, ”said Buchta.
Schalke's supervisory board chairman Jens Buchta
Source: pa / Tim Rehbein / R / RHR-FOTO
With this catalog of measures, the chronically restless Schalke has set standards even for their own standards.
In their radicalism, the decisions can be seen as an almost desperate attempt to correct the chaotic picture that the club has given in recent weeks.
The team stumbled helplessly towards the fourth descent in the club's history.
Even off the pitch, Schalke recently delivered stories and pictures that weren't exactly meant to save their reputation.
Even before the Revier derby against BVB a week ago, ultras had invaded the team hotel and disrupted the game preparation.
After the game, fans tried to storm an entrance to the stadium.
The club is more chaotic than ever
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Then there was a process that showed how deep the rifts were, at least between parts of the team and the head coach.
Three players - according to information from "Bild" it was Sead Kolasinac, Shkodran Mustafi and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar - are said to have made a move to get Gross replaced.
Schneider rejected this.
On Friday, one day before the away game in Stuttgart, this process leaked through.
The club was caught off guard, initially stated that they did not want to comment on speculations, but shortly afterwards decided to deny it: There could be no question of “revolution”.
The statements that were then made before and after the final whistle in Stuttgart, however, at most acted as a relativization of the events.
Schneider said nothing, Riether complained that the game preparation had been made more difficult again ("We had a lot to do just last week. The thoughts are not in the game, but elsewhere"), and Gross looked pissed off.
“I expect the players to come up to me if something bothers them.
But that didn't happen, ”said the Swiss.
Mustafi, asked by Sky if he was one of the players who would have called for a change of coach, replied evasively.
"Now is not the time that one should do the job of the other," said the 2014 world champion. "As long as there are still games to be played and we haven't been relegated, I still believe in staying in class." But Mustafi and his Colleagues once again played like a team that, under four coaches - David Wagner, Manuel Baum, interim coach Huub Stevens and Gross - has only won one of 23 Bundesliga games since the start of the season.
Now Gross is history too - and so is Schneider.
The former sports director of VfB Stuttgart and head of sports from RB Leipzig only came to Gelsenkirchen in March 2019.
He tried to incorporate new structures, reformed the scouting system and installed a squad planner with Michael Reschke.
His approach was to professionalize Schalke.
But Schneider was stunned by the force of the problems, which not only consist of the high debt (currently almost 240 million euros) and the effects of the Corona crisis.
A familiar picture this season - Schalke players are perplexed on the pitch after the 1: 5 in Stuttgart
Association patriarch Tönnies withdrew, as did CFO Peter Peters.
Reschke failed.
With his coach selection and some transfer decisions, Schneider was wrong.
The question that remains in the room despite the wave of layoffs is the perspective of the popular club.
How should things go on after the inevitable descent?
Can sponsors be kept, what should the team in the second division look like, how should it be financed, and who should lead it?
Even after the great quake, there is no single answer.