Stefan Bell at Mainz 05: Back to happiness

Journalists who are currently looking for conflict-prone topics at FSV Mainz 05 don't have an easy time of it.

“At the moment there aren't many construction sites to write about,” says Stefan Bell.

"The team fits, it's quiet in the club, the squad positions have been clarified, there are no big stinky boots."

The latter leaves investigative truffle pigs at least hoping for little punkers - but, as the central defender says, these are only players who are dissatisfied with their playing time.

At least during the training camp in Bad Häring and Schwoich, that's not an issue.

"Pure harmony," sums up Bell with a slight grin, "that's almost boring."

"Exhausting years behind us"

The 29-year-old, who came to Bruchweg as a B-youth and became German U-19 champion under Thomas Tuchel in 2009, is one of the professionals who have played in Mainz long enough to know the club's structures and the people involved.

Accordingly, he also follows developments that do not directly affect the Bundesliga squad.

"We have had some exhausting years in which it was restless the whole time," he says.

Topics such as the discussions about the supervisory board and election commission or the twice postponed annual general meeting with elections hardly affected the professionals. The situation in the autumn of last year, however, was extreme and had an impact on the kicking staff - which culminated in the players' strike around the suspension of Ádám Szalai and ultimately only changed with the return of Christian Heidel as sports director and Martin Schmidt as sports director.

“It was no longer right between the team and the athletic leadership,” says Bell, which is surprising in that he does not limit this statement to the then coach Achim Beierlorzer. It was known from him that he had not built up a noteworthy relationship with his players. But without naming a name, Bell includes sports director Rouven Schröder, who resigned in December, in his criticism when he says: “I would like to keep it general. It is an overall package that has to harmonize. If it doesn't work, if many players have the feeling that they are no longer good with the club representatives, it becomes problematic. "

The signing of Bo Svensson as head coach in January not only initiated the team's chase but also a turning point for Bell personally.

After a protracted ankle injury and a year and a half without match practice, he was considered written off as much as his team had already been relegated - but suddenly he was back on the field.

Even more: as head of defense, he became a guarantor of the newly discovered defensive stability.

Thrown into the deep end

Bell admits that he himself was surprised at how well he coped with this physically.

After all, Svensson threw him into the deep end at the beginning of an English week - and from matchday 16 to 30 he was consistently in the starting line-up, in most cases over the full distance.

The circumstances were favorable to him, he says. The change from four to three in a chain, in which he had the fast Jeremiah St. Juste and Moussa Niakhaté at his side, the fundamentally different, more offensive and aggressive style of play, which compared to the first half of the season on average five personnel changes in the starting eleven, which now Team intact again: “A lot of things went well and the momentum was added. I was there at the right time. "

The numerous innovations were the key to the sensational race to catch up, says Bell. The fact that it was possible to implement the tactical changes and Svensson's ideas so quickly and well without any preparation was one of the extraordinary aspects of the second half of the season with 32 points. “What you normally do for six weeks, we changed while the game was running. That was a challenge. "

From the fact that the 05er have mastered this challenge and now actually have six weeks in which to solidify their processes, one should of course not derive excessive expectations. "Nobody should expect us to get 60 points in the new season," emphasizes Bell. “You shouldn't forget that we had nothing to lose and that we got caught in a flow. All of our wins have been close, we have never won a game by more than one goal difference. And the three-pointers against our direct rivals Bremen and Cologne were very flattering. "

One of the tasks for the new season is not to let the “it will be okay” feeling arise. Not to look backwards, but to be aware that a successful season must be based on intensive work. At the moment, he has the impression that all players are involved with this attitude - and Svensson and his coaching team do not give the impression that they offer the mundane a chance to make their way into the game.