At the beginning of the week, there was little sense of anticipation for the Bundesliga in VfL Bochum's training operations.

The coach Thomas Reis, under whose direction the club rose again in May after eleven years in the second division, was mad at some of his celebrated heroes.

“If I had to decide after this training which team would play on Saturday, I wouldn't have to think twice about it, then it would be easy for me,” he said and threatened: “Then there would even be some places in the squad for the Wolfsburg game. "

Two days earlier, his team had struggled to achieve a narrow victory in the cup at the fourth division club Wuppertaler SV. Some of the starting line-up candidates had hung themselves there and in the subsequent training session in such a way that they were threatened with banishment from the squad. "There was already a need for discussion somewhere," reported Reis on Thursday, but at the same time assured that the often invoked power of euphoria, which climbers like to allow themselves to be carried through the first few weeks of the season, has by no means been extinguished.

Reis has had good experiences with a strict management style.

In the past year, after weaker training sessions, he sometimes deleted the pillars of the team from the squad, even accepted defeats, which usually led to an immediate increase in performance for those affected.

These days, however, the coach suspects another factor behind the lack of energy in the first half of the cup game and in training.

Sometimes "the euphoria suffers a little slump because you think: man, what is in store for us?"

VfL Bochum arouses interest

For Bochum, the return to the Bundesliga, which will also be associated with a return of the audience, is an adventure.

In addition to experienced professionals such as Simon Zoller, Anthony Losilla, Robert Tesche or Danny Blum, a number of professionals without Bundesliga experience play primarily on the defensive.

These players can clearly feel how life is changing in the Bundesliga.

Suddenly VfL is a club that arouses interest.

In the past few weeks, the old stories have been told in great depth, the legend of the insurmountable, who played continuously in the Bundesliga between 1971 and 1993, is being dug up.

Stories from the famous Bochum currywurst were warmed up, hymns to the old-fashioned, but all the more atmospheric stadium were sung.

And club icons such as Hermann Gerland and Peter Neururer talked about the original football of their time, which somehow survived in Bochum, while elsewhere new stadiums with VIP boxes and lockable roofs were built. The managing director Ilja Kaenzig was happy to send interested observers a presentation in which he criticized the development of football from a cultural asset to mere “entertainment” for “premium viewers” ​​that was “dead choreographed”.

Responsible for the rise are people who are perceived as real Bochumers.

Reis has been associated with VfL since 1995 and has worked for VfL as a player, scout, accountant, marketing employee and youth and women's trainer.

Sports director Sebastian Schindzielorz wore the VfL jersey for the first time as a nine-year-old and played for the pros for five years around the turn of the millennium.

And the core of the team has also been on Castroper Strasse for a long time.

A coherent squad structure

The VfL is a "counter-draft for eternity to the glaring football era of glamor, money and entertainment," it says in Kaenzig's brochure.

A team and a coach must first live up to this promise.

The squad structure is coherent and easy to understand.

With Robert Zulj, only one key player of the promotion season has left the club. Elvis Rexhbecaj, who was loaned from VfL Wolfsburg, will take over the central role of the Austrian who has moved to Saudi Arabia. As before Eduard Löwen (from Hertha BSC) and Konstantinos Stafylidis (from Hoffenheim). In addition, with Patrick Osterhage (Dortmund II), Takuma Asano (without a club) and Christopher Antwi-Adweij (Paderborn), three free transfer players joined the promoted team, on Friday the attacker Sebastian Polter (Fortuna Sittard) joined them.

The Bochumers are starting their Bundesliga project with modest means, no wonder that Reis recently often prayed down the classic outsider terms.

His team has to play “disgusting”, approach every encounter “like a cup game, with an outstanding mentality” and go through a “learning process”.

The promotion team also convinced with their playful qualities and now wants to play this high-intensity football, which is aimed almost everywhere in the Bundesliga, with active defense work and the determination to conquer balls in good zones.

Best of all this Saturday (3:30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and Sky) in Wolfsburg.