Anger after farewell: violent fan anger instead of compassion for Eberl in Gladbach

The insults that some Borussia Mönchengladbach fans reflexively throw when their club meet former coach Marco Rose have become a well-established ritual on the Lower Rhine.

On Saturday (6.30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and on Sky) it will be particularly loud and angry in Borussia Park, because there will be a lot going on at the guest performance by Rasenballsport Leipzig, where Rose has been employed for a week.

RB is perceived as a despicable competitor by the spokesmen in the curves of the traditional clubs, and it is now also quite clear that Max Eberl, who was appreciated and loved in Mönchengladbach for a decade, will soon be working with Rose in Leipzig.

Driven by the horror of this scenario, the Mönchengladbach fan project wrote an open letter to Eberl and made harsh allegations against the long-time sports director.

Among other things, the polemical letter expresses the suspicion that Eberl "lied" that the plan to join RB already existed before the resignation in Mönchengladbach at the end of January.

The authors also accuse Eberl of putting on an "act" in his tearful press conference, which generated a lot of sympathy outside of the football bubble.

These are harsh words that go way too far.

However, such theses do not arise solely from any confused fan fantasies.

flood of speculation

On the day of his departure, Eberl also gave some Borussia employees the impression that he had not just opened up in a moment of desperation, but that he had acted in a well-considered manner.

He gave his farewell speech three times that day in similar variations, in front of employees, in front of the team and finally at the press conference.

So the public appearance that aroused so much sympathy was not a completely spontaneous action.

But was he dishonest because of that?

Hardly likely.

In any case, the words that Eberl chose on January 29 led to a flood of speculation and interpretations that have not really been sorted out to this day.

There was repeated talk of a "burnout" - a diagnosis that neither Eberl himself nor Borussia Mönchengladbach have ever confirmed.

Eberl explained that he was "tired" and "exhausted" because he had the feeling that his work was making him increasingly "sick".

"I just want out, I just don't want anything to do with football, I don't want anything to do with you guys," he said to the journalists' faces.

"I want to see the world, have no responsibility, just be Max Eberl."

That, for all that is known, he did not seek treatment but actually left to see the world indicates a retreat that was wisely made before the exhaustion really turned into an illness.

Those in the know at Borussia assume that their longtime manager has lost his motivation and energy because he no longer believed he could make a difference.

Rather, he fled from what seemed a hopeless situation in an act of desperation and did not resign because he was seriously ill.

In May, Eberl then, for the only time so far, publicly expressed in a "letter to the fans" how he was doing in the recovery weeks, he did not report at the time.

Instead, he repeated his somewhat vague message from the farewell press conference: "Just continuing like this would have been threatening for me, and the timing was the last resort to give the club and the people involved the time to shape the future ."

assertion without evidence

The critics from the fan project now think that Eberl is deliberately communicating in such a vague way: "To convey this image of your professional football fatigue to the public while you are haggling over your departure to Red Bull is - we can't put it any other way - plain and simple hauntingly tacky and a slap in the face to anyone actually affected by burnout.”

However, the fact that Eberl was already haggling with RB about a future together is an assertion without any evidence.

In the meantime, however, the talks are well advanced, and a transfer fee is still being negotiated.

Those responsible on the Lower Rhine found the first offer from Leipzig of less than one million euros to be completely inappropriate, with Borussia one imagines a sum in the higher single-digit million range.

There will probably be an agreement somewhere in the middle, but that will hardly comfort a Gladbach fan.

Because the idea that Rose and Eberl could soon start a sporting attack on FC Bayern with a lot of money hurts.

But actually the whole process is also a reason to be happy: Max Eberl feels so good and healthy again that he can return to the Bundesliga from January 1st.