The so-called RB family, to which all current and former employees of the clubs from the football empire of the Red Bull Group can feel a part, is growing and growing, and it is therefore not surprising that a kind of family reunion is now taking place somewhere almost every week .

When Oliver Glasner (Frankfurt) meets Marco Rose (Leipzig) in the Bundesliga, that is also the case in duels between Frank Kramer (Schalke), Bo Svensson (Mainz), Nico Kovac (Wolfsburg), Adi Hütter, Sebastian Hoeneß ( both currently unemployed) and a few more.

A few days ago, Thomas Letsch, a new RB face, appeared in the league, the 54-year-old Swabian followed the dismissed Thomas Reis at VfL Bochum.

And as luck would have it, there will be pictures of a hug with family member Rose at his first game in Leipzig (3.30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and on Sky).

"Marco and I had four years together in Salzburg, in which we worked very closely together, we have a friendly relationship," said Letsch before his first Bundesliga game ever.

In his role as RB Salzburg's "Youth Sporting Director" he hired Rose as a U-16 coach.

process of emancipation

The Leipzig coach is now the far more prominent man, and Letsch no longer wants to be associated with his RB roots.

At his first press conference this week, he pointed out that he doesn't like the term "RB football" and that he has now emancipated himself from some dogmas of the past.

As head of the Salzburg youth academy, he forbade his coaches to let their teams play with a back three, but most recently as head coach of Vitesse Arnhem in the Netherlands he had a lot of success with exactly this system.

Football has just evolved, says Letsch, for him "the basic order is not the decisive factor".

Rather, it is important that “the best players are on the field” and “that clear principles prevail”.

The coming weeks will show how quickly Bochum, who is still undefeated at the bottom of the table in the Bundesliga, internalizes these principles, but hardly anyone expects a quick turnaround.

Letsch is "not a fireman", emphasizes Hans-Peter Villis, the CEO of VfL, the club wants to "shape the future" with this coach.

In Bochum it is clear to everyone that Thomas Reis' farewell was more than just another sacking of the coach.

A period of impressive rise and even more impressive sojourn has come to an end.

After this wonderful summit storm, bad times are almost the only logical consequence.

A small coup

But they think staying in the Bundesliga is possible because the season is still long.

There is a lot of time during the winter break to work with the team and possibly make changes to the squad.

"It's not about rolling up the field straight away," says Letsch, "it's about getting there by winter." If the project to remain in the class fails, his contract will also be valid in the second division.

For Bochum's sports director Patrick Fabian, who was only promoted to this difficult position by the club's management assistant at the beginning of September, Letsch's signing is a small coup.

Fabian has found a fresh and at the same time experienced successor for Thomas Reis, the "ideal solution" as he says.

Letsch is "able to form a team with a clear game idea," says Fabian.

With Vitesse Arnheim, the native of Esslingen recently finished fourth and sixth in the Dutch Eredivisie, reached the round of 16 of the Europa Conference League and reached the final of the national cup, which was lost almost 2-1 to Ajax Amsterdam.

Now Letsch wants to stay in the class with the bottom of the table from the Revier: "This team has the mentality that it takes to master such a difficult situation," says the trained high school teacher for mathematics and physical education.

interest of German clubs

However, he does not have any experience from his own professional career.

In his free time, Letsch was on the coaching staff of various teams in southern Germany alongside his work at school: at the Stuttgarter Kickers and SSV Ulm, for example, before he was brought to Salzburg by Ralf Rangnick.

He later coached Erzgebirge Aue and Austria Wien, but it was in Arnhem that he made his breakthrough and attracted the interest of top-flight German clubs.

Even before the season he played a role in the considerations of some managers who were looking for a coach, at FC Schalke for example.

Now it's Bochum where Letsch first of all has to prove his adaptability: in Arnhem he was responsible for the youngest team in the top Dutch division, now he coaches the oldest team in the Bundesliga.