It was something like a New Year's speech that the board members Axel Hellmann and Markus Krösche held on Thursday.

Their core message was simple: 2022 is over, a new chapter must be opened in 2023!

Oh yes?

Is that so?

But for the Frankfurt Eintracht, this applies in such a dramatic way that the spokesman for the board and his colleague from the sports department were not to be criticized for the bulrush.

Peter Hess

sports editor.

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After an incredibly successful 2022, the Hessian football club faces the Herculean task of dealing with the consequences of promotion in 2023 and ideally using it for even better development.

The greatest challenge of all: retaining the top staff who have become the focus of the more potent and powerful competition.

Coach Oliver Glasner, French World Cup hero Randal Kolo Muani, Jesper Lindstrom, Daichi Kamada, Djibril Sow, Kevin Trapp, Evan Ndicka, Ansgar Knauff, Junior Ebimbe and Mario Götze - they could all easily switch to a heavyweight in professional football.

And board member Hellmann would have the opportunity to turn his interim as interim managing director of the German Football League (DFL) into a permanent position.

“I am located in Eintracht”

The fear that many of the guarantors of success on the field could already defect during this winter transfer window has not been confirmed.

Everyone committed themselves to unity, everyone wants to reap in the Champions League and Bundesliga in the first half of 2023 what they sowed in 2022.

But the commitment does not apply to the summer.

Not even coach Glasner would rule out leaving Frankfurt in the event of an immorally lucrative offer.

In view of this initial situation, spokesman Hellmann began his remarks with a promise: "No, I have no ambitions to remain DFL Managing Director beyond the summer, I am located at Eintracht, I have no intention of leaving Eintracht," he explained 51 year old.

Does Eintracht have any chance of preventing the sell-off at a time when English middle-class clubs are buying moderately successful Bundesliga strikers like Hoffenheim's Rutter for 40 million euros and Freiburg talent Kevin Schade for 27 million euros?

Sports director Krösche sounds anything but desperate when he answers: "It's just that the Premier League clubs can invest a lot more than we can.

There is no point in complaining about it, we have to find solutions.”

His approach is “communication”.

Money isn't everything for professionals, and Sow and Trapp recently delivered model cases that could have gone to a new club for a lot more salary.

"We have shown all the players our plan, where we want to go and how we see them." And of course what Eintracht is able to pay them.

"Perception fundamentally changed"

A good example is Kolo Muani, who reassured Eintracht after his World Cup soaring that he did not intend to switch to a bigger club straight away.

Why?

"Because the story we told him when he signed him is true.

He got playing times with us, he was able to develop with us and has matured into a national player.

Credibility is the greatest asset when it comes to talent,” says Krösche.

And Kolo Muani's rise with Eintracht makes it easier to convince the next talents.

"The perception of Frankfurt Eintracht has changed fundamentally in the past year, both nationally and internationally," says Krösche.

But the image can quickly turn negative again.

What is at stake in the next four months is how Eintracht's future will look over the next few years: glamorous if the best and most talented Eintracht team has been playing for at least 30 years as they have in the past few months, solid if they at least come back reach the Europa League, or difficult when the team slips away from everything they've grabbed so far.

That's why Hellmann's request to the team cannot be surpassed in terms of clarity: "We'll get nothing more for what was, all the cards are being reshuffled, and the grapes are hanging even higher now." His words may resonate with the memory that the hymns of praise after the Winning the Europa League last summer led to overconfidence among professionals and a failed start to the season.

The Marketing and Sponsoring Department has already done its job.

"Despite challenging times, we were able to significantly increase our sales, and that doesn't just have to do with the Champions League." In principle, however, the premier class and the successes achieved there would have contributed to greater financial potency.

Without the Europa League title and the associated qualification for the premier class, “the duvet would have been much shorter and not just my feet in the cold.

But as it is, we got through the winter reasonably well warmed up,” says Hellmann.

Even for the next season, the important contracts are largely completed.

"Economically more powerful"

In order to keep up with international developments, however, further, greater efforts are necessary.

"Investor-managed clubs are no longer the exception in Europe, the competition is becoming more and more economically potent," says Hellmann.

But he also sees opportunities to counteract the Bundesliga's 50+1 basis (which only grants investors minority shares).

"It takes courage and determination." And a team that uses their sporting opportunities.