German Football 20/21
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Get the official relegation t-shirt as well!
They do! Schalke-Dortmund, Köln-Gladbach, HSV-St. Pauli et al.
And they say the Bundesliga doesn't have rivalries!
A lot of them simply are no more due to clubs getting relegated: Bayern-1860, HSV-Werder, Bayern-Nürnberg...
Pauli-Rostock or Pauli-Dresden was always a lot of „fun“ as well
Isn't Koln biggest rivalry with Leverkusen? The Rhein Derby, that's what I thought.
Very likely, you are correct. I just remembered Köln-Gladbach being classified as a „Hochsicherheitsspiel“ (a nice German word for all yall).
I know!
But it's been said elsewhere. I think that was about Bayern having no rivals (more correctly: in the league), which is why all German posters support them (haha!). Anyway, I know these rivalries persist and can still be very heated.What a dive!
I'm sure most Cologne fans will rather see Gladbach as their main rival, given that Leverkusen is "plastic" and in a lot of ways an insignificant club.
How dare you, it was a beautifully executed Robben shuffle.
Nah, it was actually a bad execution too, couldn't even properly connect with the GK. Robben at least knew how to do that.
Honestly no idea how the VAR didn't see that.
I expected VAR to overturn it, but from the replays on Sky it wasn't fully clear to what extend Reus was hit, so maybe there was a perspective that made it not a clear and obvious mistake. On the other hand: if you come out like that as a goal keeper and don't win the ball you're sending any striker an invitation, hence the Robben comparison, because he was a beast at accepting them.
Wolfsburg vs Dortmund will be massive .......Dortmund must win this match or no CL.
.......Dortmund must win this match or no CL.Yea, the club is basically in a constant downfall. Everytime you think the lowest point is reached, people at Schalke find a way to disappoint even more. While it was predictable that stuff like that would happen (pandemic, frustrations, club is shit, no good ways to express discontent without viewers etc.), it's absolutely disgraceful nonetheless. Hunting people, chasing them in the streets is simply something that should never ever be tolerated in any way and I really hope that some of those criminals will get an appropriate sentence for their actions. It's not just immoral, it's criminal, it's violent and if said individuals can be located, they should be banned from every football stadium and expelled from the club, if they are members. I don't know whether they were able to get some particulars of this incident but hopefully the reaction is strong to prevent stuff like that from happening again.
While I condone the way of this expression of discontent (criminal activities), I think the players deserve all the hate that's legally and morally acceptable. They are an absolute disgraceful bunch and I started hating almost everyone of them. There's very few likeable players in the squad which will be able to help Schalke in the 2nd Bundesliga.
Regarding the relegation itself: well, well deserved. Absolutely deserved. It's the outcome of years and years of mismanagement in every aspect of the business. The list is far too long to put together seriously in a forum, but I think it's safe to say that the whole club and its officials failed in every possible way in the last 5 years. Hopefully, there will be changes on a revolutional level at Schalke, otherwise its fecked for decades or so. If the club does not make hard cuts and implements completely new structures, faces, attitudes, players, coaches (head coach, assistant, fitness, everything!), there's no chance Schalke will get promoted at the end of next season.
I have to say I'm not entirely proud that I had to laugh since those hunts were horrible, but I did, so I think I still share that foto even if it might be bad taste. I had to laugh, so you guys might chuckle at least.
The thing is that you have to make these changes before things go this far. You could see that point in Schalke's quest for a DoF appointment already: Rangnick, Krösche, Schröder, Runert, Stoffelshaus, etc. There is a long list of candidates who were (supposedly) approached and in the end they had to take Rucksack Knäbel. It will be the same for the coaching role and other positions. Schalke is a toxic place, that's all but sure to ruin your reputation, right now. The club can only attract people who have nothing to lose, because they either have not build a reputation yet or because they have already ruined it.
And while I'm all for fan influence and 50+1 in these situations you can see one of its downsides, because while what the club needs is some peace to quietly rebuild at the right pace the fans won't allow that. The 2nd division is a brutal place and Schalke's reality is that with the players that are likely to remain they have absolutely no right to expect to be directly promoted again. But I'm all but certain fans won't accept that when the stadiums reopen. They already chased out Jobst as collateral damage, they will need a year or two to wholly accept if it turns out the club needs to consolidate itself in the 2nd division's midtable first and meanwhile they will put unjustified pressure on players, coaches, officials and have a very low threshold to just tear down any rebuild right away and trust their club to charlatans with big promises, but their own self interest at heart. Like I'd go almost 50/50 towards either Tönnies or Heldt making a comeback at Schalke.
If it's a couple of players, then I say feck those players (especially you, Julian Brandt!!). But if it's "literally" everyone, even all time greats such as THE HUNTER (tm) or "Kola" and "Ralle", then it seems safe to assume that it's more likely to be a collective dynamic. Either the club creating a dysfunctional atmosphere or the weight of the situation crushing the players or both. You see it all the time in these scenarios: e.g. Rudy seems to be a productive player at Hoffenheim as far as I can tell. Taking Uth in and out of Schalke was like flipping a switch, both with Hoffenheim and Cologne. Hamburg fans can tell you a thing or two about that.
A similar phenomenon was visible at Dortmund when things escalated in Klopp's last season and almost everyone seemed worthless, only to have basically the best league performance in the club's history, when Tuchel took over and brought in some fresh air.
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Yes, 50+1 definitely plays a part here. Schalke's approach is just not professional enough on many levels. Incompetence, nepotism omnipresent. Expectations are always high at Schalke and reality differs quite a bit most of the time, so spot on. But in a way I think many fans are starting to realise that getting demoted to 2nd Bundesliga might be a chance to get the club back in proper shape again and maybe even a chance for fans to have a better fooball experience in general. Stadium will be full as always once covid is tackled enough to allow mass events and while the 2nd Bundesliga definitely is a brutal place, it will be much more enjoyable to see Schalke win from time to time on a monday than see them get 13 points after 30 games on saturdays. Which is why I hope for the best regarding the drastic changes which have to be made and personally, I don't think the club has not understood that these drastic changes need to take place. And other than that, I'm actually looking forward to next season. This one was hard to endure, honestly. Especially in a pandemic with all other shit going on, saturdays were by no means a nice distraction from everything grim that's going on at the moment.
It is a collective dynamic, of course. The whole club is rotten to the core and I hope the officials realise that and perform a drastic and swift surgery on this club. As I said before, it's incompetence on every level and at the end of the day, this incompetence reflects on the players as well. It's impossible to play well in such an environment. But it is still very disappointing to see how most of the players don't really care since they will play at other clubs next season and earn the same money. I'm 100% sure they didn't give their best, many of them didn't even try to perform.
So the DFL has finally decided how to handle Hertha's postponed matches. This is the upcoming schedule:
April 29th: end of quarantine
May 3rd: Mainz (A)
May 6th: Freiburg (H)
May 9th: Bielefeld (H)
May 12th: Schalke (A)
May 15th: Köln (H)
May 22nd: Hoffenheim (A)
So apparently 5 matches in 12 days are a good idea right after coming out of quarantine. ^^
It's ridiculous that they insisted on keeping the May 15th date for all teams.
I really don't know how this is supposed to work out. Maybe use 2 squads and let both of them play 1 match per week?
April 29th: end of quarantine
May 3rd: Mainz (A)
May 6th: Freiburg (H)
May 9th: Bielefeld (H)
May 12th: Schalke (A)
May 15th: Köln (H)
May 22nd: Hoffenheim (A)
So apparently 5 matches in 12 days are a good idea right after coming out of quarantine. ^^
It's ridiculous that they insisted on keeping the May 15th date for all teams.
I really don't know how this is supposed to work out. Maybe use 2 squads and let both of them play 1 match per week?
I get that this is extremely frustrating for Hertha, given their current predicament, but that looks a lot like your standard schedule for an EL/CL team (which I know Hertha haven't built their squad for, but still). It's important for the integrity of the competition to finish the league simultaneously and it's the nature of this crisis that some clubs will get shafted, so everyone can keep going and survive.
Thankfully DFL are taking steps to ensure there won't be more clubs who end up in this situation:
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It also looks like Bayern are going to get fleeced by their own FA
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That looks like the schedule the CL and Europa League clubs have been on for the last 8 months. Maybe one day less but nothing outrageous.
The good thing is nobody in Germany has currently any sympathy for the DFB and especially Bierhoff so it at least puts us in a better position than it could have been under different circumstances.
If DFB's position is that they don't buy out coaches from clubs and if Flick's position is that he won't be coaching Bayern next season, then I don't think those two leave Bayern much room for "winning".
I think so too. What's the benefit of an unmotivated coach on relevant wages and a future employer that doesn't want to pay a penny to release him from his contract? Smells like Bierhoff is waiting for Bayern just to release Flick on a free.
This isn't really about "winning", it's more about not being made a joke by the DFB and it's not like we couldn't afford to just keep Flick under contract.
Not to mention that after Rose, Hütter and so on there are really no arguments left not to compensate us for Flick. So I'd argue there is also no "winning" for the DFB if they don't want to pay up but the DFB is under a lot more pressure to have some "wins".
I'm all for DFB compensating Bayern and I think especially Flick is looking really ungrateful in this. But if the best Bayern can get from this situation is to have their star coach on gardening leave for a year, then that's a really shitty development for them. And having more people dislike Bierhoff after that isn't a real compensation for their losses. It just means someone else loses too.
I'm not shedding any tears for Bayern, because I'm sure they will be just fine in the end, but DFB shouldn't treat its own clubs like that and sending this message seems quite short sighed from the people in charge.
Cheap fecks
Grabbing all that GEZ money and expect us to just forfeit Flick's contract?
Grabbing all that GEZ money and expect us to just forfeit Flick's contract?
I mean, obviously DFB has to present Löws successor in fall, but I think Bayern is in a very bad spot since Flick already said he won't be coach after summer. Bayern can't keep an employee like that under contract, they'd just lose money. It's a real dick move by Flick and the DFB but it's kind of refreshing to see Bayern on the receiving end this time since it's usually them doing stuff like that.
Stuff like what? We never sign your players before they've finished their contracts.
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Damn, don't know which side to be on this matter, tough one
No way. They need to pay up, and they will.
Else Flick can enjoy a year off, while Thomas Schneider takes the interim reigns of the MANNSCHAFT. After all, he wasn't second best graduate of the DFB-led UEFA Pro Lizenz coaching badges seminar at the Hennes-Weissweiler-Akademie of April 2010 for nothing, legend.
So, I went to Thomas Schneiders Wikipedia to get that Weissweiler-Akademie bit right, but I didn't even notice he hasn't been NT assistant in two years
Not going to edit the above post though, it's too good.
Not going to edit the above post though, it's too good.
semi-fair negotiations where two parties feck over the club that‘s actually entitled to a relevant fee and being the club that is losing someone they don‘t want to lose
Good thing than that your players now no longer have the quality to be poched.You need 2 worry about clubs like Augsburg or Bielefeld now.
Meanwhile HSV are on track for their annual bottle job....
2019: 37 points in the first half of the season, 19 in the second half
2020: 30 points in the first half of the season, 24 in the second half
2021: 36 points in the first half of the season, 14 in the second half
There's a decent chance that next year's 2. Bundesliga will feature HSV, Schalke, Köln and Hertha (not to mention other big names like Nürnberg, Hannover or Düsseldorf).
2019: 37 points in the first half of the season, 19 in the second half
2020: 30 points in the first half of the season, 24 in the second half
2021: 36 points in the first half of the season, 14 in the second half
There's a decent chance that next year's 2. Bundesliga will feature HSV, Schalke, Köln and Hertha (not to mention other big names like Nürnberg, Hannover or Düsseldorf).
There is an increasing chance, that the attendance to second league games will be higher than for the first league (once Covid is over). THAT would be crazy.
For people wondering why Bayern is dominating the league so thoroughly.
Sensational. The gift that keeps on giving.
The second league might also become the Bundesliga north if Bremen gets relegated all big northern clubs would be in that league. Bremen, HSV, Hannover, St. Pauli and Kiel. Only Wolfsburg would still be in the Bundesliga.
Guys please stop teasing me how awesome next years second league will be, I`m already nervous as feck that we`ll bottle it as it is. 
As attractive as that set of names looks on paper it would also mean every one of those clubs who got relegated or Hamburged their promotion will be exponentially more screwed because of it, since it kind of denies every single one of them the competitive advantage that big clubs used to have in the 2nd tier. I guess by now Hamburg have consolidated themselves(?), but for the big Hertha club or Schalke a lap of honor or two down south could be catastrophic.
Oh shite, totally forgot Hansa is likely to go up, even more northern power in the second league.Guys please stop teasing me how awesome next years second league will be, I`m already nervous as feck that we`ll bottle it as it is.
And on the other side that would just put way too many "happy to be here" clubs in the Bundesliga. Imagine Bochum, Fürth, Kiel, Bielefeld, Mainz, Augsburg, Freiburg and Union all in the Bundesliga at the same time...that's half the league. They've all worked hard to get there but the league would be less attractive with so many underdog teams around.
Bold words from a Hertha supporter
In theory it would be better to have all the big clubs in the league, but if - despite their privileged positions- they fall victim to the Fürths and Bochums of the country, then I won't feel sorry for them.
Honestly I'm actually really looking forward to the next season. Great clubs, cool cities and actually some chance of winning every now and then. Hopefully we won't stay there too long, though. That could have disastrous impact on the finances, as they're already in shambles. Man nowadays as a Schalkefan you can just pray that everything turns out fine, even in the 2nd division. Can't rely on secular institutions to help Schalke get on track again.
What a shitty season. Simply for the fact that once the next has started the old one is over I am looking forward to 21/22. Hopefully we'll all be vaccinated till then.