SCHALKE'S STRUGGLES

            Schalke 04 are on the verge of smashing an unwanted 55-year-old record. Surviving members of the 1965/66 Tasmania Berlin squad will be tuning in eagerly to Schalke’s upcoming home fixture with Hoffenheim on Saturday 9^th January. Tasmania Berlin, now defunct, trudged through almost an entire Bundesliga campaign without a win, setting a dismal record of 31 consecutive winless games in Germany’s topflight. Die Königsblauen (The Royal Blues) currently find themselves on 30 consecutive league games without a victory. Christian Gross, in his 4^th stint as Schalke manager, knew what was in store for him when he accepted the role in late December. Although the ex-Tottenham gaffer will go down in history as the man in charge when the record is clinched (if it unfolds that way of course) Gross has overseen just two of the 30 winless encounters up to this point. Four managers have been called in during this spell to try and steer the sinking ship to shore. Former Huddersfield boss David Wagner was the tactician back in late January when this turbulent string of results kicked off. Having kept the Gelsenkirchen side afloat last season Wagner lasted just two games into the new campaign before being relieved of his duties. Manuel Baum, formerly of Augsburg, stepped in for Wagner but he too was let go following just ten games without a win. Huub Stevens, Schalke coach between 1996-02 then again from 2011-12, was hauled in for a brief, four-day stint. Stevens led his side to a 3-1 DFB-Pokal win over minnows SSV Ulm, however, a narrow loss to Arminia Bielefeld in his lone league outing ended his interim reign. Just two days after Christmas the board appointed Christian Gross as the new Schalke head coach. The constant carousel of managers has unsettled this squad. They appear to have lost all sense of direction. Even in the years building up to this historic run, Schalke looked to be heading in a dire direction.

            The Schalke I first witnessed in a Champions League semi-final with Manchester United are a distant memory. Led by their auspicious young shot-stopper Manuel Neuer, Ralf Rangnick’s side had thrashed Inter Milan 7-3 (on aggregate) in the previous round. Schalke haven’t competed in European football since the 2018/19 season, and although it’s been just two seasons, it doesn’t look like the lights in the Veltins Arena will be switched on midweek anytime soon. The demise of Schalke in recent seasons doesn’t just boil down to a string of mediocre performances. There have been a catalogue of errors from the board culminating in club President Clemens Tönnies (head of Tönnies Holding, a business in the Meat Industry) stepping down as chairman of the supervisory board. Schalke fans have looked on in despair as several of Germany’s budding young footballers have filtered through their ranks. Prior to the 2016/17 campaign the club sold former academy prospect Leroy Sane to Guardiola’s Manchester City for €50million. Despite the obvious potential, Sane featured in less than 50 games for Schalke, more than justifying the decision to part ways with one of the nations rising stars. Whilst the price tag initially appeared to be a tidy piece of business, Schalke squandered the Sane funds. £19million was splashed out on Tottenham midfielder Nabil Bentaleb, unfortunately the Algerian international failed to live up to the hype he’d created after joining Schalke on loan the year before. £12.5million was spent on Yevhen Konoplyanka, another promising star who didn’t quite fulfil his potential. With just five goals to his name in two seasons the winger transferred back to Shakhtar Donetsk in his native Ukraine for just £1.5million. £8million was issued to Nantes for Amine Harit’s services whilst £4.5million went to Frankfurt for Bastian Oczipka, both of whom are still members of the team. Whilst £3.5million was spent on Spaniard Pablo Insua for the central defender to don the blue jersey just once. The mishandling of income from the Sane deal signified the beginning of the club’s struggles. Although Schalke finished the 2017/18 season in 2^nd place, their dealings in the transfer market remained a serious issue.

The following year Schalke made perhaps their greatest error in allowing 23-year-old midfielder Leon Goretzka to join Bayern Munich on a free transfer. In similar circumstances to the Lewandowski saga of 2014, when the Bavarians snatched their rival’s marksman on a pre-contract. Another pawn of German football surrendered a pivotal member to the runaway league leaders. This wasn’t the first occasion in which Schalke dangled a bargain before one of their rivals. Having signed exciting 19-year-old Swiss prospect Breel Embolo from Basel for £22.5million, Schalke lost patience and sold Embolo to Borussia Monchengladbach for just £10million. A damaging £12.5million loss to an already indigent club. After the conclusion of the 2018/19 season Schalke reported a loss of €200million. It goes without saying that the coronavirus pandemic has had serious financial ramifications on football clubs across the world. Their financial issues coming into this season and of course the ongoing uncertainty of this pandemic had such a devastating effect on Schalke that the club could only loan in players for this campaign. The Royal Blues have Mark Uth back in their arsenal following his brief spell on the side-line as a result of a nasty head injury. Between the start of the winless streak (January 25^th 2020) to the end of last season (June 27^th 2020) Mark Uth bagged 5 goals on-loan at Cologne, whilst his parent club managed just 7 as a team. Another questionable decision by those in charge at Schalke to allow such a prominent goal threat join a fellow relegation candidate.

It’s crystal clear that Schalke have been the architect in their own downfall. Why couldn’t they part with Leon Goretzka months earlier for a sum of cash rather than bide their time and watch Bayern acquire him for not so much as a bag of balls? How could the Sane funds be so recklessly misused? Embolo, Konoplyanka, Franco Di Santo all arrived at the Veltins-Arena with glittering CV’s yet, for reasons which cannot be fully explained, all three departed with an inferior goal to game ratio and for significantly less money.

Name:	Previous Club:	Goal contribution (Goal/Assist)	Transf IN:	Schalke record:	Transf OUT:
Breel Embolo	FC Basel 2014-16 Games: 90 Goals: 31 Assists: 22	Basel: 1 in 1.69 games Schalke: 1 in 2.90 games	£24 million	FC Schalke 2016-19 Games: 61 Goals: 12 Assists: 9	£10 million   (£14 million loss)
Yevhen Konoplyanka	Sevilla 2015-17 Games: 54 Goals: 9 Assists: 8	Sevilla: 1 in 3.17 games Schalke: 1 in 3.54 games	£12.50 million	FC Schalke 2016-19 Games: 78 Goals: 13 Assists: 9	£1.50 million   (£11 million loss)
Franco Di Santo	Bremen 2013-15 Games: 51 Goals: 18 Assists: 6	Bremen: 1 in 2.12 games Schalke: 1 in 4.88 games	£6 million	FC Schalke 2015-19 Games: 88 Goals: 12 Assists: 6	£0   (£6 Million loss)

 

£31 million lost between the three ex-Schalke players listed above with no considerable imprint left behind. It’s apparent that Schalke’s on field struggles aren’t the only concern. No sense of direction at the top has the club haemorrhaging money. With the ongoing pandemic and the more than realistic possibility of relegation to the Bundesliga Zwei looming, this could have immensely profound ramifications. Hamburg and Kaiserslautern are two prime examples of German giants who have found themselves in an interminable battle to climb back into the Bundesliga. It’s a tough enough task to bounce straight back up without the added woes of financial difficulties. There will be slight consolation waiting for Schalke at the end of this season. Their young American product Weston McKennie, currently loaned out to Italian champions Juventus, is expected to make his deal permanent. This should add close to £20million to the destitute Schalke budget.

New boss Christian Gross has been quick to bolster his squad, with the introduction of Arsenal full-back Sead Kolasinac on a loan deal till the end of the season. Although Kolasinac hasn’t seen much action this season he’s expected to make an instant impact with the side where he first made headlines. Schalke would love nothing more than to add to their January transfer haul but of course this isn’t plausible. Any deals would almost certainly need to be on a loan basis. German news broadcasters Deutsche Welle reported that Schalke were preparing a loan request to the state of North Rhine-Westphalia for €40million. That same article claimed the club were also lining up an annual salary cap of €2.5million per player.

The end game here is to ward off relegation and remain in the Bundesliga where there is money to be made. Tönnies reign of terror is over. Schalke’s transfer negligence should be behind them, underline the word should repeatedly... Although the end game is ultimately safety from the drop, Schalke fans aren’t looking ahead to the finish line. Their focus is solely on this Saturday and an afternoon meeting with Hoffenheim to try and prevent an embarrassing 55-year-old record from staining the club’s, up till now, respectable history books. Some pundits have suggested that the dregs of Tasmania Berlin supporters in Germany are actually rooting for Schalke to put an end to this run. With the remaining supporters claiming this winless streak is the only characteristic keeping Tasmania Berlin relevant. Until the virus outbreak Tasmania held another unwanted record in Bundesliga history, the lowest attendance ever in German topflight football: 827 v Borussia Monchengladbach in 1966. This record has already been vacated from Tasmania via the introduction of closed-door matches, they’re hoping they can keep hold of their other record for a little while longer.