Oliver Glasner could not count on a protective hand from the club. Just 15 hours after his angry speech from Sinsheim, the Eintracht Frankfurt coach was told publicly via a TV interview by spokesman Axel Hellmann what he did wrong on Saturday. “It was neither good nor right to react like that,” said Hellmann on Sunday morning on the TV station Bild. “What I absolutely cannot understand is that you take this disappointment out on a journalist who does his job,” criticized the Eintracht boss remarkably openly.
After the 1: 3 at Hoffenheim, the team has been without a win for ten games in the Bundesliga, the coach is publicly loud and reprimanded for it by the club management: Nerves are on edge in Frankfurt – and only a few days after moving into the DFB- cup final. There are more and more indications that Glasner’s term of office, crowned by the Europa League title, will end on June 3 with the final in Berlin against RB Leipzig. Contract until 2024 or not.
The question seems more like: is Glasner going self-determined with a move to a top European club? Or does the club actively decide against the coach, who is partly responsible for the sporting downturn that has been going on for months? Hellmann indicated for the first time doubts about further cooperation. “We need to address the question of whether we’re in a shape that’s forward-looking. In this question we should let the next few days and weeks go into the country, ”said the 51-year-old. Even a big bang before the end of the season doesn’t seem impossible.
Stop me with this garbage. I know what the guys are doing here.
Coach Oliver Glasner said this to a journalist at the press conference.
Glasner has been thin-skinned and irritated for weeks. But his furor in Sinsheim, which began with a harmless question from a journalist, was the pinnacle. “Stop accusing the team of not getting it. Old Makoto Hasebe is 39 years old, playing 90 minutes for the third time this week. He has blood in his urine,” said the Austrian furiously.
With a strong and loud voice, he added: “Stop me with this garbage. I know what the boys are doing here.” What was meant as a defense of their own team was not well received at the club. Previously, he had seen the red card in the defeat at relegation candidate Hoffenheim because he had deliberately put a second ball into the field. Glasner later described this as a “silent protest against the referee’s performance”. Hellmann judged: “I think there is one thing Oliver Glasner knows best: that the action was not happy and clever.”
What Eintracht lacks in points, it has accumulated in indiscipline
But it was an action that is symbolic. National players Kevin Trapp and Mario Götze were also yellowed on Saturday for complaining, Götze again. What Eintracht lacks in Bundesliga points, they have accumulated in indiscipline. “All in all, it fits into an overall picture. We need to straighten things out as soon as possible. I’ve never seen games won by being indisciplined,” Hellmann complained.
After the game, in which a big step towards Europe was missed, Glasner spoke exclusively for Eintracht. The players and sports director Markus Krösche explicitly said nothing, the club justified the unusual interview boycott in the midst of the sporting crisis. Glasner himself said he didn’t know anything about it, and when asked about it he replied: “I was in the stands.”
It was a completely messed-up weekend for the Austrian. Red, the bankruptcy and the outburst of anger was followed by Hellmann’s reprimand on Sunday. The board not only criticized the sporting performance (“We are far behind expectations”), but also increased the pressure on Glasner. The future depends on how Glasner positions himself. “It’s a debate that we didn’t start as a club. It came about because our offer wasn’t accepted,” said Hellmann. (dpa)
