False start and loss of confidence
Coach Reis clings to VfL Bochum
09/11/2022, 10:05 p.m
Six games, zero points – after his team’s false start, Thomas Reis is threatened with expulsion at VfL Bochum. But the coach hopes to stay after the 1: 3 at FC Schalke. The club management deliberates for a long time, but has not yet made a decision. The trainer promotes himself.
Thomas Reis mastered the many questions about his impending expulsion surprisingly calmly. Unlike the club management, who went into hiding after the 1: 3 (0: 1) at FC Schalke, the Bochum football teacher, who had achieved a kind of heroic status among the fans in recent years, used the limelight for clear confessions. Despite his team’s major false start with six defeats in six games, the 48-year-old looked combative: “I can only say that I’m still keen to push the buck. I’ve achieved a lot in Bochum, that’s not the end for me the flagpole. You can do it with me too.”
However, the usual mechanisms in such cases do not bode well for the coach. Sports director Patrick Fabian, financial director Ilja Kaenzig and supervisory board boss Hans-Peter Villis discussed Reis’ future on Sunday until late in the evening. A decision should not be made until Monday. The fact that Fabian had already avoided a job guarantee for the coach before the game was taken as an indication of dwindling trust. “We’re involved in competitive sports, so results are an important ingredient,” the new head of sports told the newspapers of the Funke media group.
The fact that Reis seems increasingly at a loss should not have a particularly positive effect on the assessment. He noticed himself that he sounded like a broken record when he was looking for the reasons for the bankruptcy. “I tell the same thing every week,” he admitted, actually you keep up, have chances of at least one point, but individual errors are behind and up front made sure “that we’re left empty-handed again”.
“Nobody has to protect me”
Although Bochum are only the third team in Bundesliga history to have zero points after six games, Reis still sees himself as part of the solution and campaigned to stay: “I’ve seen a team that’s following me, and I’ve had three so far I’ve had great years. If it’s up to me, I would like to have more years.” He sees the questionable starting position as an additional motivation: “Now we are being written off even more. That must trigger a greed to fight against it.” Reis was able to get over the fact that the club bosses had not pledged their allegiance: “Nobody has to protect me. I stand by my man. It’s important that we stick together within the team. And I have that feeling.”
There is no sign of a deep gulf between professionals and coaches. Before the upcoming deliberations of the club leadership on the future of Reis, Simon Zoller reminded of his great merits. “This coach came three years ago and pulled us out of the shit. We’ve written a success story. And VfL Bochum plays in the Bundesliga. That’s where the coach is most involved,” commented the attacker, referring to the promotion about a year ago and the strong last season with victories over FC Bayern and Borussia Dortmund. Reis still enjoys the trust and support of the majority of fans.
Potential candidates are traded
Even the new Schalke player Sebastian Polter, who finally decided the duel between the neighbors with his first goal of the season (90 + 6) and had not left Bochum in the summer without unpleasant overtones, advertised for his ex-coach: “It’s not looking good at the moment , but I am absolutely convinced that Reisi and the team will come out of it.” The decisive question will now be: Can someone else get more out of this team, for which the top management released just 750,000 euros for transfer fees in the summer? U19 coach Heiko Butscher or Dimitrios Grammozis, most recently active at Schalke, are already being discussed in the media as potential successors.
But unlike the relationship between the team and the coach, the relationship between the top management and Reis seems to be troubled. The latest reports also contributed to this, according to which the former Bundesliga professional is said to have toyed with a move to FC Schalke this summer. This could also have contributed to the fact that negotiations about extending the contract, which runs until 2023, have stalled and have now been postponed to the World Cup break in winter. The club have already made offers, but Reis turned them down. “Anne Castroper” is currently not a good base and mixture.