So brutal, so predictable: the terrifying fate of FC Schalke 04

The deep fall of FC Schalke 04 is so frighteningly predictable in all its facets and almost daily new developments that every further step hurts just by watching. After all, you already know how things will go from here.

Many years ago, a well-known football reporter once explained professional sport to me in brief words. At the time he said that behind the glittering facade everything was just like in real life. And so the important decision-makers – just like us normal people – would prefer to surround themselves with things and people they know, or better: who they think they know.

"Well," added the famous football reporter, "that is of course a curse and a blessing at the same time. But above all, it is also amazingly predictable how these people will act. Sometimes even terrifyingly predictable." And then he brought the example of a national player, unfortunately I forgot the name, of a football dwarf whom a first division club only signed because he had scored two goals in a friendly against his own club.

And when half a year later they were urgently looking for a sure-footed striker, they remembered exactly this man in dire need. Without further observation, he was given a three-year contract. After all, he had scored against his own club – and was a national player. Although he had only worn the shirt of his small country once and played primarily as a defender, that didn't bother anyone at first. You can guess how the story ended.

"Football is always the same"

A few years after the reporter opened my eyes and told me the story of this national player of a football gnome, I had to think back to all of this. Back then, FC Schalke 04 had just played in the playoffs for the Uefa Europa League against Helsinki. And in the summer of 2011, a curly-headed Finn named Teemu Pukki had thrown the royal blues up and down and scored three goals against FC Schalke 04.

But since Helsinki lost the second leg 6-1 in the arena, Pukki could not qualify with his club for the Europa League. And since Schalke was looking for a striker, the Finn signed a three-year contract with the Royal Blues shortly afterwards. Pukki then conjured himself into the hearts of the Schalke players with his appearance and his adorable manner – but on the pitch it was always only semi-optimal.

Hans Meyer once put it so finely: "Football is always the same with beautiful regularity." These words are the perfect addition to the descriptions of the well-known football reporter about professional sport. Because if you look at the pathetic spectacle around FC Schalke 04 these days, then you would like to shout out loud and show the people involved their own actions with a mirror. The deep fall of this traditional club in all its facets and daily developments is so terrifyingly predictable that every further step hurts from just watching.

The commitment of the Swiss Christian Gross as the new coach of the Royal Blues surprised all the experts and fans in a certain way – but it was somehow logical. Of course, sports director Jochen Schneider took someone he already knew directly from his past. And just as unsurprisingly as Gross' assumption of the coaching position was in the end, the first new addition, Sead Kolasinac, also appeared clear.

Is the fireman coming?

And? Will this all help? No! Because if the entire history of football does not have to be taken off its hinges, further developments can already be foreseen. In six to eight weeks at the latest, Jochen Schneider himself will have to vacate his post together with Christian Gross, who has just been signed up. And then? Then finally comes the "fireman". At this point it is probably almost hopeless to be able to hold the league – but there are always miracles. And as the past teaches us: In this moment of greatest need, the important decision-makers suddenly remember names in the sense of a collective football memory that one did not dare to use before – because these people are actually "scorched earth".

For the fans of the Royal Blues, one can only hope that FC Schalke 04 will remember a coach who has already worked on the Berger Feld and saved the club from ruin. As a Bochum resident, I know exactly what I'm talking about. It wasn't that long ago for us. And there, too, what came afterwards was unfortunately just as predictable as so much in the professional football business.