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 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 blank 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.
Thin-skinned Pk: “Stop me with this crap”
The question seems more like: Glasner goes self-determined with a change to a European top 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 have to deal with the question of whether we are in a form that is forward-looking. We should let the next few days and weeks go into the country on this question,” said the 51-year-old. Even a big bang before the end of the season doesn’t seem impossible.
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, he’s playing 90 minutes for the third time this week. He has blood in his urine,” said the Austrian with anger.
With a strong and loud voice, he added: “Stop me with this rubbish. 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’s verdict: “I think there’s one thing Oliver Glasner himself knows best: that the action wasn’t happy and skilful.”
Frankfurt in the mood crisis
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, that fits into the overall picture. We have to straighten things out as soon as possible. I’ve never seen games won through lack of discipline,” complained Hellmann.
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. 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 arose because our offer wasn’t accepted,” said Hellmann.
Question marks over Kolo Muani’s future
In the transfer poker surrounding Randal Kolo Muani, on the other hand, Axel Hellmann is quite relaxed. “He has a long-term contract. It’s always particularly comfortable to sit on it. The field of interested parties is very large and very prominent,” Hellmann told the TV broadcaster Bild. His “absolutely ideal scenario” is that the French vice world champion stays with Eintracht. Kolo Muani is “one of the hottest things currently available on the European striker market”.
The 24-year-old attacker has a contract with the DFB Cup finalists until the summer of 2027. His market value has risen rapidly this season, and given the contract, a possible transfer fee should be in the three-digit million range.
“I notice and feel a different number than 90 million euros on the international market,” said Hellmann. In addition to top European clubs, Germany’s record champions FC Bayern Munich are also interested. A year after the departure of Robert Lewandowski, the Munich team is looking for a center forward.
