Schalke 04 sacked coach Mirko Slomka in the wake of a 5-1 Bundesliga hammering at Werder Bremen on Saturday. The result capped a bad week for the Ruhr club who crashed out of the Champions’ League in Barcelona on Wednesday.
“I’ve had it with defending myself – either you can see the quality of the team and the work I’ve done here or you can’t. The discussion is pretty much limited to certain groups that have something against me. We were in second place before the Werder Bremen match and made it to the top eight in Europe and yet there’s still a discussion about my future. I don’t have any desire to face this discussion every week any more.”
Schalke finished second under Slomka last season and are third at the moment. His failure to capture the league title last season – when Stuttgart put together a stunning late run of eight straight wins to snatch the crown – is what lies behind this decision. With Bayern Munich having a rare off-season last term, the impatient Gelsenkirchen club would have felt the missed chance all the more keenly – especially as Bayern have restored normal service to devastating effect this time around.
However, given that Erik Gerets and Dick Advocaat – both unsuccessful during previous stints in the Bundesliga – are the leading candidates for the vacant hot-seat, one can’t help wondering if Schalke are not so much Masters of the Heart, but masters of their own downfall. Again.
