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FC Augsburg - Operation stable hip - Sport
Six new players have signed the club in the summer break, five handed. As restless as in the past Bundesliga season, it should not be more.
Presumably Martin Schmidt did not want to show why they consider him the right coach at FC Augsburg, but his intuition led him straight to a reporter he apparently knew. With a broad grin, Schmidt held out his hand to him, a courageous jerk, and the young man almost fell on his nose. "There is no stability," analyzed the Swiss and pointed to his torso area.
Laxity, stability, these are exactly the trademarks that the Augsburgers had lost in the past season. From winter the defeats became more and more intense and the restlessness bigger and bigger. When they thought that the mood had reached their all-time low, they came in Augsburg even on the adventurous idea to hire Jens Lehmann as a new assistant coach. So a man who can look back on a meritorious career, stupidly, had never heard a mood-enhancing aura to these merits. A few weeks later Lehmann had to go again because Manuel Baum was dismissed as only second coach in eight years Augsburg Bundesliga history. Martin Schmidt came in April, and with him there was confidence and then the class whereabouts.
The team hinted at what they could do with the new coach: she played more straight-forward, faster and even swept past VfB Stuttgart with six meetings. It all seemed ready for a happy end to the season, but then the FCA still had to capture the highest Bundesliga defeat in club history, a 1: 8 at VfL Wolfsburg. For Schmidt, this was in retrospect but "a very good end to the season", because otherwise would have solidified in some of the club may have a fatal mistake: "Everyone thought, now is a new Ascension, now it's just uphill." On the other hand, Schmidt was clear in the face of the troubled preseason: this team needs change, and not just a little.
From FC Dallas comes the Ecuadorian Carlos Gruezo, 24
The request of their coach, they want to obviously follow the FCA. At the training start on Monday missing the right-back Jonathan Schmid, who is supposedly four million euros back to his youth club SC Freiburg. Long-time employees such as Konstantinos Stafylidis (Hoffenheim), Ja-cheol Koo, Christoph Janker and Jan-Ginger Callsen-Bracker (all without a new club) have not renewed their contracts or received a new offer. For this, Schmidt was already allowed to receive half a dozen new players. And with the exception of striker Florian Niederlechner, most recently in the service of the SC Freiburg, the transfers have similarities: they have little or no Bundesliga experience, they are young and usually on the outside lanes at a rapid pace.
No one has cost enormous sums of money. The most expensive is the Brazilian left-back Iago, 22, for whom the Augsburg transfer 6.5 million euros to his former club Internacional Porto Alegre. From Hannover 96 comes the attacker Sarenren Bazee, 22, the Schmidt compared because of his style of play already with the former Dortmunder Ousmane Dembélé. Maybe a profitable investment. The other wing racers are called Ruben Vargas (20, previously at FC Lucerne) and Mads Pedersen (22, FC Nordsjaelland). The defensive midfield is to reinforce the Ecuadorian Carlos Gruezo, 24, of FC Dallas. "A warrior, guy Vidal," says Schmidt. Gruezo even thanked meekly for his "second try in the Bundesliga", his first at VfB Stuttgart proved for both sides as a misunderstanding.
One can not say that the new Technical Director Timon Pauls, 27, that he would not zealously work on the Augsburg conversion, because in addition to the player search around the world and the comprehensive coverage of his core tasks. During the daily telephone conferences with coach Schmidt and manager Stefan Reuter there should be particularly interested inquiries about what it looks like with a new goalkeeper. From the loan commitment of Gregor Kobel, the number one in the second half, the Augsburg would have liked to make a lasting cooperation. However, this did not meet the expectations of TSG Hoffenheim, which is why the Swiss is playing for VfB Stuttgart in the coming season. According to media reports, the Augsburgers have after Kobel and Marwin Hitz, who migrated to Dortmund last year, but already the next Swiss in sight: the Leipzig substitute goalkeeper Yvon Mvogo.
The most complicated venture is the return of defender Martin Hinteregger. After public criticism of former coach Manuel Baum, the Austrian was loaned to Eintracht Frankfurt. There he enjoyed the rushing European Cup nights so much that he would like to stay, but the clubs could not yet agree on a transfer fee. On Monday Hinteregger will start the new season at the FCA. That he again denies a competitive match for the FCA, but may be doubted. The Brazilian Caiuby, who had extended his winter holiday by hand and was sent to FC Zurich, will not be training at all.
Given these uncertainties, it sounds like good news that Schmidt's "most important transfer" is already over. In athletic trainer Daniel Müller, formerly responsible for the fitness of the ice hockey pros of the EHC Munich and the German national team, they have committed a "real luminary". Again, Schmidt pointed to his torso area: Exactly, the stability. The thought of it seemed to give him pleasure.