Austrian coach Oliver Glasner is in his last weeks as coach of Eintracht Frankfurt. The Austrian still had a one-year contract, but the club management of Die Adler decided to end the cooperation prematurely. The message comes as no surprise.
Frankfurt confirms trainer dismissal and now focuses on the cup final
On the club website, Frankfurt cites ‘the sporting developments and the performance in the second round’ as the factors underlying this decision. To quell speculation, the club has chosen to clarify a few weeks before Glasner’s farewell. This way the club can fully focus on the last weeks of the Bundesliga. Frankfurt, ninth, still has a chance to get a European ticket in the competition. The cup final offers a bigger possibility: Frankfurt competes in Berlin with RB Leipzig for the DFB-Pokal.
Glasner himself has also commented on his executives’ decision. “I accept the decision, which has been explained to me plausibly. The conversations with the club management were honest, as they were always of a high level. Now is not the time to say goodbye or look back, we still have a mission ahead of us in the Bundesliga and a final in Berlin. It is of the utmost importance to me that Eintracht can also be admired internationally next year,” he said.
And Glasner should know, because no one can take away from him that he was ultimately responsible for the greatest success in modern club history. Eintracht won the Europa League last season by kicking the penalty kicks slightly better than opponent Rangers in the final against Rangers in a sweltering Seville. The corresponding ticket for the Champions League led to the eighth finals, in which Napoli was too strong.
Glasner fired for standing up for his players
Glasner believes that the quality of the selection is not good enough to reach European football through the Bundesliga, while the club management believes that Glasner is not performing sufficiently with the material he has and that rotation is not frequent enough, BILD writes. The fact that he went crazy after the lost game against 1899 Hoffenheim was possibly the last straw. At the press conference, Glasner clashed with a journalist, who asked him if his players are showing enough commitment.
“Stop this nonsense, I know what the boys are doing,” Glasner countered fiercely. “And I also accept that Hoffenheim can win. Stop saying that the players don’t understand, that they don’t show dedication and character. Let me tell you something: Makoto Hasebe is 39 years old and this week plays ninety minutes for the third time in a season in which we have already played 43 official games. Sometimes he has blood in his urine because he is broken. And what does he do? He just plays. We are in a final for the second season in a row. The players go through fire for each other.”
Blood in urine could indicate excessive strain on the body, although it is often not serious. Eintracht chairman Axel Hellmann does not think that Glasner should have broached the subject. He said, “That doesn’t belong in the media. It is a lack of discipline that we have not rewarded ourselves in recent weeks. All in all, that fits into the overall picture, so we have to stand up straight as soon as possible.”
