Thomas Reis’ mobile phone was no longer idle on Wednesday evening. He received numerous shocked inquiries. Ironically, the coach of VfL Bochum wanted to switch to the hated district rival Schalke 04 recently in the summer, she had picture reported. Should the rumor come true, the popular rice would have a more difficult time with the Bochum fans. But that could also have been the goal of spreading this story, after all the 48-year-old is currently fighting the conditions for a contract extension with VfL Bochum beyond 2023 out. The positions seem to have hardened. In any case, the negotiations were frozen and should only be resumed during the World Cup break in November.
“It annoys me beyond measure that such a story is now being made,” Reis said in a press conference on Thursday: “I don’t know who and why this rumor started, and I will probably never find out who the informants are were.” When asked, Reis denied that he had negotiated with Schalkern in the summer and that he had even received a corresponding request.
“I’m being put in a light that I don’t deserve, but I can definitely look in the mirror,” said the coach, who at least partially appreciates the collective fan sympathy he’s built up over the past three years could be lost. “If spectators at our home game against Werder Bremen on Saturday feel they have to comment on me, then they should do so,” said Reis, “but I appeal to everyone to support the team.”
If the coach and club had already agreed in early summer, VfL would not be in trouble now
The former Bochum player has been coaching VfL for three years. In September 2019 he took over the team in the penultimate place in the second division and continued to lead it up from season to season. In 2020, the club ended the season as a solid eighth in the second division, in 2021 it rose to the Bundesliga as the second division champions and immediately reached 13th place.
Fast-moving league: Four months ago, Bochum had just won 4-3 in Dortmund and secured relegation, coach Thomas Reis was still a VfL hero.
(Photo: Osnapix/Imago)
With such increased self-confidence, Reis and his advisor Maikel Stevens, son of Schalke coaching legend Huub Stevens, are said to have demanded that the annual salary be increased to a seven-figure sum during the summer talks about extending the contract. “So far we haven’t been able to come to an agreement,” Reis announced last week. Then the topic suddenly came up. Reis said on Thursday: “I’m absolutely pissed off and take it brutally personally when I’m portrayed as greedy; I won’t let it sit on me, I won’t let my name be smeared.”
If the coach and the club had already agreed in early summer, in the euphoria of staying in the class, then VfL might not be in such a dilemma now. The sporting situation has also deteriorated after four defeats in the first four Bundesliga games. The club gave up ten players who were important for the team mentality, and sporting director Sebastian Schindzielorz also had his last day at work on Wednesday. He leaves VfL at his own request.
Sporty things are not going well for Bochum – but there shouldn’t be an ultimatum for the coach
The situation is particularly thankless for his successor, 34-year-old Patrick Fabian, who has been with the club for 22 years and even played under coach Reis in June 2020. Fabian is now caught between the fronts. In a crisis round on Wednesday, everyone involved is said to have agreed to keep the ball flat for the time being. “I want to calm down the situation here and get rid of all background noise,” said Fabian on Thursday.
More substantial, however, was what CEO Hans-Peter Villis said as the most influential VfL representative: “We have always emphasized that we want to continue working with Thomas Reis, and that is still the case.” Villis was surprised that “strangely enough, so many rumors boil up just before crucial games”. But you don’t change your opinion about Reis now, “when the pressure from outside is increasing; quite the opposite: We have confidence in Thomas Reis, and that’s not a gut feeling, it’s a conviction.” An ultimatum for the coach? “That doesn’t exist, we haven’t discussed it internally either. We don’t run this club by feel and wave and there is no ultimatum along the lines of: If he loses the next two games, then he has to go.”
So the first shadow on the Bochum high feelings from the past few years could ultimately be due to a clumsy contract wrangling. And should there be more behind it? It could still be tight for Thomas Reis in the fall.