Bundesliga: Euphoria and worries: Will success be VfB’s downfall?

Bundesliga
Euphoria and worries: Will success be VfB’s downfall?

It could all be so beautiful. VfB Stuttgart has already collected 50 points in this extraordinary season – more than ever at this point in a season in the Bundesliga. After two near-relegations, the Swabians, who are also clear favorites against 1. FC Union Berlin this Friday (8.30 p.m./DAZN), are heading straight for the Champions League. But into that Euphoria is also mixed with skepticism around the people of Stuttgart. Will VfB lose its stars in the summer? If yes, how many? What will happen to the coach? And what is actually going on between the president and the new investor?

All the topics off the pitch are also “part of the job to a certain extent,” said coach Sebastian Hoeneß on Thursday. Managing them correctly is still a “challenge” for the coming weeks. Success just arouses desire. This is particularly clear in Hoeneß himself and Stuttgart’s top scorer Serhou Guirassy.

Speculation about coaches and players at VfB

Rumors have been circulating for weeks that Hoeneß could be a possible candidate to succeed Thomas Tuchel as coach of FC Bayern Munich. The 41-year-old says he sees it as “confirmation” of the good work done by the people of Stuttgart. But: “It’s speculation, nothing more.” He has “no thoughts that the journey with VfB will be over at the end of the season.” That should reassure some fans of the third-place team, at least for the time being.

Things are different with striker Guirassy – and as things stand, a change in the summer is much more likely. “We will of course push ourselves to the limit in order to be able to work with Serhou in the long term,” says sports director Fabian Wohlgemuth about the Guinean, who has already scored 22 competitive goals this season.

Guirassy’s future beyond the season is open – and a permanent transfer issue. Thanks to a release clause, he could leave the club in the summer. There is also speculation about what will happen to Alexander Nübel (Bayern Munich) and Deniz Undav (Brighton & Hove Albion), who have so far only been on loan – and whether VfB could even afford the permanent commitment of the goalkeeper and striker after economically difficult years .

“In principle, we always fight with full commitment when it comes to improving the competitive situation for VfB. Nothing is left behind,” says Wohlgemuth. “One of the findings from last year is that, when in doubt, the team has always made up for the loss of top performers. In general, we cannot allow ourselves to be carried away in this process.”

Hoeneß the “master key to our success”

Wohlgemuth, it becomes clear, sometimes finds the mood around VfB too pessimistic – and is also reminded of the previous year. At that time, national players Wataru Endo, Borna Sosa and Konstantinos Mavropanos left the Swabians. After that, “many voices quickly talked about the downfall,” says Wohlgemuth. Instead, there was a rapid upswing.

Coach Hoeneß is “the master key to our success,” says Wohlgemuth. Another important reconstruction helper was and is the 44-year-old himself. It would be obvious if VfB would promote him to sports director at some point. The Stuttgart-based company has not yet made any progress on the question of how to fill the position that CEO Alexander Wehrle still holds. And the topic will probably drag on even further.

In any case, other points still seem to need to be clarified on the supervisory board, which now also includes two representatives of the new VfB investor Porsche. The automobile manufacturer would like a “new beginning” in the committee with a new chairman. Claus Vogt, currently VfB president and chairman of the committee, has assured this, Porsche recently announced.

The council met last week. VfB announced that Vogt would not comment further publicly for the time being. It seems to creak. Everything could be so beautiful.

dpa