What will the commentators say if the relegation of VfB Stuttgart should be certain in the near future? It is quite possible that they will still praise VfB’s game idea and the calm that the club has radiated to the end. The sentence that VfB quite stayed to himself be, maybe even the sports director Mislintat will say it. Yes, and then they will go down to the second division with themselves, the commentators will praise and the region will cry.
VfB Stuttgart are the strangest team in the Bundesliga and they would also be the strangest relegation team in a long time. Rarely has the gap between what is and what could be been so great as with this gifted but troubled elf. Last season, the cheeky VfB was something of a favorite team for neutral observers, and there are still significant traces of this sympathy, even among opposing coaches and managers.
This recognition comes from realizing how hard it is: staying sane and not getting carried away by the crazy dynamics of the business. The industry had and still has respect for that: that VfB Stuttgart is finally trying not to be like VfB Stuttgart. So don’t just throw out the coach when things don’t go well, don’t bring in a worn-out veteran when you actually trust his talents.
But what, the people in the region will ask, do we have from all the respect if we are relegated to the second division because of it and no mislintat can promise us that we will rise again with his thousand talents?
You can watch the club in its touching struggle for continuity
VfB is currently a prisoner of its own history. Three years ago, Mislintat and then club boss Thomas Hitzlsperger started with the commendable intention of breaking the vicious circle of a traditional club. Since then you can watch this club in its touching struggle for continuity: Questions about the coach are (quite rightly) ignored, no one is yelled at or suspended, the weeks are worked down seriously without any recognizable stimuli. This approach is exemplary as long as an invisible boundary is not crossed, in which continuity becomes an end in itself and thus becomes radical again.
With this type of work, the Stuttgarters accept that they now seem a bit unequipped in the relegation battle. The rough tools are missing in the backpack, the team on the field is also missing. But now, after the all too calmly accepted 0-2 in Berlin, Mislintat and coach Matarazzo have sharpened their tone and put the players under pressure. That’s not nice. But possibly a good sign.