Die Knappen! Schalke 04 07/08 thread (part 4) [R]

[unclesox]

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20080409/capt.9f2cbb552f254b9fb13c8fca070dbac5.spain_soccer_champions_league_mme112.jpg

They go out with honor. :cool: Well done to Schalke who were very unlucky not to have scored, not only in the first half of the second leg, but over the whole 180 minutes.
Hopefully they two clubs can meet up at some point again next season. :)

[Zenit]

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20080409/capt.9f2cbb552f254b9fb13c8fca070dbac5.spain_soccer_champions_league_mme112.jpg

They go out with honor. :cool: Well done to Schalke who were very unlucky not to have scored, not only in the first half of the second leg, but over the whole 180 minutes.
Hopefully they two clubs can meet up at some point again next season. :)

Sorry to see the run end, but they indeed can hold their heads high after going out with a determined effort vs. a great, great team (who I think is going to win the whole shooting match, in the end.)

Congrats on a GREAT journey!

[Hendrixforpope]

You guys worked hard and put up a commendable fight.

http://blog.blacknight.com/images/thumbs-up.jpg

[Fussballer76]

kuranyi should never play soccer again.

[Projekt4]

You guys worked hard and put up a commendable fight.

http://blog.blacknight.com/images/thumbs-up.jpg

Arrogant conclusion.

Schalke should definitely not be satisfied (though not devastated either).

[Lahmfan]

Good game Shallke! and good run!!
Good luck next CL!

[johan neeskens]

I don't know if anyone from Gelsenkirchen itself actually posts here but please note that Twente are playing their home play off games at the Arena Auf Schalke stadium late this month and early next month. We don't know who we're playing yet but it'll probably be Ajax in the first round. So if you're interested, do go - rumour has it that tickets will only be 5 Euros for non-Twente season ticket holders.

[Wappy]

any highlights of the game...? all videos on youtube were shut down pretty fast by UEFA and I didn't record it last night

anyway, as I said way before when they qualified from the group stages, if Schalke managed to score more goals we would find them facing ManU :).

[Schwalker]

I don't know if anyone from Gelsenkirchen itself actually posts here but please note that Twente are playing their home play off games at the Arena Auf Schalke stadium late this month and early next month. We don't know who we're playing yet but it'll probably be Ajax in the first round. So if you're interested, do go - rumour has it that tickets will only be 5 Euros for non-Twente season ticket holders.

*Cough*...I´ll be there but is it confirmed yet?

Enschede is close but I´m surprised that the Dutch association allow games on foreign soil, even if it´s just an hour between us.
And I happen to know that that the Ultras from both Twente and Schalke (who are good friends I might add) are planning some stuff to add to the atmosphere...

Or as a mates dutch friend expressed it..."Gelsenkirchen, Enschede, wat maakt het uit. Is beide Duitsland, toch?"..there is a joker everywhere :rolleyes:

[Schwalker]

Barcelona, well..I will not complain about the result, our lack of goalscoring ability was going to haunt us this season both in European games and in the Bundesliga.

But we fought enough to make me proud anyway..;)

[Hendrixforpope]

Arrogant conclusion.

Schalke should definitely not be satisfied (though not devastated either).

I didn't intend to sound arrogant. Schalke did better than a lot of people expected over the course of both legs.

[Borussia]

Kudos to Schalke for this great first half!

[johan neeskens]

*Cough*...I´ll be there but is it confirmed yet?

Enschede is close but I´m surprised that the Dutch association allow games on foreign soil, even if it´s just an hour between us.
And I happen to know that that the Ultras from both Twente and Schalke (who are good friends I might add) are planning some stuff to add to the atmosphere...

Or as a mates dutch friend expressed it..."Gelsenkirchen, Enschede, wat maakt het uit. Is beide Duitsland, toch?"..there is a joker everywhere :rolleyes:

The friendly relations between the fans of the two clubs have certainly played a part! Youri Mulder might have negotiated a discount on the stadium rent. It'd be great if Schalke fans were to help us out.

It's confirmed that we're playing at your stadium, but we don't know who we'll be playing against yet. If all goes right for us (i.e. we beat PSV away on Sunday) we'll be battling for the one remaining CL qualifying spot. Probably v Ajax. Worst case scenario is the intertoto.

[johan neeskens]

By the way, that group of Schalke fans who clashed with Feyenoord fans in Almelo a couple of weeks ago are still locked up in prison!

[Schwalker]

By the way, that group of Schalke fans who clashed with Feyenoord fans in Almelo a couple of weeks ago are still locked up in prison!

They might cool down a bit there...I´m not a fan of these clashes even if it was partly because of our "alliance" with Twente, we have a score to settle with the Feyenoord hools anyway.

That said I was a bit of a rascal in my youth myself so I´m no role model perhaps..:D

[willy_svw]

Schalke Coach Mirko Slomka was sacked this morning, after th 5:1 loss to Bremen yesterday.

[Schwalker]

Schalke Coach Mirko Slomka was sacked this morning, after th 5:1 loss to Bremen yesterday.

I´m not surprised, Slomkas brand of "Heldenfussball" was not popular among the Schalke directors that are in favour of having a playing system to rely on so they have just waited for an opportunity to get rid of him...

Will I miss him?..Not really, he was an interim coach that stayed with us for two years and got ok results but had us playing some really negative football.

Onwards and upwards! :D

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

The way I see it:

- When he took over halfway through 05/06, the team improved a lot compared to how it was under Rangnick(who also had done a good job) in the first half of the season.
-Last year he turned Schalke in to a title-challenger, you guys threw it away as you always do in such cases, but he cannot be blamed for that imo. He did a great job for you last year.
- This year you aren't title challengers, but honestly who expected anyone to challenge Bayern this season? This year is all about who's 'best of the rest' imo. And you guys are right up there gunning for that prize, being in 3rd place atm, just behind Bremen. Your second half of the season has been very good overall and I don't think you could classify this season as a failure up until this point, but rather a fairly successful one. You even made it further in the Champions League than ever before. Again Slomka did better than Rangnick in terms of CL performance, and I repeat that Rangnick himself had done many good things for Schalke.

My conclusion:
An arrogant and somewhat senseless move by the Schalke management. If you base performance on results, then you can't really criticize Slomka at all since results have been consistently strong under his reign. You could perhaps blame him for the meltdown at the end of last season, but I don't consider that to have been his fault. It says alot imo that he got fired only 3 days after Schalke made a strong performance and went out of the CL with their heads high, knowing they had performed far above expectations. Yesterday was an unlucky game for Schalke but the consequences Slomka has suffered for them were way over the top, especially considering you're still in a good position in the league. And finally, I don't see the point in firing a manager at this point in the season. Who's gonna take you over for the last 6-7 games? And will that be nearly enough time to gel the team? We'll see what happens. You could pick up someone who'll get the team motivated in the last matches and allow them to finish off the season successfully. But you could also get someone who may not have enough time to form the team he wants, and that could even leade to a complete meltdown in results and table position, and at this point in the season, that would be fatal.

We'll see, but I don't believe this was the right thing to do. And if you were gonna fire him, it probably could've waited until the end of the season.

[Schwalker]

The question is never about coaches or players you loose...it´s about who´s replacing them.

Schalke need a much stronger head coach than Slomka in my view, someone ready to take control and make unpopular decisions, Schalke was simply a bit too big as a club for a former assistant coach in my view.

So we´ll replace him with some arrogant bastard I´m sure...:D

[Alois12]

Great new for HSV, though.

If we don't get Klopp, we can get Slomka. ;)