Magath left Jones out of this weekend's 18. There seems to be more going on behind the scenes, looks like he's fallen out with Magath.
"Jermaine hat eine schlechte Phase", begründete Magath am Freitagabend gegenüber kicker-online, "er hat in Wolfsburg viele Fehlpässe gespielt und kaum Zweikämpfe gewonnen. Im Training sah es danach in der vergangenen Woche auch nicht viel besser aus." Eine Reaktion darauf, dass Jones sich in dieser Woche öffentlich über seine taktische Rolle in der Doppel-Sechs beklagt hatte, sei die Maßnahme nicht, so Magath. "Es geht allein um die Leistung, es gibt keinen anderen Grund." http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/bundesliga/startseite/545125/artikel_Magath-streicht-Jones.html "Jermaine has a bad phase" "He delivered many bad passes in Wolfsburg and almost lost every tackle. It didn't look much better in the last training week" "It's all about performance, there's no other reason"
Jones made some noise over the week, saying he wants to play in the Champions League every year and hinting he may leave Schalke at the end of the saison for that. That pissed off Magath.
I have no doubt that Magath might sit a guy he's annoyed with, and Jones has shown himself to be outspoken; it's unlikely that their two personalities mesh smoothly. But Jones did also have a poor match last week (5,0 from Kicker and subbed out in the 63d min). His form does appear off. Hopefully Jones improves and makes it impossible for Magath to leave him out of the XI.
he had a bad game today, according to accounts but ... http://4-4-2.com.sportalsports.com/...2010&month=11&day=25&id=13595500000&&start=20
Right, but he has 30 players on his squad; he could send 8 starters of this game to the stands in the next games.
Is Schalke going anywhere for the winter break? Hypothetically, they can stay in Gelsenkirchen indoors but that wouldn't be a vacation.
Fox Soccer Channel reported last night that Wolfsburg is rumored to be interested in aquiring Jones during the winter break. A number of news outlets are also reporting this, such as: http://www.goal.com/en/news/15/germ...want-schalke-midfielder-jermaine-jones-report Seems to me that it would do Jones good to get away from Magath.
I think it would be a very good move. Schalke look like they are stuck in sand and the Magath-Jones relationship looks strained. Wolfsburg are only sitting two spots ahead of Schalke but appear, at least to me, that they'll climb a little higher and be a little better than Schalke. I assume Jones would replace Josué who has always been mediocre in my eyes.
Wolfsburg is no place to go right now. The squad is much better than they are doing now; looks like McClaren hasn't understood his players, and doesn't know what to do with them. They were Bundesliga champion 17 months ago, and spent 40 million € net since then; now they're 13th, and McClaren is calling for some more new players. I doubt he'll still be in charge in winter, this is impressive underperforming. And if he's still in charge, and gets some new players, he'll be sacked sooner or later anyway; and they'll have some 35 discontent expensive players there, waiting for a new coach bringing new ideas... and new players. You shouldn't jump onto a sinking ship.
Heading to southern Turkey http://www.ruhrnachrichten.de/sport/schalke/news/art15837,1111571 Vom 5. bis zum 14. Januar fährt die Mannschaft ins Trainingslager. Ziel ist der Ort Belek in der südlichen Türkei
Magath didn't like his attitude in the last game. (And Baumjohann's and Sarpei's attitude in practice.) He sent them to the reserve team.
Magath's reputation as a harda** put to work. After the 5-0 loss this weekend, Schalke had a 9am morning training session in very cold conditions. No gloves or hats. Also, unhappy news for three players: Jermaine Jones, Hans Sarpei and Alexander Baumjohann must train with Schalke's reserve team of the regional league until the winter break. Magath was unhappy with Jones' match performance and the training performance of the other two.
I'm starting to think that Magath needs money for his usual winter break additions and Jones is one of the players with a very good "pre-Magath" contract. I assume he wants to get rid of him.