Wicky's dismissal equals a bad April joke

FC Basel dismiss coach Raphael Wicky after the first two games of the season. The management of the club around President Bernhard Burgener and the sports director Marco Streller contradicts himself. One Comment

That Raphael Wicky is not allowed to allow another false start in the new season, was clear. But can we already speak of a false start after two lost games? And if Marco Aratore had not hit Luca Zuffi with his shot in injury time on Saturday, from where the ball landed for St. Gallen 2-1? Or if Valentin Stocker broke the dead net against PAOK on Tuesday and Basel would have shot early in the lead? The fact is that Basel had a lot of bad luck in the first two games of the season.

"The team's performance since the start of the practice and the season with five losses in a row did not meet the expectations of the sport's leadership," says the referral of Bebbi Wicky. Words that equate to a bad joke in April. Because the FCB justifies the decision by a bad performance of the last three test matches, which were lost against Wolverhampton, Feyenoord and Aarau. A joke. Because the test games are – as its name indicates – there to be tested. In the 1: 4 against Aarau were on the following eleven FCB players in the starting lineup: Antonio; Manzambi, Dimitriou, Emperor, Conus; Houses, Kuzmanovic; Moos, Oberlin, Bua; Pululu. Only Kevin Bua entered the starting lineup against St. Gallen

There are other reasons behind Wicky's dismissal. Is the coach complaining too much of the decisions of the sports direction? The coach had said publicly after last season that he did not want to have so many changes in the summer. What happened? With Tomas Vaclik, Michael Lang and Mohamed Elyounoussi, he lost three key players again, Manuel Akanji and Renato Steffen having already been sold in winter.

Even before last season, Wicky had to face the departures of both Torgaranten Marc Janko and Seydou Doumbia. The captain also left the team with Matias Delgado. From the regular team of the last Basel championship team (2016/17), only Marek Suchy, Eder Balanta, Luca Zuffi and the injured Taulant Xhaka are present. Of course, with such a change, it takes time for the automatisms to install

Time that Marco Streller no longer wants to give to the coach. In an interview with the "Berner Zeitung", the sports director Wicky backtracked in November: "We were still convinced of our philosophy, we knew that Raphael Wicky was an outstanding coach, we saw him working with him. Team and there were beautiful moments that reinforced our approach. "And on: " We wanted even more emotions in St. Jakob Park.The FCB should please. want to trigger a new euphoria, sometimes you have to go through a little more difficult phases, then the emotions are even greater when it starts to work again.I find our way exciting.We have become more unpredictable. "

With the expulsion of Wicky, Streller contradicts himself: who, in the first game of the season against St. Gallen, attended a very emotional match. Chances were high on both sides. For the neutral football fan, it was a pleasure to watch. For the FCB fan at the bitter end, but he had until the moment of the fun injury in the show.

Wicky's dismissal shows that CBF leaders are primarily concerned with the results. Fear seems to be spreading. Fear of the next crisis, fear of missing the Champions League, which would bring FC Basel to the next mountain by the millions. The FCB receives about 32 million euros for re-participation in the Queen class.

From a purely financial point of view, the work of the new leadership led by President Bernhard Burgener has borne fruit so far. With only transfers, the FCB has made a more than 34.5 million euros since the summer of 2017. Instead of reacting prematurely with a dismissal from the coach at the beginning of the miserable season, but the leadership may have to take their own nose first. She should have admitted that with the many castings and the current team, it was not to be expected that there were still two years: a team that worked from the beginning.

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