Kult & Punk: St Pauli retain services of André Schubert

Another season of Kult and Punk has ended. Thank you to the boys, Andy James and Jürgen Blöhs for their contribution. We will make the odd visit, during the summer, to the boys. We will be back, for the 4th season in a row, later in the year to continue following St Pauli

Hamburg - There was an unexpected turn of events at the press conference called by FC St. Pauli on Monday afternoon, when the Bundesliga 2 club announced that they will be retaining the services of André Schubert as head coach for next season.

"The executive committee and supervisory board have reached a unanimous agreement on that," St. Pauli president Stefan Orth said. It was a decision that came as a surprise not only to the Hamburg newspapers which had been reporting Schubert's imminent dismissal but also, by his own admission, to the 40-year-old coach himself.

Schubert prepared for the worst

The executive and the supervisory board had given the green light to maintaining the current arrangement in a meeting that ended only an hour prior to the press conference and Schubert acknowledged that, "I'd gone in there with the feeling that it was pretty much the end of the road, based on the developments of the past few days."

"The media view was that we would parting ways. Internally, the situation was on a knife-edge," Orth said, describing the mounting speculation that differences between the coach and club functionaries and representatives, as well as inter-personal problems with the players, had rendered Schubert's position untenable.

Coach promises improvements

Schubert himself conceded that, "I maybe didn't always choose my words carefully enough," and vowed, "I'll be approaching a few things differently from now on as far as working together and communicating go." At the same time, he was adamant that, "I won't be twisting myself inside out. But that doesn't mean you have to be incapable of learning."

"It would be dishonest to say that there haven't been some atmospheric disturbances," Orth expanded, "but after our discussion today, we're confident that this will work out. It's been a bumpy start, but we're convinced now that it will work." Above all because, "There can be no complaints about his ability. He's an excellent coach," the president made clear. The decision to retain Schubert "was arrived at gradually over the past few weeks, when we repeatedly got together and thrashed things out. It's not down to the fact that we beat SC Paderborn 5-0, even if it is nice to end the season on a high note."

Chemistry there between players and coach

Orth said that during Sunday's final round of league action, "My mind was in Düsseldorf, where I was hoping something might still happen." Fortuna's home draw with Duisburg was enough in the end to edge St. Pauli out of the promotion play-off spot on goal difference, but the performance against Paderborn "showed that things are fine between the team and the coach."

Schubert agrees, pointing out that "We outran our opponents in 32 of our 34 games this season. No team overturned a deficit more often than St. Pauli. If you'd watched how we celebrated together, you wouldn't be saying that the chemistry's not there!" Accordingly, he is not expecting the events of the past weeks, culminating in the premature reports of his dismissal, to have any adverse affect on his authority: "Now I can focus fully on my job again. I promise to give it my all."


Jürgen Blöhs in Hamburg