Why Eintracht Frankfurt and Oliver Glasner stopped working
The 48-year-old head coach is set to leave the Eagles in the coming weeks, but the decision to part ways came long before a frustrating defeat to Hoffenhiem.
Football is a fickle sport and managers know more than most that they’re only as good as their next result. None are perhaps as acutely aware of that quite like Eintracht Frankfurt head coach Oliver Glasner, who could now be set to leave the Eagles less than 12 months after guiding the club to its first European trophy in 42 years.
With just four games left of the season, Glasner was handed a one-match ban by the DFB on Monday, following “unsportsmanlike conduct” during his team’s recent defeat to Hoffenheim. The 48-year-old head coach had, rather immaturely, kicked a ball onto the pitch during open play in what he later described as an act of “silent protest” at perceived injustices by the match officials on the day.
The result now means that Frankfurt have gone 10 league games without a win. A fact that was evidently on Glasner’s mind when he ferociously reacted to a journalist’s post-match query over the commitment of a squad that had handily overcome Real Betis, Barcelona and West Ham on their way to the Europa League final last season but were now struggling to beat Bochum, Augsburg or Hoffenheim.
“Stop accusing the team of not understanding or not being committed," said Glasner, before explaining in unnecessary detail how gruesome the club’s crowded fixture list had been on 39-year-old Makoto Hasebe’s body. “Lack of commitment, stop this rubbish.” This, like his actions during the game, were strongly condemned by Frankfurt less than 24 hours later. "It was neither good nor right to react like that," said club board member Axel Hellmann on BILD-TV. "What I absolutely cannot understand is that you take this disappointment out on a journalist who does his job.”
Shortly afterwards, reports began to surface that Glasner and Frankfurt were set to part ways. However, rather than some knee-jerk reaction to a public spat, this decision has been a long time coming and only cements lingering concerns that all has not been well at the Waldstadion for quite some time.
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