David Wagner’s time at Schalke is over.
The German-American manager was sacked as manager of the Bundesliga side on Sunday after a poor start to the new league season. Wagner was in his second season as boss of Schalke, but will now be in search of a new job.
“We all had hoped that we could turn things around in sporting terms together with David Wagner,” Schalke sporting director Jochen Schneider said. “Unfortunately, the first two game days of the new season did not produce the necessary performance and results.”
“We have therefore decided to take the path of a new start in terms of personnel. Despite the disappointing results, this decision was anything but easy for us. My thanks go to David Wagner, Christoph Bühler and Frank Fröhling, who did everything every day until they were released to get Schalke 04 back on the road to success.”
Wagner took over at Schalke in July 2019 and was lucky to make it this far as manager after a poor end to last season. Schalke missed out on European qualification after winning only one league match in 2020 and two matches overall in all competitions.
The club ended the season on a 15-match winless run before opening this season with lopsided defeats to Bayern Munich and Werder Bremen.
Wagner, who won eight caps for the U.S. Men’s National Team as a player, also served as manager of Huddersfield Town from 2015-19 and head coach of Borussia Dortmund II from 2011-15. Wagner worked with current USMNT stars Christian Pulisic at Dortmund and Weston McKennie at Schalke.
Schalke next travels to RB Leipzig in Bundesliga action on Oct. 3rd, looking for its first league win since Jan. 17th.
Wagner wasn’t given anything to work with at Schalke. Serdar, Harit, McKennie, Nubel, Caligiuri… gone or injured. The roster’s in shambles. You can’t lay this on him.
That 8-0 loss against Bayern Munich was unacceptable/unforgivable??♂️.
Hopefully Wagner finds a new club to coach. Still think he’s a good coach and in the right place can do well.
In his last 2 jobs his hands have been tied by the owners unable/unwilling to invest in players. Schalke was always slated for the drop after the poor finish last year and selling their best player.
losing record with Dortmund reserves, got Huddersfield relegated, set all sorts of lousiness records for Schalke. where is the promise? to me the most telling thing is he couldn’t even win with Dortmund’s second team, who currently are winning their division in the promotion spot to 3.Liga. he isn’t a speck on Bradley or Marsch as a coach. pimp the coaches who deserve pimping.
Wagner got Huddersfield promoted and kept them in the EPL for a season before being let go. It was in his 2nd EPL season and after he was released that Huddersfield was relegated.
The agenda of a 2nd team isn’t so much winning games, as getting players ready to contribute to the 1st team. In that regard Wagner was very good & productive.
Schalke is a dumpster fire. The club is lacking all over the field, as was clearly evident by how they used McKennie at CB, RB, CM, & Forward last season. If the ownership isn’t going to invest at least something in the roster, than not even Klopp or Pep would be able to do much against the likes of Bayern.