Ivan perisic had not been with vfl wolfsburg for a whole day when he had already stunned everyone at his new club for the first time. "I know every name here," said the millionaire purchase of borussia dortmund after his transfer. At the same time, it’s not so easy with the "wolves". 35 players are part of the much too large squad of the bundesliga soccer team, some of them like ferhan hasani, mateusz klich or yohandry orozco are not even known to every vfl fan. "This is not good for a team," explained perisic. "But I think that was more the fault of the sports director, who was here before mr. Allofs."
Klaus allofs, dieter hecking and felix magath’s difficult legacy – it’s a thorny issue that will keep wolfsburg busy for some time to come. Although the new sports director and the new coach are working in the training camp in belek on the turkish riviera above all to give the vfl more continuity, sporting success and a new image again. But to do that, they also first have to clean up legacy issues left by their predecessor, who was fired in october.
"We are working hard to reduce the size of the squad. In the next few days, we want to sign one or two players for other clubs," allofs said. Hecking had also emphasized right after taking office: "35 men in the squad is too much. With 20 players plus three goalkeepers and four, five more junior players, it’s easy to work well."
Magath obviously saw it differently. The former coach, manager and managing director signed 27 new professionals for around 67 million euros in just one and a half years of his second term in office at wolfsburg.
The fact that his personnel policy was ultimately just as intolerable as his people management can be well described by the example of slobodan medojevic. Magath brought the completely unknown serbian from vojvodina novi sad for around two million euros in january 2011, only to never use him afterwards. Now allofs and hecking have little use for the 20-year-old because there are already seven other players for his position in defensive midfield.
Schalke 04 also needed three transfer periods and more than a year to get a new structure into the squad left behind by magath. Allofs and hecking have only been in wolfsburg for a few weeks, but are already increasingly annoyed by the issue. "To be clear, this is not a disaster. The coaching team can absorb this very well", said allofs in belek. "We have also taken so many players here so that the coach has a chance to look at everyone." ultimately, however, the principle that the new strong man has already formulated in his first days at vfl applies: "each player should have a realistic perspective."
The first reservist wolfsburg got from its lush payroll was marco russ. His old and new club eintracht frankfurt may also take striker srdjan lakic from vfl. Sports director bruno hubner told the "frankfurter rundschau" quite openly that it had always been "difficult" with felix magath. "With klaus allofs, it’s a different story," he said. "It is possible to negotiate reasonably with him."