FC Schalke 04

Yeah, that what my thought, too. Tönnies definitely said they would listen to what Farfan and his agent have to say.

I can only see Farfán going to some Liga club, and most of them are winger/AM loaded anyways. The 2 obvious clubs are out and that leaves Málaga/Valencia etc who apart from Málaga don't really need him. The rest can't afford him.

He could maybe go to Italy, but wingers aren't used there [/sciacca].

So the smartest choice would be to stay in Schalke and eat his nuts when it comes to that hilarious 14m demand. CL football, good wages and a stable club with plenty of talent and future. Can't go wrong there.

I wanted Schalke to win vs. Bilbao

Raul, what a player... Wish he never left Madrid. The 2nd goal was amazing!

I guess every BL fan but the Dortmund fans wanted Schalke to win

Ah well, it was a really stupid loss as they weren't actually bad - they only had a huge problem with their GKs. Nr.1 Fährmann and Nr.2 Unnerstall are out injured for quite a while longer, now Nr.3 Hildebrand got injured, too, yesterday and Nr.4 Schober obviously wasn't really matchfit yet (last match he played before yesterday was in March 2009!). *sighs* I guess now only a miracle can help.

HIldebrand is number 3 not no 1 ?

Timo Hildebrand is Nr.3, yes. Ralf Fährmann was the designated Nr.1 after Manuel Neuer left until he ruptured his cruciate ligament in October 2011. Right now he's still in rehabilitation training, it is not clear when he can return.

After Fährmann's injury, the 21year old second keeper Lars Unnerstall took over and did a really great job until he injured his shoulder badly in mid February 2012. He might return somewhen in April, exact time is unclear, though.

When Fährmann got injured, Schalke signed up Timo Hildebrand in October 2011, but as Hildebrand was out of job since July 2011 (and because they knew Unnerstall is an excellent youngster), they decided to let Unnerstall play while Hildebrand was only the back-up behind Unnerstall.

With Unnerstall's injury in February 2012, Hildebrand finally got the nod and 35-year old Mathias Schober who played the last BL match for Schalke in March 2009 and who spent more time in the stands than even on the bench was reactivated as back-up for Hildebrand.

Now Hildebrand's injury catapulted the veteran back between the sticks, and Huub Stevens commented "Now we have to look around in the club who of the boys has some gloves lying around..."

Was Ragnick GOAT?

Well, both Schalke's management and the players held Ralf Rangnick in high esteem and they were sad that he had to take a break to deal with his burn-out.

The GOAT coach of Schalke is the current one, Huub Stevens. Huub Stevens was voted Schalke's "Coach of the Century" as he won the UEFA cup with the Schalke Eurofighters in 1997. Stevens immediately jumped in to take over Schalke again when he was asked to do so after Ralf Rangnick stepped down.

Something about Ragnick just impresses me.I have no real basis for rating him as highly as I do, I've watched only about 20 games from his various teams, tactically and especially personality wise, I think he's tailor made for a great club.

Why did he take a break?

Ralf Rangnick realised he suffered from burn-out / exhaustion syndrome and thus asked to be relieved from his contract to get his health back. Schalke immediately declared their support for him, and so Rangnick could work on getting his energy back and recover. He recently appeared in a sports news programme on TV where he mentioned in an interview that he could imagine to take over a new club in due time when he is fully fit again.

By the way, fortunately, Lars Unnerstall was healthy enough to return between the sticks today. Mathias Schober is sitting on the bench again.

After the 2:4 defeat at home last week, Schalke are going to try and overturn that in Bilbao tonight. I'm curious, if they will manage that, but Schalke being Schalke, I only believe they are out after the ref blows the final whistle today. ^^

Pukki



All Goals for and against Schalke 04

Looks like Jefferson Farfán will extend at Schalke after all. And now with Raúl leaving (all the best to him for his future!), there will hopefully be more chances to shine for Pukki!

As Schalke have the 3rd place and CL next season safe, I hope they will be able to extend with Huntelaar, too.

Horst Heldt just confirmed that Jefferson Farfán extended his contract until June 2016: http://www.transfermarkt.de/de/manager-horst-heldt-farfan-verlaengert-bei-schalke-bis-2016/news/anzeigen_89103.html

I think that bodes well for the Hunter extending, too, especially as Schalke is in the CL again next season.

And yeah, Uschi does pretty well as FB.

Oh, and don't forget, Schalke already signed Roman Neustädter from BMG, too.

watching schalke play wont be the same for me next season

I think about everybody who watches the Bundesliga is very sad that Raúl left.

VivaStPauli wrote:Bundesliga is getting weird these past couple seasons, now even Schalke is playing attractive football... What happened? :flower:

Magath left?

Plus the Rangnick factor . Poor guy went into stress overload trying to reverse the Tyrant's regime, FFS.

Congrats to Schalke for the 3rd place in the BL and direct qualification to the Champions League!

Moreover. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar won the "Torjägerkanone" for Season 2011/12 with 29 goals, the highest number scored by a Dutch player in one season in the BL and egalizing the record of SChalke legend Klaus Fischer with the highest number of goals for Schalke in one season.

Additionally, he got 13 assists in the BL, scored 10 goals in 10 matches in the Europe League plus 5 goals in 3 matches in the DFB-Pokal. Classy Hunter!

Congrats. Managed to turn his career around after failed (not really his fault) patches at Madrid and Milan.

All Hunter needs is proper service and constant backing. And then the goals will come

Schalke 04 will play a test match against AC Milan in the Veltins-Arena on Tuesday, July 24th, 2012, at 19:00 CEST (GMT+2). This match belongs to Schalke's preparation for the BL season 2012/13.

Source: http://www.schalke04.de/aktuell/news/einzelansicht/artikel/siebenmaliger-cl-sieger-ac-mailand-kommt-in-die-veltins-arena.html