In a week when one the longest serving and ultra-successful managers in football called it a day, unfortunately another seems to be heading to the exit door with a whimper.
Thomas Schaaf has not been in charge at Werder Bremen for anywhere near as long as Sir Alex Ferguson has been at Manchester United, nor has he racked up the number of trophies the Scot has.
But since 1999, Schaaf has been in charge of the North German club, leading Werder to the Bundesliga and Cup double in 2004, winning a further two German Cups (1999 and 2009) and leading his team to the UEFA Cup final in 2009 where they lost to Shakhtar Donetsk in extra-time.
Schaaf is Werder Bremen in a nutshell in a way that neither Ferguson nor Arsene Wenger can match at their respective clubs. For the 52-year-old is the truest one-club man of them all.
One club man
He joined Bremen’s youth academy aged 11 in 1972, before spending his entire playing career at Werder, eventually retiring in 1995 aged 34, having won two Bundesliga titles, two Cups and the 1992 European Cup Winners Cup.
After more than 360 appearances for Werder as a player he became a natural choice for a coaching role. During the latter part of his career he had already started coaching the club’s youth teams but upon his retirement he was given the task of managing Werder Bremen II – the club’s reserve team.
But the senior team was in huge trouble under Felix Magath’s stewardship in the 1998-99 season, with relegation a serious threat. Magath was sacked with three games to go and the board made the fateful decision to turn to one of their own.
Not only did Schaaf rescue Bremen from the drop by a point that season, he also won the German Cup by beating runaway league champions and Champions League finalists Bayern Munich in the final, 10 days after Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United side had stunned Bayern at the Nou Camp.
Schaaf greatest achievement, aside from the aforementioned trophy wins, is the fact that he has engineered a level of consistency that turned the club into one of Germany’s top sides. From the 2003/04 double-winning season to the end of the 2007/08 campaign, Werder Bremen were never out of the Top 3, regularly qualifying for the Champions League group stages. And this, despite the fact that Schaaf has had to contend with star players leaving.
But this season, Werder Bremen and their long-time manager have come full circle. It has been a chastening campaign which has seen The Green-Whites battling for relegation and they currently hover just three points above the final relegation playoff spot with two games to go.
That poor form has led to increased speculation that the 41 year association between Schaaf and Werder Bremen will come to a mutually agreed end this summer.
Although, he is still adored by the fans, Schaaf has seemingly lost his Midas touch – though he has not been helped by underperforming players - and even threatened to walk away from the Weserstadion after April’s 3 – 0 defeat to Wolfsburg.
Schaaf could still mastermind survival but with the team not only going stale, but in rapid decline, it is clear that time is unkind to even the most loyal and successful servants. Today's game against Eintracht Frankfurt could well be his last in front of the adoring Weserstadion.
The end of another era beckons.
