Rouven Schröder: An opportunity to reposition ourselves as a club

Rouven Schröder on…

…the VELTINS-Arena being allowed to operate at full capacity as of the game against Hannover 96:  
As athletes, there’s nothing nicer than playing in front of a full stadium. The lads will need to find the right balance, and not overdo it. We all want to head down the correct path together.

…the promotion race and the game against Hannover:
The key for us will be to focus on ourselves and not let anything distract us. We are completely focused on ourselves, on training and on the game against Hannover. It’s our responsibility to win this game.

…working from home after testing positive for Covid-19:
I held a lot of strategic and important discussions while I was self-isolating at home, and wasn’t as involved in the day-to-day business. We are starting to focus on the summer. There was almost a constant line of communication to Mike Büskens, Gerald Asamoah and Peter Knäbel – all the key figures when it comes to making decisions. There are a lot of topics that we have to address, with an eye on the summer already.

…the new partnerships:
My compliments to the entire board for how we as a club dealt with the situation and found new sponsorship opportunities. That shows the appeal of FC Schalke 04. We have a huge opportunity to reposition ourselves as a club. The budget is the key thing for us, when it comes to squad planning. We need to do everything we can – which we are – in order to ensure that we have a similar budget to last season’s available this summer. The higher the budget, the more chances we have to be creative with it.

…the vacant head coach position and the effect on transfers:
Personally, it’s extremely important to me that the players are prepared to play regardless of which league we are in. Currently, we don’t know which league we will be playing in next season. It’s clear that any potential new signing will want to speak with the new head coach at some point. We are staying calm and have begun putting our plans and discussion into motion. Right now, however, we are in a phase where we are fully focused on the day-to-day business. The most important thing is providing Mike Büskens and the team with our full support.

…squad planning:
We have two scenarios that we are working with, for the first and second division. Of course there are certain key figures that we are working with. It’s possible that we will only know where we will end up after the final matchday, or even after the play-offs. Once the season comes to an end that will also pose a big challenge for us, especially when looking at when the 2022/23 season will begin. I’m not worried about it yet, because I know that my team work hard and want to make the best of the situation.