FC St. Pauli

Andreas Bornemann on.…

…the season just ended: “I’m quite proud of the way the team performed and everyone else who played a part. After getting promoted we wanted to take the next step towards becoming a Bundesliga side. As Oke mentioned, we managed to come out on top of a small group of teams made up of Bochum, Kiel, Heidenheim and maybe others who didn’t make the most of their potential. It was important that we had the same clarity and consistency as in recent years, also in the question of what’s required to survive as a promoted side in this league. It was stability in every area, especially in defence. There’s no question that we can and want to score more goals. There’s still room to progress there. Apart from Johannes Eggestein no one had played in the Bundesliga before. For everyone else it was new territory. It was clear we’d bring in new players and that the players who got us promoted would have to take the next steps in their development. We did that. The coach did an outstanding job. He had the openness to go up to the team and meticulously evaluate what’s right for them. One indicator for me is putting the common goal above everything else and not being the one-man band who imposes his footballing philosophy on everyone. The goal was to get the maximum out of the team. Thanks to Alex, the entire coaching team and the members of staff.”

…head coach Alexander Blessin: “We’re in constant contact about what the team should look like and what we can change around it. He’s said often enough how comfortable he feels here and what he appreciates about our working relationship. That said, we know it’s become normal not to make clear commitments. Fabian Hürzeler was convinced he’d go into the Bundesliga campaign with us. Then came Brighton, which he hadn’t been expecting at all. There are no indications that anything could happen with Alex and yet it can happen.”

…the next step in the development of the team: “We’ve played decent football, were able to compete throughout and have made progress. We need to be compact off the ball and obviously have a greater goal threat from midfield and score more goals from set pieces. We only got the one at Wolfsburg. We have areas where there’s significant room for improvement. Defensive compactness will remain the foundation, but with the ball we want to offer more goal threat, be it from set pieces or rapid transitions.”

…the personnel planning for next season: “We have a couple of weeks’ time to make a couple of changes to the squad – in the hope we can go one better as a team. That’s a must if we want to celebrate staying up again at the end of the season and take another step towards becoming a Bundesliga side. The task in the next transfer window won’t simply be to plug gaps, it’s about having a chance to improve. It may be players who aren’t on everyone’s radar again. We continue to believe in the potential for development of the players who are here.”

…the negotiations for the loan players: “The loan deals for Noah Weißhaupt, Robert Wagner and Siebe Van der Heyden expire on 30 June. Noah has helped us and featured regularly, which has broadened his market somewhat. That’ll probably reduce our chances of being able to loan him out again. I presume we won’t be able to buy him. The situation is different as far as Morgan Guilavogui is concerned. It’s no secret that there’s an option we can exercise. The reason Morgan is so valuable is because he can play in every attacking position to virtually the same standard.”

…the battle to avoid the drop next year: “For us the situation remains unchanged, just with slightly bigger obstacles in view of the teams who are coming up. Next year the opposition will be stronger on paper. The question will be just how much the obstacle has shifted. We’ll need to make a bit more progress in every area and on every level again.”

Oke Göttlich on…

…last year: “It was a step in the development of FC St. Pauli, both in footballing and in financial terms. The reason it was an extraordinary season for us was because we ended the competition among the teams who are lagging behind a bit financially in the Bundesliga in first place. We’re incredibly proud of that. For me it’s also a question of how the committees, fans and members of the club and the cooperative shoulder their share of the responsibility. Shared responsibility is a big topic at our club. It was the togetherness and standing together of all the involved parties that achieved this outcome. I’ve been through a lot in the last decade; it was one of the most exacting seasons because we needed the solidarity to get the points required. I’m delighted with the way everyone did their utmost to ensure we did it, be it at the training ground or at the Millerntor, the committees, the fans and the members. It’s imperative we carry over this shared responsibility into next season.”

…the club’s on-pitch aspirations: “We said before the season that we’d move towards becoming an established Bundesliga club at some point. We know exactly where we belong, what we’re capable of and what possibilities we have. We also know what tweaks we want to make to become a touch better. In the next few years reaching the relegation/promotion play-off place is always going to be a success for FC St. Pauli. Our aim is always to achieve the best-possible outcome with the highest-possible ambition. In this competition we can only take slow development steps. One of them could be to take one step back to take two forward. That’s part of development and organic growth. For us, every season we stay in the Bundesliga is a successful one.”

Wilken Engelbracht on…

…the financial situation: “If the footballing side has cause to be happy, so does the financial department, and that’s the case this year. We’ll post positive results for the second time in a row, which is important. We’ll record a turnover of more than 100 million euro for the first time. It’s an important sign of our stability. Everyone’s played a part, and football has been instrumental, of course. Although we won’t know the final figures until the summer, we can already see that growth has been achieved in every area. The success of the cooperative stands above all else economically and financially. It’ll make a huge contribution to what will be important for us in the years to come. The aim of the cooperative was to get us back to where we were before Covid as quickly as possible, with financial stability, solidity and viability. It would have taken us nine or ten years to do that under our own steam, but with the power and support of our members who have backed the cooperative we’ve been able to save time and have the capacity to take action again. The club has never been so healthy thanks to the cooperative, the success on the pitch and some measures we have used in recent months. In view of the capital we’ll have through the cooperative interest, the equity ratio and the debt situation, it’s the most stable and financially strongest FC St. Pauli there’s ever been, though that doesn’t mean we can make huge and sudden leaps in this fiercely contested league.”

Photos: FC St. Pauli