There is a coaching problem at FCZ: these five reasons speak for Henriksen’s expulsion

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The FCZ is in the Henriksen trap. That’s not surprising. Partly due to the long-term absence of the sports director, the club pushed the issue of extending the contract with coach Bo Henriksen (48) further and further back. Now they want to talk ‘calmly’ in the training camp. You should know: according to Danish sources, Henriksen has long since announced internally that he will leave the FCZ in the summer.

Things are simmering in the FCZ. What next with the coaching question? The club has three options. To convince Henriksen to stay. To continue with Henriksen as a “lame duck” until the summer. Or break up with the Dane immediately. There are important reasons for the latter option:

At the end of July, the Danish newspaper ‘BT’ published a blow: Henriksen had informed the FCZ club management that he would not renew his contract, which expires in the summer of 2024. According to ‘BT’, it was not right for Henriksen that there was no seamless successor solution in Zurich after the departure of sports director Marinko Jurendic and that he himself had to reluctantly intervene on an interim basis. Moreover, his wish for a new striker never came true. Henriksen himself never confirmed, neither in Denmark nor in Switzerland in the months that followed, that his departure had long been confirmed.

Zurich was the leader for weeks and can still dream of the title. In an ideal FCZ world, extending the contract with the successful coach should be a formality – as at FC Luzern, for example, the contract with coach Mario Frick, which expires in 2024, was extended months ago because both parties had no doubts. But FCZ has been messing around for months – because no one wanted to say publicly that the coach would leave after all. Henriksen never said he would like to stay longer; he always flirted with platitudes like ‘My person and my future are not important.’ But the FCZ never made a commitment to the coach, they always played for time. Especially since a new sports director, Milos Malenovic, has been in power since October. Malenovic will want to hire a head coach himself as soon as possible.

In connection with the lost match against St. Gallen on Saturday, both chairman Ancillo Canepa and sports director Malenovic commented for the first time on a possible contract extension for Henriksen on TV channel Blue. The tenor: “Everything is open, it can go both ways.” These are particularly critical words about a coach who spent the winter with Zurich in an otherwise excellent third place and in the cup. Now the FCZ seems to be looking for reasons for a plausible immediate separation, because everyone involved cannot imagine working together after the summer anyway. Malenovic cryptically says that the weak first halves in the last three games will result in an in-depth analysis – it would no longer be really surprising if this analysis revealed that Henriksen was no longer in the squad.

Apparently Henriksen’s advisors have been exploring the market for some time to see where the Dane could get a new job after the FCZ. It is quite unlikely that Zurich will continue with a coach who is already looking after his future elsewhere.

In just one year, Henriksen took FCZ from the bottom without points to the undefeated leader (October 2022 to October 2023). But one subject remains a hot topic internally despite the success: the homegrown players are having a hard time.

Henriksen always puts old man Ivan Santini (34) and the offensively harmless Daniel Afriyie (22) ahead of the storm talents Junior Ligue (18) and Labinot Bajrami (18). Nils Reichmuth (21) was top scorer in the summer preparation, but only appeared in the selection for the first time in mid-December. Silvan Wallner (21) and Selmin Hodza (20) only play when regular players are not available. The new additions Armstrong Oko-Flex (21) and Arad Bar (23) are also only extras in the team.

Henriksen’s simple answer to the question about the lack of playing time for the youngsters is: “Whoever comes to training, plays.” That could be legitimate for the head coach. But in the future, the FCZ wants to earn millions more than ever from player sales, and for this the jewels need perspective and playing time. In the long term, Henriksen’s anti-youth course is difficult to reconcile with the sporting management, which also includes Malenovic and Ricardo Moniz (head of player development), Sascha Milicevic (academy director) and Gianluca Frontino (co-chairman from January 1). ), who have been specially commissioned for this field. Coach as a link between professionals and U21) relies more than ever on training. It is difficult to imagine that Henriksen, who came as a firefighter, is now suddenly the long-term solution for the intensified training.

Source : Blick