The Wicky contract puzzle may be a lot more banal than you think: Is YB waiting for Urs Fischer?

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Anyone who doesn’t say anything is talked about. This is not an old saying. Not a Confucian truth either. It’s just a common practice in the football world. You could also say: if you don’t communicate, you open the door to speculation. Football is unpredictable on the field. But also next to it.

This concerns a coach whose contract, which expires in June, is expected to be extended. Very quickly, in fact, because Raphael Wicky has achieved almost everything that could be achieved with YB. Doubles 2023. Champions League 2023. European Winter. And still in the cup.

From Bergen: “No stress”

It can be assumed that the contract, which is rapidly approaching its end date, will be extended urgently. As was the case with Adi Hütter. That was on November 9, 2017. The Austrian had not yet won anything at YB at that time. Or with Gerry Seoane. Extension date: December 7, 2020. The team from Lucerne had become champions twice and won the double. He also qualified for the premier class.

Now it’s the end of January 2024 and the only thing sports director Steve von Bergen says about the Wicky case is this: “I’ve already said five or six times that there is no major stress, either on Raphi’s side or on our side. We communicate every day, we are in the office, we talk about everything and share our opinions. But of course: there will come a time when we will talk to Raphi about the future.”

Von Bergen understands that this fuels speculation. “That is also the job of journalists. And that is the beauty of football. Everyone is allowed to have their opinion. But the coach is calm, I can feel that. And not nervous.” Wicky emphasized this several times herself. “There is no fire in the house!”

Reservations with Wicky

About the next week there will be clarity about the future, says Von Bergen about ‘Blue’. “It is clear that we will not wait until April.”

Somewhere you have the feeling: something is stuck somewhere. With Wickie? He is also reserved and is not a little more specific in his statements.

So at YB? Well, there are reservations among the Valais leaders under the YB leadership.

• The playing style of the team under Wicky is not perceived as attractive and dominant enough. Things have gotten a little better lately, but mostly only in phases.
• Wicky doesn’t move the players forward enough. Fabian Rieder, for example, reached his peak in the 2021/22 season. During the playing time under Wicky, the super talent stagnated.
• Wicky sticks to his diamond system in the vast majority of cases. The accusation: too little tactical flexibility, which makes YB predictable.
• Politics! YB would have liked to see Aurèle Amenda play a little more to drive up the price. But in the really important matches, others had priority. And the case of Jean-Pierre Nsame, who has now moved to Como, could have been handled differently. Ultimately, both players publicly complained about playing time.

All little things that add up to enough to cause concern. But is there an alternative? Yes. And that seems to be the big ‘problem’. Her name is Urs Fischer (57)! The Zurich resident has been unemployed since November after being fired from Union Berlin after five years.

He should be on the list at Wolfsburg. But does Fischer want to compete again in the Shark Tank Bundesliga after five incredibly intense years? Unlikely. Recharge your batteries – and climb the coaching Olympus in Switzerland with YB in the summer. This makes so much sense to the grounded ex-FCB coach that the whole Wicky hesitation suddenly seems terribly logical.

But perhaps this is also one of the speculations that von Bergen describes as the “beauty of football”. Feeling and logic are not always the guiding principles in football.

Source : Blick