Zurich’s coach goes and stays: what Henriksen’s decision means for the FCZ

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Here is the coach who wants to leave the club. Because the club, whose managers have been saying for some time between the lines, that the coach who is willing to leave does not fit in with the new strategy. Although everything would be prepared for an immediate separation, Bo Henriksen and FC Zurich want to stay together until the end of the season. The club announced this on Wednesday. On Henriksen’s 49th birthday of all days. Hoping to pull the plug on the coaching conversation that has been simmering for weeks.

A pious wish. And typical FCZ, who always went their own way when it came to communication, and then acted according to the usual mechanisms of business. In the current case, this means: President Ancillo Canepa expresses his full confidence in Henriksen. But if the Dane does not turn things around quickly after seven games without a win and having fallen from first to fifth place, his time at FCZ will come to an end sooner than in the summer. Because then the goal of the season is seriously in jeopardy. At this point the coach and the club agree: it must be the European Cup. However, if things continue as they are, the FCZ will miss the jump to the “Championship Group” after 33 match days – and will have to prepare for a relegation battle.

A decision is needed

Betting on an early end for Henriksen is anything but a financial risk. But it can also turn out very differently. Then the clarity that has finally emerged about Henriksen’s future becomes a liberating blow. For the team that has allowed itself to be infected by uncertainty in recent weeks. “It is extremely difficult for the players if they don’t know what will happen in the summer,” Rolf Fringer told Blick at the beginning of this week. Like Blick football expert Stéphane Henchoz, the ex-FCZ coach believed that a quick decision was needed to avoid falling further in the rankings. It’s here now. And could motivate the FCZ professionals to give their popular coach a worthy finish.

Because despite all the criticism of the current misery: Henriksen will not leave the FCZ without a proven track record. “He has done a sensational job. When he came in the autumn of 2022, we were on the ground,” club legend Blerim Dzemaili recently recalled in the NZZ. Nearly a year after Henriksen took office, the fallen 2022 champion was back on the leadership throne. Thanks to Henriksen, who breathed new life into the team and let them do the everyday things on the field. Ancillo Canepa now hopes for a similar effect: “Bo Henriksen already proved last season that he can successfully lead the team out of a difficult situation.”

An intermediate solution is available

Henriksen’s (when) farewell is the next step in the transformation that the FCZ has been undergoing since the arrival of sports director Milos Malenovic on the accelerator. New head of young talent, new scouting staff, new goalkeeper and assistant coach – and soon a head coach in the pros to Malenovic’s taste. The former consultant has the network to lure a big name to Zurich. Someone like Alfred Schreuder, for example, who almost ended up at FC Basel two years ago.

If things end earlier than planned due to a lack of results for Henriksen, Ricardo Moniz (U21 coach and head of player development), who was recruited by Malenovic, is already on FCZ’s payroll.

Source : Blick