Rangnick returns to Schalke

Ralf Rangnick has returned to Schalke to become their new coach following Felix Magath’s departure yesterday.

Rangnick, who led the Royal Blues from September 2004 until December 2005, has been out of work since leaving Hoffenheim on January 1.

He will officially take charge of the club again on Monday with Seppo Eichkorn, Magath’s right-hand man at Stuttgart, Bayern Munich and Wolfsburg, placed in temporary charge for this weekend’s clash with Bayer Leverkusen.

Rangnick’s first game back on the Schalke bench will be against St Pauli on April 1.

The 52-year-old has signed a contract until 2014 and returns to the club he led to second in the Bundesliga and to the final of the DFB-Pokal in just under 14 months in charge.

Schalke have reached the final of the DFB-Pokal again this season while they are also in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, but they are a long way from the top two and Magath paid for their poor league form by losing his job yesterday.

However, Magath’s departure is not solely down to on-field problems, as goalkeeper Manuel Neuer and the club’s president Clemens Tonnies revealed.

Neuer has admitted that Magath had caused divisions among the squad recently and that this could have cost him his job more than their worrying 10th position in the Bundesliga.

Similarly, Tonnies stressed that the club’s league form was not necessarily the reason for his departure, adding only that the “exact reasons will not be made public yet”.

But Neuer said that some members of the team had aired their concerns.

“On the one hand, I was a player under Felix Magath and I had a good relationship with him and he pushed me and improved me as a player,” said the Germany international on his club’s website.

“But on the other hand, I am also the captain of the team and several players had come to me to tell me about problems that had to be discussed with the coach.

“We were not able to clear up everything. A lot of fundamental things did not change, which is why we had to escalate it to somebody at the club whose voice would be heard, and so we spoke with Clemens Tonnies.”

Benedikt Howedes, who was part of a panel of players alongside Neuer who took the issues to Tonnies, echoed Neuer’s words.

“There were signs from parts of the team that some things were not working as they should be,” he said.

“We tried to improve the relationship with the coach, but it did not improve so we turned to Clemens Tonnies and I think we did everything right.

“We now have to all pull in the same direction and not fall apart.

“We have to carry on aiming to get more points in the Bundesliga, to win the DFB-Pokal final and to see what is possible in the Champions League.”

Schalke will discover tomorrow who they will meet in the last eight of the Champions League as they bid to reach the semi-finals for the first time in the club’s history.

In May, they face second division side Duisburg in the final of the DFB-Pokal with a place in the Europa League next season as well as their first piece of silverware since 2002 at stake.