VfB Stuttgart CEO Alexander Wehrle on club’s expectation: “We said before the season that we wanted to reach 40 points as early as possible”
Speaking on Sport1’s Doppelpass, VfB Stuttgart CEO Alexander Wehrle has given an insight into the club’s expectations for this season after their 4-0 loss to Bayern Munich at the weekend.
Stuttgart’s were convincingly beaten by Bayern on Saturday evening and the results leaves them currently ninth in the table as they have had a stop and start first few months of the season. On the current positioning in the table, Wehrle said:
“Corona cost us 100 million. In addition, we had to invest over 130 million euros in the stadium renovation. If you look soberly at what five or six clubs ahead of us have in terms of financial resources and where we come from, then we certainly performed well last season with 73 points. But there was also a lot of momentum involved.”
Last season, Stuttgart finished a surprising second place behind Bayer Leverkusen, externally this would have raised expectations surrounding their performances this season, Wehrle reveals that internally this is not the case:
“We said before the season that we wanted to reach 40 points as early as possible. And if we have reached 40 points early, then we will set ourselves new goals. I say: sensible, realistic expectation management is much more important in order to be able to develop.”
The future of head coach Sebastian Hoeneß has also been in the spotlight in recent weeks with it being revealed that Manchester United made an approach for the head coach over the summer, but he declined. On Hoeneß’s future Wehrle said:
“He has also made it very clear that he wants to build something here at VfB. I think he also appreciates the environment. He can classify the Swabians quite well.“
Wehrle also confirmed that there have been no discussions over Hoeneß’s future:
“I have never spoken to Sebastian Hoeneß about any other club. No club has asked us and Sebastian has not spoken to us about any club either.”
Stuttgart’s run does not get any easier as they look for their first win in the Champions League this season as they face Juventus in Turin before next weekend hosting newly promoted Holstein Kiel in the Bundesliga.
GGFN | Jack Meenan
