The lawyers are already at work, the new contract of Ole Werner with SV Werder should be signed in the next few days. According to information from the DeichStube, both sides have agreed on an early extension of the contract, which had just been automatically extended to 2024 due to the league. Apparently with a term until 2026. With Werner, after the short interlude of Markus Beginning, there should be continuity in the coaching position again. Even if the agreement was finally reached quite quickly, both sides had clear expectations that first had to be clarified. Changes are therefore to be expected in the coming summer.
Werder Bremen: Failures responsible for the weak second half of the season
For example, there is the squad. Werder had kept it very small after the rise for cost reasons and preferred to invest the money in the top. The plan initially worked, Werder scored points in the first half of the season right up to the international places. The crash followed in the new year. Werner justified the penultimate place in the second half of the table with the many injury-related failures. The quality in training and therefore also in the games suffered as a result, according to the coach, who took over Werder in autumn 2021 and then led to promotion.
“Of course, given our financial resources, we cannot fill all 25 positions equally. Not even now. But the point is that we continue to develop step by step across the board. That’s our goal,” he said Werder sports director Frank Baumann recently in an interview. So some new players will have to come in.
“We need fresh blood,” Werner had demanded shortly before the end of the season. His clear words were ultimately heard, but his public statements about what he saw as a too small squad and the wishes for the future were not well received in the club.
Even if Baumann just like Clemens Fritz when heads of professional football officially saw no problem with it. “We’re going in the same direction, there are no disagreements,” emphasized Fritz a few weeks ago. Internally, Werner’s behavior was also recorded as a lack of experience. After all, at 35 he is the youngest coach in the Bundesliga and has only just finished his debut season in the German football league.
He mastered them very well, especially in tabular form. Werder has never been in acute danger of relegation. All worries actually only resulted from past experiences, because two years ago Werder had slipped from safe midfield into the relegation zone. This time it went down bit by bit, the promotion euphoria visibly said goodbye, but in the end the cushion was thick enough that the green-whites had fed themselves – with Werner’s successful football from the 2nd division. Because the 2023 no longer delivers the desired results, the coach is now expected to take countermeasures. There shouldn’t be a simple “keep it up” – by the way, regardless of where the strike duo Niclas Füllkrug and Marvin Ducksch are. Werner should not reinvent Werder, but finally develop it further. The same goes for young players. That fell short this season. From the trainer’s point of view with good reason: he saw himself committed to the goal of staying up in the league and didn’t want to take any risks with personal experiments.
Werder Bremen: squad should be determined as early as possible
Now it’s time for a new season, new luck – and above all a new strategy. To make it easier for the coach, the squad should be put together as early as possible, like a year ago. Werner plays a key role in this. He is intensively incorporated into the work on the transfer market and takes on the role of persuasion. Like Dawid Kownacki. The Pole from Fortuna Düsseldorf was spoiled for choice as a free transfer player in the Bundesliga and did not opt for the most financially lucrative option with Werder. This is how it should work with other newcomers.
And the list is long. Because Werner apparently followed his public demand for more staff internally with even more detailed requests. The problems are well known. For example, in order to be able to switch from a back three to a back four, you need real full-backs, which the squad hardly has. The same applies to a three-way storm with real outside. There aren’t any at the moment either. A few things still have to change so that Werner and Werder remain happy after the contract extension.
Financially, the signature is always worthwhile for the coach. So far, with an annual salary of just under one million euros, he is said to have been in a relegation zone in the ranking of Bundesliga coaches. Now the 35-year-old should at least move up into the secured midfield through a significant increase.