Last thoughts on 2020

This is not a 2020 review, if you are in search of one you can always go and have a read at the Millernton annual review, this is just what it reads on the title: just some scattered (FCSP related) thoughts looking back at a year that EVERYONE (“friends” and “enemies”) wants to forget, along with a few more on 2021 which is already at the door.

 

What went bad

Easy. Almost everything. Year started as a disaster and it ends in the same manner. It was already ugly from the very beginning, with Jos Luhukay having already created an absolute havoc in the dressing rooms, a situation of course reflected in the pitch. A “squad” without cohesion, without motive, without passion, shambles actually, what really kept us eventually in the league was individual qualities. From late February, early March the COVID madness came also into play, resulting to games without fans and to a further financial “disaster” for the Club (something that of course affected everybody and this is the reason that we didn’t feel the consequences so bad).

Somehow we managed to survive the season and (as far as I’m personally concerned) did the right thing. Got rid of that guy (in case you wonder, he’s still unemployed) and went for a fresh new start by giving the steering wheel of the squad to our very own Timo Schultz. This (so far) hasn’t gone well either. The only thing that keeps Timo still at the bench at the moment, is his popularity among the ranks of the FCSP fanbase along with the Club’s trust (there was much less tolerance towards others in similar situations, Janssen for example), squad currently stands in the worst position since many years, with the possibilities of relegation being stronger than ever. This was supposed to be difficult, everybody knew it but not at this level. What the fuck has gone wrong here? Is there a way back from this?

Without thinking it proufoundly (we’re South End Scum, we don’t do that 🤣), it seems to be a comination of 3 factors:

a) the situation that Timo had to administer, there was almost nothing left after Jos…

b) the financial difficulty that we’re facing and of course affected the built-up of the squad. This maybe not our own “privilege” but considering (a) above, we had a need for reinforcement much bigger than the average

c) the high as usual amount of injuries that crippled this squad already from the very beginning.

Some others mention the absence of fans, as FCSP was always a squad getting the extra push from the crowd and the absence of fans at the terraces has affected us more than others. I will personally disagree with that, this squad in is overall really new, majority of these youngsters have never played in front of a sold-out Millerntor, they just don’t know the difference.

Some others (even Scum comrades) mention certain mistakes that Timo has made. Of course the fact that this defense still concedes goals as easy as Yorkshire St. Pauli do, after almost 12 matchdays is of course his responsibility but problem isn’t just there. Timo (maybe with Stani in his mind) was clear from the beginning that we’re going to play aggresive football, this presuposses goals, goals are missing as well. Thing is that goals maybe missing but the chances are there, Timo is responsible for setting up the squad in the pitch but he can’t teach people how to put the fucking ball in the goal. Furthermore, picture of the squad is not the pathetic image that you were used to see last season. Hope does not die as soon as you concede the first goal, this is a fighting team that can exceed themselves and turn games around against all odds, we did it more than once this year. In fact, having a little more luck and football quality, things would be quite different as we speak, we could be now somewhere between 13-14 points with things not looking pink but without everybody being scared to death of relegation…

Is there a way back from this? I say yes there is, it’s not the time to get desperate yet. First of all (imho) Club did the right thing by supporting Timo during this extremely difficult period. The way I see it, future for FCSP passes through taking advantage of our own people who can better understand our culture, we don’t need well paid Messiahs and, on the other hand, we don’t need another Meggle case, we don’t want to lose another one…. This guy can make a coach for the long term, he had a really bad start, being the right person at the wrong time but there are both time and opportunities to turn things around. I don’t believe that a parachuter can change this squad in a few days, this is a brand new squad, needs work anyway. Hopefully, this year’s short break, will help both in terms of “meditation” and personnel, already a few faces that haven’t been seen for a long time have started appearing at Kollaustraße 😎

January is the key month, starting from…Wednesday 6/1 (yes, we play Fürth before but getting somewhere out of it under these circumstances should be considered as an extra present). Match vs Würzburg is a Survival Final, not winning it should be into the sphere of the unthinkable. We’re much better than this squad and we simply can’t afford not to do so. We have no illusions, this will be an extremely tough 2nd round, first step is to catch SVS and EBS (ffs, can’t believe that we lost and we’re behind this troupe), get out of the immediate relegation zone and take it from there. In order to achieve that, there’s only one way and passes through Würzburg. We do this? We go further, we survive the fuckin’ season and then we move forward.

PS: Hats off to Timo for daring what nobody dared (Jos tried it also, one of his very few good deeds but, as soon as things got tough, “tough” Jos chickened out). These are probably the things that Oke and board wanted to address in the first place but did it in the worst possible manner by bringing Jos in…

What went good

Was there something? Oh yes, there was, at least the way we see things at the Scum. 5 years of total embarrassment (stain will take much longer to disappear, if possible) are coming to an end at the end of the season. Talking about the end of cooperation with UA, imho, the shame of the century for FCSP. We have been over this again and again, no use of recycling again the same stuff, just glad that is over… It also leaves a bitter aftertaste because of the way this thing was handled by the fanbase all these years, like it was a trivial issue. Have seen small riots about certain Fanshop choices but the fact that we had for a main sponsor a brand supporting hunting, NRA, Trump and even having links with paramilitary “security consultants” in Iraq never seemed to be significant… We preferred to turn our conscious to rubber and hide behind arguments like “patriotism is understood in a different way in the US” (FUCK Patriotism) and “all manufacturers do it, we had no choice”, an oversimplification of course (big brands are sinful but nobody has gone that far) and a “no other choice” argument that has simply collapsed with the announcement of DIIY…

Of course there’s still a long way to go in this front as well. There’s a paradox here, while the Club is finally in the hands of fans, at the same time it moves further and further away from what it used to be, turning more and more towards a “football related brand” that happens to include a team for free. At the same time, ambitions for football success have started being more important than our values for lots of FCSP fans and this pressure of success was the one mainly responsilble for the arrival of Luhukay that almost demolished Millerntor and the surroundings. In the last AGM heard Oke speaking about a target of establishing the Club among the Top25 in Germany, couldn’t hold a bitter smile, recalling Kauczinski‘s “release” from position 24…then came Jos…

In the very same AGM was mentioned that the total number of FCSP employees comes to around…600, guess what, fuckin’ Chelski has around…400 (409, details here). Don’t get me wrong, I would be happy with FCSP having double the number of employees but I want youth coaches, youth workers, social workers working in various initiatives etc etc. I don’t want armies of wannabe marketing wizards sharpening their future skills and adding work experiences in the CV, I don’t want semi-pro eSports players getting paid from Club funds to advertise FCSP at xBox or PS, who asked us if we’re in for that? While in most areas Club is doing fine (except maybe talking too much about the obvious and doing mistakes occasionaly – dear Oke the thought about calling FCSP a “left” club in front of the US audience can be understood but can you please exactly define “left” here? Your definition at the end may be very far from other people’s in the Club, but this is another story and this is already a big parenthesis 😅), when comes to commercial sector the situation is simply ridiculous. Not against promoting the club, not against income from merchandise but both the overload and occasionally the “quality” of commercial content/actions coming out from the Club are really frustrating…

And here’s the good thing. There’s not some suit-and-tie-club-establishment-junta imposing all this. Thankfully, we’re a club where fans voices can be heard, this is an administration elected from fans for the fans and I don’t believe that this board has really done anything really against the will of the fanbase, it’s just that people are either happy with it or just don’t care and this is a bloody shame. All these things suggest that we are losing our way…

What people should do? Simply get more involved. 31.000 FCSP members, under 700 in total present in the last (digital) AGM. The indifference of lots of people (especially locals) when comes to processes that shape the Club’s future is heartbreaking, especially for all of us fans from abroad who “would kill” to be able to do what most of the members don’t care to do – be there, participate and help shape the future of our Club…

What’s next

For the squad: take care of business, get FCSP out of this both embarrassing and difficult position.

For the Club: keep supporting Timo and, after dealing with the immediate issues, have a really good look on where exactly we stand and maybe “why we stand here”…

For us the fans: get more involved, SUPPORT THE CLUB in any possible way and take within us the same deep look that we ask the Club to take. Never forget, it’s Sankt fuckin’ Pauli, it’s not about how successful but rather about who we are 😎

Yes, these were scattered thoughts, too many of them actually, will stop here before order gets completely lost and this turns to a delirium, stay all safe, take care of your friends and loved ones, to fuckin’ hell with 2020, have a happy new year, FORZA SANKT PAULI ☠️☠️☠️