Frivolous perception
It is amusing that skepticism regarding the prospects of Stuttgart prevailed in the statements of most analysts right up to the penultimate round: they say that it’s too early for the Champions League in the Champions League, and even less so for the Silver Salad Bowl. It seems that it was the frivolous perception of the young team of Armin Fe throughout the season that predetermined the final victory. “Schalke” and “Bremen” in the clash of adult men stubbornly refused to notice the impudent young man hanging under their feet. Terribly wounded by the lack of attention, the young man was so furious that he seemed to surprise himself.
Why, for example, didn’t Schalke become a champion, for five years having spent almost 50 million euros on transfers and recruiting everyone for whom Bavaria did not have enough funds? How did the Mexican couple Osorio-Pardo, accidentally spotted by the club manager Horst Heldt at the home World Cup, manage to wipe away fans' tears in a matter of weeks from Hinkel, who had sunk into Seville and completed her career as an oporno-mastodon Soldo? How did the barely hatched chicks of the club academy Serdar Tasci and Sami Khedira manage to become the main discoveries of the season? Solid questions ...
Naive expectations
A dozen years of Bundesliga television broadcasts in Russia spanned two glorious periods in the history of Stuttgart. The first dates from the mid-90s, when under the artistic direction of the current Bundestren Joachim Lev gave weekly concerts the famous "magic triangle", consisting of Krasimir Balakova, Giovan Elber and Freddie Bobic. Such a spectacular football in Europe then few showed. Another noble generation grew up and gained strength under the watchful eye of Felix Magath at the beginning of the 21st century. Hildebrand, Hinkel, Gleb, Kuranyi, nicknamed the "loose guys", made a moderate noise in the Champions League, once again turning the attention of the entire progressive football community to Stuttgart. However, not one of these worthy companies was able to repeat the achievement of Christophe Daum, in the 92nd leading swabs to the championship. And it was quite naive a year ago to expect something in this spirit from the “pioneer detachment” Armin Fe.
Sensually and sensibly having sold out all the actors of the Magatov team a couple of years ago, the president of Stuttgart, Erwin Staudt, for the first time during his stay at the club gained very decent financial resources. The sales of Bordon, Kuranyi, Gleb, and later Stranzl replenished the club box office by as much as 33 million euros and allowed not only to attract the venerable Giovanni Trapattoni to work with the team, but also to conduct a rather aggressive recruiting campaign - Tomasson, Lyuboya, Hitzlsperger, and Gronkyar. However, nothing good came of that venture. As a result, the replacement of Trap, who lured the team into the abyss of colorless draws, was invited by the longtime friend of manager Horst Heldt Armin Fe, glorious at that time only because he had heroically kept the Rostov Hansa for several years in the Bundesliga.
Discovery Fe
The starting tours turned out to be a complete disappointment for Stuttgart. The team was unlucky in 15th place, and the demands for Fe's resignation began to sound more and more loud. A turning point was the guest match with Werder Bremen, heroically won by Swabians with a score of 3: 2. A goal and a couple of assists that day first drew attention to 21-year-old striker Mario Gomez, and since then it has grown exponentially. A serious injury that incapacitated a young German of Spanish descent for more than two months only slightly spoiled his final scorer statistics, but did not affect the overall delightful impression of the season.
Why didn’t Schalke become the champion, having spent 50 million in transfers and recruited everyone for whom Bavaria did not have enough funds?
Back in February 2004, Felix Magat intensified Gomez’s attack in a champions match with Chelsea, and Giovanni Trapattoni openly admired Mario’s talent and regularly granted him the right to play in the base. However, only under the wing of Armin Fe the 189-cm striker managed to show his talent in all its glory. 14 goals and 8 assists in 25 meetings - this result clearly reflects Gomez's contribution to the great success of the Stuttgart. Confirmed Mario sniper reputation and in the Bundesmannschaft. It took him only half an hour to open an assists account in the national team shirt.
Another protégé of Fe - the central defender Serdar Tasci - arose exclusively due to the injury of Fernando Meira. However, Fe could well replace his captain, say, with experienced Marcus Babbel, but no - he trusted 19-year-old Taschi and did not lose. Even when Meira recovered, Serdar retained his place in the squad.
Coeval Taschi central midfielder Sami Khedira during the season became an increasingly important character in the middle line of “Stuttgart”. Located at first a little to the right of the reference midfielder Pardo, at the finish of the season Khedira turned into the main midfield combinator. In the first round, Sami twice hit the Schalke goal, becoming an accomplice in the defeat of the Gelsenkirchents - 3-0.
Perfect goodbye
It is difficult to name at least one Stuttgart footballer who would not have taken a step forward in a year of working with Armin Fe. For example, French defender Mathieu Delpierre, who came from Lille in 2004, turned into one of the best central Bundesliga backs in the season that ended. Not surprisingly, Arsene Wenger has already asked to purchase it at Arsenal.
At the moment, Stuttgart has suffered only one loss. Timo Hildebrand, desperate to win something serious with his home club, informed the management and fans of the team ahead of time about the desire to leave Germany at the end of the contract. However, Timo probably could not even dream of such a breakup with Swabia. Having become the best player in Stuttgart according to Kicker estimates for the 2006/07 season, the 28-year-old goalkeeper leaves his homeland as the country's champion.
By the way, Timo's successor was his peer Rafael Schäfer from Nuremberg. The upcoming fall comeback to the Champions League is pushing Horst Heldt to plunge headlong into the transfer sea already in the hope of catching some gold, but still not too expensive fish from there. Yıldırai Bashtürk, who had fulfilled his contract with Hertha, and Mohamed Zidane, who had made a sensation in the second round, seemed to have already fallen into the Swabian seine.
However, the fans of “Stuttgart” are now hardly disposed to reflect on the next season. They have every right to wash the Silver Salad Bowl that has fallen like snow on their head all summer long. And all the rest, meanwhile, will be painfully figuring out how this could happen.