Bayer Leverkusen coach Gerardo Seoane was already under pressure going into Friday’s clash with Bayern Munich, but a poor performance and result have just added to the pressure and CEO Fernando Carro admits the trainer is facing a make-or-break week.
The 4-0 defeat at the Allianz Arena, while not a complete surprise, did cause some consternation as to the insipid way the Werkself played and the lack of resistance they showed in the face of Bayern’s attack. Leverkusen’s CEO Fernando Carro has publicly backed under-fire trainer Seoane in recent weeks, but speaking on Sunday on Sport 1 programme Doppelpass, he made it clear that results over the next week were what counted for the coach.
“I’m a pragmatic person, but in the end it’s the results that count,” Carro explained. “You need good results ‘very, very, very short term.’ We have to get the three points against Schalke.
“We have with Gerardo Seoane a coach who is really very, very good and also has skills that we saw last year, that we still see in him. But we’re not naïve. You can assume we’re not unprepared. And that’s all I can say.”
‘Not unprepared’ sounds very much like another way of saying we have somebody in mind for when we potentially sack you next weekend.
“We had our goals again this year” Carro went on. “We wanted to go as far as possible in the cup and so we dropped our goals in the first round, which is very annoying. And the way it looks now, statistically speaking, no team that now has five points can reach the Champions League. The Champions League is far away for us right now.
“But I’m a positive person. Nevertheless, we would have to put in a run that you don’t see in the current situation in which the team is. That’s why we all have to do everything together to get out of this situation.”
Leverkusen face a tricky Champions League tie away at Porto on Tuesday before a potentially vital home game against Schalke. Whether Seoane survives beyond these two matches is very much down to results (as Carro has made abundantly clear). It would take a foolhardy betting man to wager any serious money on the Swiss coach making it beyond the first week of October.
Over to you Bayer Leverkusen players- the trainer’s job is in your hands.
