Technical director Ben Manga faces his ‘most difficult mission’ yet as he prepares to take charge at Schalke following his failure at Watford.
That’s according to BILD, who cover Manga today as he’s being lined up by Schalke to replace former technical director André Hechelmann.
Hechelmann was released from his contract by Schalke earlier this week in a surprise move, with him and the board of directors deciding to part ways.
The hunt for his replacement is already one and Manga is one of the candidates, according to BILD, with a report earlier this week also naming him.
He’s currently out of work after leaving Watford in October 2023, where he had ‘failed’ according to the newspaper, at least compared to his ‘previously successful’ spell at Eintracht Frankfurt.
The newspaper labels Manga as an ‘absolute diamond eye’ who has discovered several stars down the years, namely Randal Kolo Muani and Sebastien Haller.
His ability to speak French, Spanish and English means he ‘can win the hearts and minds’ of players too, while it seems his ‘old school’ way of focusing on his feelings about players and not data is also considered a positive.
None of that seemed to work at Watford, where he was technical director from December 2022 to October 2023, but Schalke aren’t concerned and appear ready to hand him his chance to return to Germany, where he enjoyed success previously.
Whether he can repeat that remains to be seen, with BILD warning it will be his ‘most difficult mission’ yet.
