“Bundesliga is our most important competition” | OneFootball

Board member for sport Markus Krösche calls for “100 per cent focus”, reveals Eintracht’s season objectives and shares his thoughts on the winter transfer window.

Markus Krösche on …

… Eintracht’s points tally so far: “After 15 matchdays, we deserve to be third in the table.”

… the Eagles’ season objectives: “Our goal is to qualify for Europe again. The expectation shouldn’t be to finish in third place. Dortmund, Leverkusen, Leipzig and FC Bayern are a big step – maybe even two steps – ahead of us. Stuttgart and Freiburg are also playing at a very high level. We’re 100 per cent focused on the second half of the season and we’ll give it our all. The Bundesliga is our most important competition. We obviously want to get as far as possible in the Europa League, but we can’t lose focus on the league. The Bundesliga is the foundation of everything that happens in the future.”

… commitment: “If we don’t go about things at 100 per cent but only at 95 per cent, we’ll be punished. We have to keep reminding ourselves of that. We have to take the next step of maintaining 100 per cent focus in all competitions.”

… Pirmin Schwegler’s first few days as head of professional football: “It’s been a good start. He knows the club and a lot of people here. We’ve also known each other for ages.”

… the winter transfer window: “Our aim is to keep the squad together. We want to achieve our goals on the pitch. We can always find ourselves in unexpected situations.  Then you have to reassess things, but it’s all speculation at the moment – we haven’t had any inquiries. Our clear objective is to start the second half of the season with our current squad.”

… English clubs’ rumoured interest in Omar Marmoush: “We’ve had no contact, no calls, no offers. It’s normal for that kind of goal tally to attract interest. Omar isn’t affected by these rumours. He’s not 20 years old anymore and is able to put things into perspective. He’s always said he’s happy and enjoying himself here, which you can tell.”

… Jens Petter Hauge: “We agreed a loan deal with an option to buy with Bodø/Glimt, but they didn’t exercise that option. We’re entitled to the fee we agreed at the time. We’re in discussions.”

… Rasmus Kristensen: “We’d obviously like to keep him. Our aim is to continue working with Rasmus for the long term. We’re very happy with him. He gives us an awful lot, both on and off the pitch.”

… Arthur Theate: “There’s a good chance he’ll stay with us.”

… possible contract extensions: “We’re holding talks with Tuta and have indicated that we’d love to keep him here long-term. He’s settled and very happy to stay. We’ll sit down together in the spring. Dino Toppmöller’s development has been really good and it’s largely down to him that the young players have improved the way they have and that we’re playing this kind of football. We’re very happy with his work, but our focus at the moment is to get off to a good start in the second half of the season. Dino fully identifies with Eintracht Frankfurt. The development, particularly since last season, has been really good. We’ll sit down with him in the spring.”