SVE full steam ahead – Magdeburg under pressure

Just a few months ago, both teams were dreaming of Bundesliga promotion. But after these shared heights, SV Elversberg and 1. FC Magdeburg are suddenly in very different positions this season. Before their head-to-head at the weekend, only one of the clubs has been showing consistency – and with good reason.

They were last season’s high flyers: SV Elversberg and 1. FC Magdeburg attracted attention with bold attacking football, maximum energy and a clear tactical signature. Both teams spent significant time flirting with Bundesliga promotion, both were inspiring – and both fell at the final hurdle. Magdeburg narrowly missed out on the promotion playoffs and Elversberg were defeated in them. Given this, it is all the more surprising that now, just a few months later, one club is in the upper echelons of the table and the other is languishing at the bottom. Both clubs faced similar challenges over the summer. So, understanding their diametrical development lies in the question: who was better prepared?

SVE have chalked up 16 points after seven days of play in the 2. Bundesliga whilst FCM only have three. Excuses that the Elbe team might draw on do not apply – the start of the season was challenging for both teams and Elversberg even had significantly more departures. Whilst Magdeburg lost manager Christian Titz and three core players, Elversberg had to handle the departure of six top performers including striker Fisnik Asllani, play maker Muhammed Damar and winger Elias Baum. The fact that the team has nevertheless enjoyed a confident start to the season is thanks to structural work and forward planning.

It was already clear to Elversberg before the season that the aforementioned three key players could not be kept on loan. The departure of promotion-achieving manager Horst Steffen, who moved to Werder Bremen after seven years, similarly did not come out of the blue. The sports management responded quickly – and in Vincent Wagner, presented a successor who not only fit the profile but also could take over seamlessly in terms of timing. The change of manager was completed in less than a week – an organisational feat. SVE’s sports director Nils-Ole Book was the central figure in these efforts.

Things were rather different in Magdeburg, where Titz’s departure dragged out for weeks. This meant that they lost valuable preparation time waiting for the new manager to begin work. Squad planning also took a different direction. Whilst Elversberg made early, targeted acquisitions (with two exceptions, all incoming players were secured in early July), FCM opted for an international profile with players such as Kandet Diawara and Ado Onaiwu, who always need time to acclimatise. As a result, the team structure still does not feel stable.

This is Elversberg’s third year in the second division, which may well be a contributing factor. However, their consistent environment is also crucial. SV Elversberg is not a short-term project, but rather a club with a clear concept, flat hierarchy and precise squad planning. The careful composition of the squad enabled Vincent Wagner to quickly establish himself as manager. Players from Germany’s top four divisions were systematically integrated and the framework remained unchanged – meaning that this upheaval felt less like a major rupture and more like prudently prepared further development.

This ties in with an announcement that prompted further elation in Saarland: SV Elversberg will be able to continue relying on sports director Ole Book at the helm in the future. The 39-year-old, who has been at SVE for eight years and has helped to shape the most successful period in the club’s history, has extended his contract.

SVE’s president Dominik Holzer said: ‘The successful path that SVE has taken in recent years is very special – and closely linked to one particular name. Ole Book has achieved great things over the years in terms of sporting direction and development, even when facing a mammoth task such as he did this summer. We are very happy that he will be continuing at the sporting helm. This decision is hugely important to us.’

‘Over the last few years at SV Elversberg, we have built something together that we can be proud of. We have celebrated unforgettable successes and milestones but also overcome major challenges. A bond has developed and our mutual trust has grown, which I hugely appreciate and in my view is needed to ensure a successful, shared future’, sports director Ole Book said:

I am looking forward to the tasks that lie ahead of us and to continuing to shape the future of this club.

The stable, successful outlook of this future is primarily down to the foresight and consistency of the sporting management – and first and foremost, to Book himself. In a summer where many second-division clubs were put in a tailspin by managerial changes and key departures, he managed to get SV Elversberg, of all places, on the right track early on. Whilst Magdeburg are still trying to cope with Titz’s departure and a disparate squad structure, Book has created a supportive framework in Elversberg – even for their third year in the second division. The fact that these two clubs facing similar challenges have headed off in such different directions is ultimately not down to budgets or name recognition, but rather the work conducted behind the scenes. And right now, Elversberg are quite simply doing more things right. However, in the fast-moving world of football, the next match is always what matters: in Magdeburg on Sunday at 1:30 p.m., the aim will be to convert this head start into tangible points, as has so often been the case this season.