With Schalke promoted back to the Bundesliga at the first time of asking, exercising the ghosts of that traumatic 2020/21 campaign, Rangers supporters may have been forgiven for assuming their hopes of luring Martin Fraisl to Ibrox had just gone up in smoke.
But things are not quite that simple.
Once the celebrations die down, once the smell of hops disappears from the Gelsenkirchen air, once jubilation turns to preparation Schalke will have some difficult decisions to make. The sort of decision every newly-promoted club has to make when readying themselves for life in a new division.
Who can be relied upon to make the step up? And who, despite playing a major part in helping the side achieve their ambitions, should be shaken by the hand, thanked for their sercive and ushered off towards the exit?
Goalkeeper Fraisl, it seems, belongs to the latter camp.
Will Martin Fraisl be Rangers’ new goalkeeper?
The 29-year-old shot-stopper will be a free agent in July. And, according to Spox, Fraisl has received more contract offers from Rangers than he has from Schalke.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s Europa League finalists have put forward a deal that would see Fraisl stay at Ibrox until the summer of 2024. Schalke, meanwhile, have not only failed to offer Fraisl a new deal, they appear to have no plans to do so either.
Always a divisive figure between the sticks, it was his mistake that threatened to spoil Schalke’s promotion party on Saturday, before a second-half fightback against St Pauli ensured the Miners escaped from of a hole of their own making.
Schalke turned a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 win against St Pauli. Against better opposition – not just Bayern Munich but also the likes of Freiburg, Union Berlin and co – Schalke cannot afford to make life so difficult for themselves.
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And, according to BILD, it is Fraisl’s penchant for mistakes – a la the one at the Veltins Arena on Saturday – that has raised doubts about his ability to make the requisite step up. The report adds that Schalke always planned to let Fraisl go for free, even if they won the second-tier title this season.
What’s more, director Rouven Schroder reportedly sees Austria Vienna’s Patrick Pentz as a potential successor.
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