Mr. Krösche, how does a sports director prepare for Eintracht’s historic first Champions League home game on Wednesday night against Sporting Lisbon?

Basically, it’s not much different in terms of procedures than in the Europa League …

… so business as usual, no tingling, no nervousness, about the anthem?

I’ve seen it a few times now from my time in Leipzig and Leverkusen, but of course you’re looking forward to it, no question. This is the highest European competition, it’s a super story that we’re playing in it. We are privileged.

Do you feel this other dimension in the run-up, this special, extraordinary thing?

You can tell that the mood and feeling around it are different. You can compare the atmosphere a bit with the quarterfinals and semifinals from last – Season .

And you feel you are prepared, competitive and on a par with these renowned opponents in terms of personnel?

Yes. What’s clear is that Tottenham are favorites, they’re a step ahead even though they’re one of the most underrated teams outside of England. But Lisbon and Marseille are also really good teams who put in outstanding performances in their leagues last – Season . Anything is possible in the group. These are 50-50 games, so the performance on the day will decide. They’ll be extremely tight games and we’ll have to push the envelope. Tottenham is pulling away a little bit, anything is possible with the other three teams.

What have your scouts sniffed out about upcoming opponents Sporting Lisbon?

Sporting is a good team football-wise, and they now have physicality in their teams, a good mix between technical and physical components. It will certainly be a challenging game for us.

There are those who accuse you of thinking a little too small after your Champions League participation was secured in May, and of bringing in too many players for the width.

That’s your opinion.

What do you oppose us?

We play in three competitions and we have experience from last – Season – we have incorporated this into the squad planning. The not unjustified reproach, also from your newspaper, was always: There has to be more from the bench. Now we are competitive here as well. We’ve added speed and creativity, we’ve gained experience with Lucas Alario and Mario Götze, and we’ve got a really good striker in Randal Kolo Muani. And the guys have potential. We have a good axis with Alario, Götze, Rode, Trapp, that’s important to me. And do you know what’s even more important?

Tell us…

The main thing is to give the club a medium- and long-term focus. It makes little sense to throw our entire transfer philosophy overboard now just because we’re playing in the Champions League for the first time. We have to grow as a club bit by bit. We want to build our squad in such a way that we always have a good mix between speed, creativity, experience and potential. In addition, we want to develop players. And not to forget: We have a certain budget, which hasn’t changed because of the Champions League. We’re focusing on continuity, not on short-term effects – which, by the way, don’t come with any guarantees.

Player development could take time. Then it can happen that you are eliminated from European competition and play for eighth, ninth, tenth place in the league.

What is actually the expectation? Should we spend 40 million euros on players for the Champions League? Have you read our balance sheet?

Yes, of course.

That answers everything by itself. We won the Europa League and we make a loss of 21, 22 million. What are we talking about? We’re not a – Season ed Champions League club that can compare with Bayer Leverkusen, RB Leipzig, Tottenham. We know where we come from.

But you have very ambitious goals: to play for sixth place in the long term, to spend the winter in the Champions League. .

Exactly. What else am I supposed to say? Should I say we just want to play along?

Despite the 4-0 gala against Leipzig, let’s remain critical for a moment: With this squad and all the imponderables of a long – Season , is it realistic to achieve the goals I mentioned?

Once again, we have the big, long-term picture in mind. Nevertheless, we remain ambitious. We trust our players and are not looking for alibis. We are fully convinced of every player! And even if we set ambitious goals, it can happen that we don’t qualify internationally. In terms of budget, we are at the bottom of the Champions League. Everything is about making the club sustainable. We can commit hara-kiri and invest fully. And if we hit the wall, what then?

Not everything has to be driven against the wall …

If we invest fully and then still fail as fourth in the group, you are the first to write that Eintracht has spent far too much money, has invested wrongly and put the future at risk, irresponsible. But that’s the way it is.

Perhaps there is a middle way.

That’s what we’ve been trying to find.

On another subject, how did you experience the last few days of the increasingly hectic transfer phase?

After all, you always try to be prepared in case something happens at the last minute. The longer a transfer window lasts, the more balls you have to hold up. This year, the transfer window was very long. I’m not a fan of that. Basically, it should end after the first matchday. Our problem is that the big players can take their time and steal players away from us at any time.

Was the transfer period nevertheless too tight because you didn’t get a right-back anymore?

We looked at the market, sure, but we only wanted to do something if we were convinced. And we weren’t. We also have Kristijan Jakic, who does it well defensively, Timothy Chandler, who brings a lot of experience, and also Ansgar Knauff or Faride Alidou, who interpret this position more offensively. We don’t want to just act out of actionism. A lot doesn’t always help a lot.

And you put down stakes in terms of personnel relatively early on.

Right. I’m a friend of identifying needs and profiles early on and responding. I know what we need. And we have, after all, clearly defined what kind of soccer we want to play. We now have much more variability in the game and can react better to the different opponents.

You’ve been able to keep Daichi Kamada, Evan Ndicka and Kevin Trapp. Are you now aiming for contract extensions as quickly as possible?

We’re trying to find a solution for Kamada, and we’re in good talks with his advisors. But I’d also like to say that we’re not going to do anything wild and blow up the salary structure, for example. If we do that once, we’ll never get it back. We have to weigh things up: It may be a financial loss if someone leaves us on a free transfer in the summer, but the damage is much, much greater if you blow up the salary structure once. The Champions League has played into our hands in another respect: The saying: either extend or sell has softened a bit. Now we can say: Then the contract expires, he continues to play, and we have quality in the squad.

There’s also a winter transfer window …

Oh yes, frightening (laughs).

But we hear out that you are glad to have left the transfer phase behind you?

It’s been enough now, yes. But the squad was fixed relatively early on, and that was also our objective. In the end, we only lost Filip Kostic from the regular squad. The case of Martin Hinteregger was different. We’ve made a lot of transfers overall, that’s true, but we’ve kept the fluctuation among the regulars fairly low. Continuity is important and we want to keep it that way.

You’ve been in charge at Eintracht for just over a year now. How have you experienced this time?

It’s really been everything – from the crisis at the start of the – Season after going out in the cup and the sluggish start to the league to the greatest success in the club’s history with the Europa League win. It’s a lot of fun, I feel very comfortable in Frankfurt. The club radiates an incredible warmth, the affinity of the people at the club and in the surrounding area to Eintracht is very, very high. These identifications carry the club and make it special.

And how did it go purely in terms of your work …

We’ve definitely done a lot this year. We’ve restructured the youth development center, introduced the U21s, gained the infrastructure in Dreieich and, of course, created a radical change in the professional squad. This will take some time in one place or another, but that is part of our philosophy. We just have to live with the fact that one or the other player will go through a little slump from time to time. Take Ansgar Knauff, for example. He’s 20 years old, so it’s perfectly normal for his performance to fluctuate from time to time. That’s not why we’re questioning his fundamental quality; it’s a completely normal process that we allow our young players, including Evan Ndicka and Tuta, to go through. We give them the time they need.

Barcelona, Sevilla, the European Cup title: was there a particular moment when you had to pinch yourself to see if it was all true? Along the lines of: Wow, I really did everything right with my move to Eintracht.

The Europa League title is unforgettable, of course, but honestly, I felt such a feeling much earlier, especially during the difficult phase at the beginning. The way the people in charge, the employees, my colleagues on the board, the supervisory board stood by our idea back then, stood by me – that’s when I realized that I was totally right here. Work is always easy when you’re successful, but feeling the calm and trust during this mixed phase made me very happy and gave me a great feeling.

You radiate an inner calm almost throughout – whether things are going well or badly. How do you manage that?

I’m basically a rather calm guy and have a pretty long fuse. But look: Soccer is a lot about emotions. With players and coaches alike, they quickly boil up and then boil down again, moving within seconds in completely opposite spheres of emotion. By virtue of my position, however, I have to be someone who is an anchor, a base for the others, who also grounds them at times. If I were also emotionally involved in very different spheres, that wouldn’t help us as a club. I’m a guy who consciously keeps calm and tries not to live in extremes.

Is that something you can learn?

It’s certainly based to a large extent on my rather calm disposition. I don’t want to be influenced by outside forces, but always go my own way. If you let yourself drift, the resulting decisions are often not right. Basically, I try to gather the maximum amount of information possible and then make my decisions from a rational point of view. The gut feeling comes only at the very end.

The signing of Randal Kolo Muani seems like a good decision, partly reminiscent of the young Tony Yeboah. Can Kolo Muani become the next profitable investment for Eintracht Frankfurt?

We have to leave the church in the village. He’s done very well so far, everyone can see that, but at some point he’ll also go through phases where things don’t go quite so well. Even then, we will support him and encourage him. Basically, of course, we’re convinced of him; he’s gotten used to the intensity and speed of the Bundesliga very quickly. We wanted to bring him to us last year, but at that time we did not reach an agreement with Nantes. In retrospect, that was actually quite good for Randal.

Why is that?

He played regularly in Ligue 1 last – Season and made a leap as a result. He wasn’t as far along as he is now a year ago. But we have other players with high potential besides Randal, and they shouldn’t be forgotten. Think of Jesper Lindström, for example: if he improves his finishing even more, he will – to put it flippantly – shoot through the roof. In Leipzig, we had a similar situation with Christopher Nkunku back then. He also prepared many goals in his first – Season in the Bundesliga, but scored relatively few himself. He was then always reproached for that. And look where he is now. Time and trust often pay off.

Kolo Muani, Lindström – talented and still quite young players that Eintracht will eventually sell again?

There are two sides to this. First: I often read that Eintracht Frankfurt is a training club, but that’s wrong, we’re not. Because we bring in players to achieve our goals, to achieve our ambitious goals. At the same time, secondly, if a player’s development is much faster than that of the club, we will probably sell him at some point. That’s quite normal. Then we have to find the next player on the market and bring him to us. That’s the challenge we’ll always have at Eintracht Frankfurt.

Finally, on Wednesday, Eintracht Frankfurt starts the Champions League, a highlight in the club’s history, but then it’s back to the Bundesliga. How are the players supposed to cope with all that, physically and mentally?

That’s clearly a very important point that you’re making. We have to find a good balance between the Champions League and the Bundesliga this – Season . That will be able to work via a certain rotation. The Champions League games are always highlights for the guys, but the Bundesliga must remain the basis. That’s our aspiration.

INTERVIEW: THOMAS KILCHENSTEIN, DANIEL SCHMITT AND JÖRG HANAU