The text message was sent well after midnight. It was Friday night, Oct. 25, and Werder Bremen had just lost again, this time 1-0 at home to Cologne. Favourites to go down even before the season started, they looked totally hopeless. Rock bottom, winless in nine games, just four points to their credit, and no fewer than 23 goals conceded. This is when it was decided to sack unpopular coach Robin Dutt and find a replacement immediately.
Reserve team coach Viktor Skripnik was preparing to go to sleep when he got a text asking him to attend a meeting Saturday at the club headquarters. He immediately accepted the offer. How could he refuse? The Ukrainian is Werder through and through, living and breathing the club ever since he joined from Dnipro in 1996. He was ready for the challenge.
"It was like moving from one bench to another for me," he said.
Some would say the change in Werder's fortunes under Skripnik is a minor miracle. They would be wrong -- it's a major miracle. Following the 1-0 triumph Saturday at Freiburg, the Ukrainian has won nine of his 15 Bundesliga games WHILE in charge. The team that scored 10 goals in nine games under Dutt found the net 30 times in 15 matches under Skripnik, improving the average twofold. Players who looked doomed in October are flourishing, full of positive energy and self-confidence.
Bremen are now in eighth place, 10 points above the relegation zone and, incredibly, just six points behind Bayer Leverkusen, who are fourth, which means qualification for the Champions League is not impossible if the current momentum continues. Had anyone mentioned such a possibility five months ago, eyebrows would certainly have been raised.
Fans can hardly believe their good fortune, but they appeared to have a very good feeling about Skripnik from day one. It is necessary to understand the club from inside to fully measure what the new coach meant to them. Werder are all about stability. Otto Rehhagel served them for more than 14 years, from 1981 to 1995, and when he decided to leave for Bayern Munich -- a move that turned out to be disastrous from his personal point of view, as he failed to last a full campaign in charge -- the club struggled to find a replacement and went through four coaches, until Thomas Schaaf was promoted in May 1999.
Schaaf was -- and still is -- Werder through and through. He joined the green-and-white academy at the age of 11 and stayed at the club for 41 years. Under Rehhagel, he was one of the least noticeable but most important players in the squad. Never a technically gifted player, Schaaf was an intelligent worker positioned as a stopper or defensive midfielder. Long before retirement, he started working with the club's youth teams and, upon hanging up his boots, was promoted to reserve team coach. Four years later, with the team in deep crisis under unloved Felix Magath, he was called to save the sinking ship.
One month later, Schaaf won his first trophy as a coach by beating Bayern on penalties in the DFB-Pokal final. He hasn't looked back. The "boring" player turned out to be the most exciting coach in the country, with Bremen exhibiting an extremely adventurous attacking style, scoring at will and giving inventive players free rein to create and entertain. The team's league and cup double in 2004 was more than richly deserved, and though stars such as Johan Micoud and Ailton played an extremely important part in that success, Schaaf was the most important figure by far.
The coach was the ultimate hero and stayed at his only club through good times and bad, including refusing to leave for Wolfsburg when his close ally, sporting director Klaus Allofs, headed for the Volkswagen Arena in November 2012. However, in May 2013, he left by mutual consent, and that was an extremely painful moment for the fans.
Replacing a legend is always an impossible task. For some strange reason, Dutt tends to take on those challenges. In 2007, he took the helm at Freiburg, when Volker Finke was controversially fired following 16 years at the club, which is a German record. The new coach might have managed to win promotion but was never loved by a majority of fans. He then moved to Leverkusen to replace Bayern-bound Jupp Heynckes in the summer of 2011 and was fired after less than a year in charge. In 2013, almost inexplicably, he was named Schaaf's heir.
Quite expectedly, Dutt failed to win over the crowd, even though he somehow managed to save the team from relegation last term. With Schaaf gone, the Bremen faithful felt the club had lost its very soul. In fact, part of that soul was seemingly sold to the devil back in 2012, when Werder signed an extremely controversial sponsorship deal with Wiesenhof, a poultry producer accused of animal cruelty. The club was going in the wrong direction, and something special was needed to put it back on track. Skripnik was that man.
Indeed, Skripnik felt right from the very beginning, likely because of his uncanny resemblance to Schaaf. Granted, he joined Bremen at the age of 26, rather than 11, but that's not where the differences end. Just like Schaaf, Skripnik was a reliable defender who never caught the eye. He was there as a bench player when Werder won that double in 2004 and retired immediately afterward. Like Schaaf, he stayed at the club and coached youth teams -- for nine long years. Like Schaaf, he coached Werder II in the third division. Like Schaaf, he is balding -- in fact, those are popular looks in the city nowadays, and you can ask for a "Skripnik cut" from your hairdresser. Like Schaaf, he is a quiet, down-to-earth and modest person who is a bit shy and doesn't like talking to the press. Such character reminds fans from the area of themselves.
Most importantly, his footballing philosophy -- attacking and bold -- is very close to that of Schaaf. He learned a lot from his mentor, and the pair remain close friends. Schaaf might have taken an ambitious project at Eintracht Frankfurt this past summer, but he can never forget Werder. He congratulated Skripnik upon his appointment, and they speak on a weekly basis, exchanging views on everything. Schaaf offers his former protege lots of advice, and to a certain extent, it can be said that he partly returned home.
Only ahead of their direct clash in December did they stop talking for a week -- and Frankfurt thrashed Bremen 5-2. That was one of only four league defeats for Bremen under their new hero. The whole atmosphere in the squad changed completely once Skripnik took charge. He ordered the players to stay at the training ground 24 hours before games, promoting togetherness and team spirit. Bringing back former midfielder Torsten Frings as his assistant was an extremely important move, and the pair managed to make youngsters believe they can take on any opponents as equals. After suffering on the pitch in the beginning of the season, they are now enjoying themselves.
Every player has improved under the Ukrainian, who says, "It's important to know each player's character to find a way to his heart." Former Chelsea and Wigan striker Franco Di Santo has become unstoppable, with 12 goals to his name, including the majestic winner at Freiburg. Austrian playmaker Zlatko Junuzovic is now one of the brightest stars in the league and one of the best dead-ball specialists. Fin Bartels is performing at a level nobody thought he was capable of. Czech defender Theodor Gebre Selassie is finally proving himself. Felix Kroos, Toni's young brother, is starting to resemble the Real Madrid star. Finally, Davie Selke is showing potential to become Germany's future centre-forward.
Two transfer window acquisitions proved brilliant as well, with Danish stopper Jannik Vestergaard proving invaluable in defence while Uwe Seeler's grandson, Levin Oztunali, on loan from Leverkusen, provided three assists in the past two games. With reserve team stars such as Janek Sternberg and Levent Aycicek fearlessly promoted by Skripnik as well, Werder are one of the youngest teams in the league, led by veteran captain Clemens Fritz, who was signed by Schaaf back in 2006.
Skripnik is the first Ukrainian coach ever to work in Germany and one of very few specialists from the former Soviet Union to ply their trade abroad. After all those years in Germany, however, he feels completely local, even though an accent remains. Taking history into account, it is logical to predict his chances of staying at Bremen for many years are high.
He could yet emulate Rehhagel and Schaaf because Werder will never find anyone better suited for the job. Thanks to Skripnik, Bremen have refound their soul.