this is how you run a football team.

I gave this article to Glory 55 the other week. I think many of you will find it interesting reading.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/sport/st ... 78,00.html

Sounds like a great club!

I read that last week and gave it to some mates. Great article, though the responses underneath show that it was pretty slanted in favour of Schalke.

I posted on here a while ago - in answer to some of our German fans - that Schalke have always been my favourite German team, going back to the 70s. They seemed to have a bit in common with us as a club - fanatical support, big open bowl of a ground, no title for decades, blue and white kit - although Gelsenkirchen (a sh!thole, I'm led to believe) has got nothing in common with SW6. Their name - Schalke 04 - reminds me of the old Billy Connolly joke about thinking Partick Thistle were actually called Partick Thistlenil, but it's probably to do with when they were founded (?) in which case they're almost the same age as we are. Their last German title was in the fifties and have had some major heartache along the way. I'll post the YouTube link to when they last lost the league in heartbreaking fashion in 2003 (to Bayern in the 4th min of injury time) when I get home from work where YouTube is blocked. It's all in German but still worth watching.

Their stadium is superb - it's where we played Besiktas the other year - and they've also been taken over by wealthy Russians.

I don't think they are hated by everyone the way we are.

Here's the link: