This season has so many surprises yet in store for Schalke 04, but no matter what happens, Amine Hari is a victory that won’t be lost.
We have yet to see what will become of this season for Schalke 04, and anyone who thinks they know is just speculating. It’s been a tale of two seasons for the Royal Blues, with the first half going beautifully and the second half proving uglier than ever before. But no matter what happens between now and the end, there is one massive victory that can’t be taken away—Amine Harit.
The biggest problem at Schalke these days, and going back several years, is their inability to keep players from walking at the end of their contract. It’s such a gross case of player mismanagement that is just inexcusable, plain and simple.
If Die Knappen wants to compete, they can’t keep letting players like Alexander Nubel and Leon Goretzka walk for free when their contract runs up. Every team suffers from high profile exits, but just about every other club gets some kind of financial recompense for their losses.
Amine Harit victory makes Schalke season worth it
This year, Schalke locked Amine Harit into a deal that sees him under club control until 2024. This came while vultures like Barcelona were poking around after Harit, inquiring about his availability.
Harit was in a crucial year—the kind of year where you either have to get him a new deal or face a familiar future of letting that contract run out. This is the first major, high-profile contract signing that the club has engineered in quite some time. And with it, they’ve introduced a little confidence that maybe, just maybe, they’ve turned a corner.
Even if Harit ends up wanting to leave, which is unlikely since he signed the deal in the first place, it’s no longer up to him where he goes. The club is in control and if Barcelona want to secure Harit, they will have to fork up a sum of money that meets what Schalke accepts as fair. And given the trajectory of Harit’s abilities, it won’t be a measly sum. It will be something substantial, the likes of which the Royal Blues haven’t seen in ages.
Being in control is a brand new feeling, a beautiful feeling, and a massive victory. Even though Nubel did the complete opposite of Harit mere weeks after Harit signed his deal, the victory won’t be lost that easily. Not at all, in fact.
Come what may, the fact that Harit won’t walk for free, or get near a situation where he even might walk for free, is a victory worth celebrating no matter what happens.