Eintracht Frankfurt vs Bayer Leverkusen preview - Leverkusen happy with Schmidt

Posted Friday, May 22, 2015 by PA

Bayer Leverkusen head into their final game of the season at Eintracht Frankfurt this Saturday having already consolidated their plans for the future by tying coach Roger Schmidt down to a new four-year contract.

The former Salzburg coach was initially contracted to Leverkusen until 2016, but finishing fourth this season - regardless of their result in Frankfurt - have convinced club bosses to extend his stay.

"Our coach has a concept which he convinced us with a year ago, and that is to play quick and extremely effective football," said Leverkusen's director of sport Rudi Voller on his club's website.

"Even in the most critical stages of the season, Roger stuck to these values, with full faith in the system and in the team.

"It is precisely in these difficult times that you often get to see the qualities of a coach, who transmits calm and security to the team, and Roger did that in a remarkable way."

Guiding Leverkusen into the Champions League play-off was the aim for the season which Schmidt achieved with games to spare, but he says the best is yet to come.

"It soon became clear to me that Leverkusen are a club where I can work for a long time, and that is what I want to do too," Schmidt said.

"We are only at the start of our development and we have a young team with a lot of potential and a great team spirit.

"I am really looking forward to us taking this development even further together with our coaching team in the coming years."

Frankfurt coach Thomas Schaaf can also look forward to the future after club president Heribert Bruchhagen told Sky Sport News that he "will definitely still be in charge next season."

There had been claims that the dressing room was divided over the former Werder Bremen coach, but defender Marco Russ has also dismissed those rumours.

"We are happy with the coach," he said.