The contract was not renewed
Central defender James Lawrence has joined 1. FC Nürnberg on a free transfer. The 29-year-old Welshman was active for FC St. Pauli for a total of three years until the end of June. In an interview with « Millernton », he described the Hamburg club, for which he played 54 times (one goal), as « something very special ». With browns and whites he remarked « how happy I was ». Lawrence had imagined the end of his stay at St. Pauli differently – not because he was sad that his contract would not be extended, but because the management of the club around sporting director Andreas Bornemann had never communicated this decision to him. reasonably.
« It wasn’t fair, » said Lawrence, who revealed he was apparently not the only player who was not told, or only very late, that St. Pauli was no longer planning with them. Before the nine-player contracts expired, head coach Timo Schultz had already commented critically in April: « It’s a shame that we haven’t had a new status since December. Not much has happened over the last three or four months. I’m in constant contact with the players and my assistant coaches and then we’ll wait and see. »
Lawrence said: « I can only talk about my experiences and what I have been through. I found out two days before the end of the season that my contract would not be extended. In December, there were still good talks about an extension – the club signaled that they wanted to take this step. Additionally, there was a clause that would have automatically expanded the working document for a number of operations. However, Lawrence missed seven games in the second half of the season through injury and illness and was therefore no longer on the permanent staff for the rest of the time.
Lawrence: If St. Pauli had said he had to go ‘it would have been nice’
« There was little to no communication for the next six months, » Lawrence said. « We tried to contact you, but there was just no response. I know I wasn’t the only one, it’s happened to a lot of players. » He was convinced that this lack of communication from the club caused a lot of frustration among the players: « In my opinion, they should have just spoken to us. If they don’t know, that’s fine, but at least they should communicate it. If they had said: « We don’t know yet, you can look for other options », so it would have been nice, but they didn’t. »
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Although changing clubs is not uncommon in professional (Site notre bureau spécialisé), Lawrence has played in London, Amsterdam, Trencin, Brussels and Hamburg since he was young, a degree of planning security is important: « We didn’t know where we would be next season, whether we would still live in Hamburg or not. We all have apartments, there were players with newborns, families, daughters. I think we deserve a little more respect here « Not just because we still played for St. Pauli, but also for everything we gave to the club. It’s a real shame to be honest. »
There were even teammates who weren’t even informed about St. Pauli’s plans after the end of the season: « They didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to the fans. A player found out about it via the social media. It’s really a shame. »
FC St. Pauli lost promotion: Lack of communication a factor for Lawrence
Given the long unclear situation regarding league membership St. Pauli played for promotion to the Bundesliga until shortly before the end, it was not easy for the club to plan. However, Lawrence suspects that this lack of communication has also meant that some players have not reached their absolute maximum: « It’s hard, but we are professionals, we have to put that aside and do our best. We can I do, but I don’t think it’s possible to completely block out those thoughts. I think something like that will always be a few percent.
St. Pauli have won just three of their last ten league matches, moving them from the top of the table to fifth. Lawrence continued: « We can say it shouldn’t affect our performance, but realistically it definitely will. It’s not a big difference in performance, we’re talking small fractions here, but it will have had a effect. »
What I find so strange about this whole story is that the media landscape knew for many weeks in advance which contracts were up for renewal and which were not. In the end, the information was correct 1 against 1. And the players didn’t know it then? Only in the case of Simon, Jannes and Adam were the decisions about to be made. Something definitely didn’t go well, but it all raises a lot of questions for me. James has in the inter…
Even if the club had told him in the spring that they didn’t want to extend, there wouldn’t have been that loss percentage, Lawrence said: « There are several reasons for that: Firstly, because it’s like that who I am personally. Secondly, because I love the club and wish them the greatest possible success. And thirdly, because I have to find a new club, show myself fit and ready, show that I can play at a high level, because I want to go to the best club possible. And of course, when I come from a club that was very successful last season, for example promoted to the Bundesliga, then you have a whole different face on the transfer market. The worst was « simply not knowing anything ».
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