Sebastian Hoeneß Demands Squad Reinforcements for Champions League
Sebastian Hoeneß is smiling less and demanding more again. Stuttgart’s head coach has gone back on the offensive – not on the pitch, but in the transfer market.
At the training camp in Grassau, with a Champions League season looming, Hoeneß dropped the politeness and went straight for the point. The interest in Bilal El Khannouss clearly touched a nerve.
“A coach's aim must always be to keep the best players. Billy is without doubt one of our best players,” he said, drawing a clear line in the sand. Losing El Khannouss, even before the real business starts, would cut right against everything he has been preaching for a year.
Then he widened the lens.
“We are playing a Champions League season. The point is that we also start this competition in a strong position. That is why I do have the wish that, instead of losing substance, we add substance.”
The message to the board could hardly be sharper. Stuttgart are back among Europe’s elite. Hoeneß wants a squad that looks like it belongs there.
Not much time left
Hoeneß is not speaking in vague generalities. He knows exactly what type of reinforcement he expects – and when.
“Ideally, potential that does not first have to be developed, but has already been unlocked. I hope that we will still become active. There is not much time left and a large part of pre-season is already over. That is why the wish is great that we manage to get a strong squad to the start,” he said.
So far, sporting director Fabian Wohlgemuth and chief executive Alexander Wehrle have ticked a few boxes: Leo Sauer, Tim van der Leij, goalkeeper Marius Funk and midfielder Grischa Prömel have arrived on the Neckar. Useful additions, solid profiles.
But the hole further up the pitch is still glaring. Stuttgart’s need for more punch in attack is written all over the squad list.
The club are pushing hard for Dzenan Pejcinovic to fill the central striker role. The 19-year-old from VfL Wolfsburg is the chosen man for the heart of the attack. The problem: Wolfsburg are not making it easy. Negotiations over the fee are dragging, and every day that passes chips away at Stuttgart’s pre-season planning.
Hoeneß knows this scenario all too well.
Echoes of last summer
The current tension feels like a replay of 2025. Back then, Hoeneß was already turning up the volume, openly clashing with the club’s planning when Nick Woltemade was sold.
Woltemade’s move to Newcastle United for a record fee of up to €90 million filled the accounts, but it emptied the coach’s patience. Before the home game against Borussia Mönchengladbach, he did not bother to sugarcoat anything.
“The fact is that it is a bitter loss for us. Last summer we set out a few things that we wanted to implement. And I have to say very clearly that, even before Nick was transferred now, we had not yet completely managed to implement these things. The squad is not where it was intended to be.”
Even the biggest transfer in club history could not calm him.
“Of course there is a financial situation. But the sporting responsibility lies with the coach.”
That line still hangs in the air. It explains why, a year on, Hoeneß is again raising his voice before the season has properly begun. He knows what it looks like when a squad goes into a campaign half-finished. He does not want to coach his way around the same structural problems again, this time with Champions League midweeks added to the schedule.
Turbulent search, late solutions
The search for a Woltemade replacement last summer showed exactly how messy things can get when planning and reality collide.
Stuttgart had settled on Hyeon-Gyu Oh from KRC Genk as the preferred solution. Talks dragged on for hours, only to fall apart at the final hurdle. The medical left lingering doubts at VfB, and the clubs remained far apart on the fee. By the time the deal collapsed, time had almost run out.
The pressure finally told near the end of the 2025 summer window. Stuttgart reacted with a double move: Bilal El Khannouss arrived on loan from Leicester City, one day after Badredine Bouanani had joined from OGC Nice for around €15 million.
Those late signings helped patch the squad, but they also underlined a pattern: VfB scrambling late, Hoeneß forced to integrate key players on the fly.
Now, with the Champions League anthem on the horizon, the coach is clearly unwilling to accept another summer of improvisation. He wants clarity, quality, and continuity – and he wants it before the season starts, not after deadline day chaos.
The ball is at the feet of Wohlgemuth and Wehrle. The question is no longer whether Stuttgart can cash in on talent. It is whether they can finally build a squad that matches their coach’s ambition and the stage they are about to step onto.
