After the nightmare end to the previous campaign, things only got worse for Schalke. They managed just 3 league victories all season and dropped into the second tier for the first time in 30 years.
Five different managers, disruption behind the scenes and performances below the level expected, all culminated in one of the worst seasons for the club in living memory.
A humiliating 8-0 defeat at Bayern on the opening day of the season set the tone and coach Wagner was shown the door after just 2 games.
What followed was more chaos and more bad results, Manuel Baum winless reign lasted only 10 games and the falling out with players led to the contract termination of Ibisevic and suspension of Bentaleb and Harit.
Huub Stevens briefly took charge as interim boss, before Christian Gross was appointed in late December. Things failed to improve much but the Swiss was responsible for the club's first victory of the campaign, an impressive 4-0 win over Hoffenheim, in which youngster Matthew Hoppe burst on to the scene with a hat-trick.
Experienced defender's Mustafi and Kolasinac were brought in on loan from Arsenal, while club legend Huntelaar also came back to help out at the ripe old age of 37.
Unfortunately, results still didn't improve and Schalke continued to be weak defensively and offensively, they would go on to concede 86 goals and score just 25.
Gross found himself the next on the hit list and he was replaced by former Darmstadt boss Dimitrios Grammozis. It was too little too late to really turn things around by that point but there were some positives to take towards the end.
The emergence of youngsters Hoppe, Aydin and Flick were a plus point for the future, while Fahrmann produced some top performances in goal.
Grammozis has the credentials to get the club back up but he will need to clear a lot of the deadwood out in the summer and of course bring in some new additions.
