Skibbe wanted to bring Brazilian midfielder Lincoln back to the Bundesliga after he was deemed to be surplus to requirements by his former club Galatasaray, but his wish was not granted due to the financial demands of the player.

The former Schalke midfielder is now without a club.

"The club has made a huge error," Skibbe told Hessische Rundfunk television.

"When we get a player like him served to us on a silver platter, then we should have pulled out all the stops.

"In just one move, we would have been able to improve our attack by 20%.

"It is a real shame that Lincoln did not come. He would have been able to take this team to another level."

Skibbe feels the club is being wrongly lulled into the belief that it must merely fight for survival rather than set ambitious targets.

Many critics had Frankfurt down as relegation candidates when Skibbe took over from Friedhelm Funkel in the summer, but, despite an unbeaten start to the season with one win and three draws, Skibbe is still struggling to convince people that his club is better than they are being perceived.

"Everybody within the club and outside has marked Eintracht down as a small club which is going nowhere and if you permanently talk like that, then you eventually start to believe it," he remarked.

"I say that we are not so small at all and we can hold our own rather well.

"We can play good football and we are going to show that again this season."