Stuttgart’s Korkut becomes 1st coaching victim of season

VfB Stuttgart fired coach Tayfun Korkut on Sunday, making him the first coaching victim of the Bundesliga season.

Korkut was sacked less than 24 hours after a 3-1 defeat away to fellow strugglers Hanover 96 left Stuttgart bottom of the table with five points from seven games.

The former Turkey international took over in January with the club battling against relegation, led them to an impressive seventh-place finish and was rewarded by having his contract extended until June 2020.

But their poor start to this season, with only one win so far, prompted a change of heart among the club’s leadership.

“The lack of development in the course of this season and the negative results have led us to take this step,” said Director of Sports Michael Reschke.

“Tayfun Korkut took over the team last season in a very difficult situation and secured with an extraordinary run this Bundesliga season for VfB. We are very grateful to him and his two assistant coaches.”

Korkut, who was born in Stuttgart, has previously coached Hanover, Kaiserslautern and Bayer Leverkusen, the latter on an interim basis.

The 44-year-old lasted 15 months at Hanover until a 13-match winless run led to his downfall and was in charge of second-tier Kaiserslautern for six months in 2016.

Stuttgart said that reserve team coach Andreas Hinkel would lead training until further notice.