Coaches being dumped a big worry
THE MOOD in the shark tank that is the Bundesliga is getting ever harsher – even successful coaches can no longer expect to keep their jobs.
Niko Kovac, having guided Bayern Munich to the championship and possibly the double, is not immune from speculation. Dieter Hecking will watch his fifth-placed Borussia Moenchengladbach compete in Europe from the couch next season, while Bruno Labbadia will wonder what more could have been expected with Wolfsburg than sixth?
“With failure we know what happens to us, but we thought that with success we were fine,” Hecking said after his tearful farewell on Saturday. “That seems to have changed, and that does not do the coaches good. It cannot continue.”
Hecking will be replaced by Marco Rose despite delivering what most onlookers would call success for Gladbach. But coaches are now being treated by club officials as coaches have long treated players – what they’ve achieved counts for nothing if it is felt a better option is available.
Wolfsburg’s next coach, Oliver Glasner, will enjoy the club’s first European campaign in five years, after Labaddia’s relationship with sporting chief Joerg Schmadtke broke down. “In general, the coaches are switched too quickly,” Labaddia said in a recent interview with broadcaster NDR. “The environment is always getting tougher because so much money is involved. Too much politics is played.
“Today it is enough to come under question if you don’t get good results over three or four weeks. We’re on the wrong path.”
That clubs change coach when their sporting existence in the top-flight is threatened has been common for years. But it helped Nuremberg, who fired Michael Koellner, and Hanover, who dismissed Andre Breitenreiter, not a jot this season as they were relegated anyway.
VfB Stuttgart, meanwhile, are on a third coach having fired both Tayfun Korkut and Markus Weinzierl. Nico Willig ensured a chance of survival through a play-off, but his status as interim boss is far from certain.
Schalke rid themselves of Domenico Tedesco, who guided them to runners-up last year, while even the more modest Augsburg felt the need to swap Manuel Baum for Martin Schmidt.
Fortuna Dusseldorf’s veteran coach Friedhelm Funkel is concerned when he assesses the situation.
“I do not mean we’re rubbish bins,” he told the broadcaster ZDF. “But the coaches already have it hard. And it’s always getting harder because the world is puffed up.”
Funkel narrowly avoided a departure from Dusseldorf, whom he lead to promotion this term.
“We coaches know what we’re letting ourselves in for,” he said. “But we have to be careful to deal with each other much better.”