According to ten Hag and Seoane
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This article was first published on September 18, 2025 and was updated before Werder Bremen’s Bundesliga game against Wolfsburg.
The season in the Bundesliga was only three match days old and SV Werder had, to put it bluntly, already had two coaches on their conscience. The Bremen team thus underlined their status as trainer killers. A look at the Transfermarkt database shows: Since 2000, no club has had as many opponents dismissing coaches after a game as after the Green-Whites’ games. Now VfL Wolfsburg comes to the Weserstadion, where a defeat could mean the end of coach Paul Simonis’ term in office.
After the 3-3 draw in the last minute on matchday 2 against Bayer Leverkusen, Erik ten Hag had to vacate his post. After Werder’s 4-0 win against Gladbach on matchday 3, Gerardo Seoane’s days were numbered. Should Wolfsburg’s Simonis be eliminated from the Weser on matchday 10, the Dutchman would be the 14th coach in Bundesliga history not to survive a game against SVW. In the past, this included well-known names such as Huub Stevens (2003, Hertha), Giovanni Trapattoni (2006, Stuttgart) and Peter Bosz (2017, BVB).
“I don’t stop believing in it. I don’t stop working on it,” Wolfsburg’s sports director Sebastian Schindzielorz said about the collaboration with Simonis after VfL’s 2:3 (1:1) against 1899 Hoffenheim. “Guarantees are very difficult in this industry. So I can only answer what the next step is for us. And that is Bremen. We’ll tackle that together!” Including the cup exit against second division club Holstein Kiel, the Wolves suffered six defeats in the last seven competitive games. There has only been one win since August 23rd. There are only a few weaker teams in the top 5 leagues.
Coach killer: who follows Werder in the Bundesliga
In the ranking of coach killers since 2000, just behind Werder Bremen is arch-rival Hamburger SV, despite seven years of absence from the Bundesliga. A coach had to vacate his post a total of twelve times after losing a game in the upper house against HSV. The last was Norbert Meier, whose term at SV Darmstadt ended in December 2016 after a 0-2 defeat. The podium is completed by FC Augsburg, who cost eleven coaches their jobs.
1. FC Köln and today’s second division club Schalke are tied for fourth place with ten each. Only then do the heavyweights FC Bayern and Borussia Dortmund follow, who, like Mainz, Hannover and Gladbach, caused nine layoffs. BVB met a coach from Arminia Bielefeld three times: Ernst Middendorp (2007), Michael Frontzeck (2009) and Uwe Neuhaus (2021). FC Bayern seems to be a bad place for HSV trainers, as Armin Veh (2011), Bruno Labbadia (2016) and Bernd Hollerbach (2018) were fired after some significant defeats against the record champions.
Once again, the opposing coaches from RB Leipzig have little to worry about. The Saxons are in their tenth Bundesliga season, and only Dieter Hecking in 2016 at VfL Wolfsburg had to leave after a defeat against RB.