Florian Kohfeldt’s anticipation for the new season brought nothing in the end. The day after the last matchday in the Bundesliga, VfL Wolfsburg parted ways with their coach – hardly anyone expected that.
Lower Saxony announced that they would end the cooperation “by mutual agreement”. Despite the recent better results, the top club drew the consequences of a messed-up season that began with the Champions League participation and ended in a relegation battle.
Those responsible at VfL came together after the 2-2 (1-2) against champions Bayern Munich and on Sunday to analyze the season and asked the coach to talk. The result: Kohfeldt has to go. “In trusting and honest discussions, we mutually agreed to end the cooperation,” said Managing Director Jörg Schmadtke.
The VfL leadership continued and intensified the analysis of the season. “We came to the realization that we would be under pressure right from the start, which would mean too much of a burden for the team, coach and club,” Schmadtke continued.
Kohfeldt, who succeeded Mark van Bommel in the fall, did not give the impression after the last day of this Bundesliga season that his job at VfL Wolfsburg could be over anytime soon. On Saturday he sounded completely different after the draw against Bayern and spoke euphorically about the preparations for the next season. “I’m particularly looking forward to the start of the new season, when we want to perform more regularly than we did in the second half,” he said.
Are Weinzierl and Hütter coming into focus?
It won’t come to that. For the Wolfsburg it is already the second change of coach in this sportingly completely unsuccessful season.
Already on Sunday some names for a successor haunted the area. Now Markus Weinzierl (Augsburg) or Adi Hütter (Gladbach) could also come into focus at VfL. Both coaches announced on Saturday that they will soon be without a club.
The current developments in Wolfsburg come as a bit of a surprise, as Kohfeldt has stabilized the club somewhat after unstable results and has led them to twelfth place in the table after the relegation battle.
Arnold strengthened Kohfeldt’s back
Both managing director Jörg Schmadtke and sports director Marcel Schäfer have always had their backs and have publicly spoken of wanting to compete with him next season.
“We regret this development and would like to thank Florian Kohfeldt for helping us in a difficult situation and taking the right measures to ensure relegation,” said Schmadtke.
Wolfsburg’s long-time favorite Maximilian Arnold also had Kohfeldt’s back: “You could see in the decisive situations that we were there, that we played football very differently.” But he also drew a critical conclusion of the season. “It was a very mixed season, we can’t all be satisfied,” said the 27-year-old. “When you see how many defeats we have on the account, it’s very, very bitter. That’s one of the biggest points that we have to stop defensively.”