dpa news: VfL Wolfsburg won't extend the contract with Coach Wolfgang Wolf. The separation after five years was decided. According to "Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung" the 45 year old soccer teacher and the Bundesliga club decided to quit the contractual relationship already in December. GM Peter Pander will announce the official decision until Wednesday. According to information of the newspaper, Pander and Wolf had two long conversations after the 1-2 against Stuttgart in the last game in 2002. Pander first wants to tell the result to the controlling instance of the VfL Wolfsburg corporation before telling the public. The meeting is on Tuesday. Wolf himself did not directly tell his decision. At the start of the training on Friday, he said: "I decided already before Christmas and told it to Pander. He has to realise it now". The VfL-Coach is currently the one having the longest term in office. He took over in March 1998 as successor of Willi Reimann. He rescued the team and led it to the UEFA Cup in 1999. Although the Lower Saxons established themselves under his guidance in Bundesliga in these five years, Wolf never was secure in office. ======== Wolf will stay until June 30th - as always in such situations he'll be fired earlier if the team doesn't have success. The controlling instance might want to push such a decision.
The decision of course started wild speculations on who'll be the successor. The usual suspects are named: Jürgen Röber, Frank Pagelsdorf, Falko Götz. But is also rumoured that Wolfsburg wants to go the next bigger step after signing Effenberg and playing in a new arena: a Coach with international reputation - names: Christoph Daum, Jupp Heynckes, but also Ottmar Hitzfeld. Favourite is Jürgen Röber though - he already negotiated with Wolfsburg in 2001. In a recent interview he said "I assume that I'm going to sign a contract some day. Whether it'll be in Wolfsburg is written in the stars. I don't saying anything about this topic - that's rather damaging than using anyone". Also the future of Wolfgang Wolf does not look too bad. Especially in the southwestern regions he is having an excellent reputation. It is rumored that he might be Eric Gerets' successor at the end of the season in case of Kaiserslautern's relegation, or he might even get the vacant job of Stuttgart's GM if he's fired soon.
The general rule in the US is to fire lame duck coaches, since players won't be motivated by a desire to impress a coach they know won't be around to dole out playing time next season. In this case, I think it is a mistake to keep Wolf around. Get rid of him now and, if you're going to hire Rober, who's available, do it now. He gets a half-a-season to evaluate talent, and the players, anxious to make a good impression, will play better.
kicker doesn't assume that they are going to sign Röber, Pagelsdorf or Götz due to lacking international reputation. Daum can't be signed due to image reasons, Hitzfeld won't be available and Heynckes remains. An official very evidently praised Heynckes for his work; his contract in Bilbao expires this summer.
I will be sad to see him go. I remember going the sports bar at 2pm on two Fridays in a row to watch VfL get two wins and a much needed 6 pts to stay afloat in year 1. I saw my first pics of the new stadium. Can't wait to go this year and see a game in person.