It’s been two days since he signed a contract with VfL Wolfsburg – at a club that has worn out two coaches in the past season. Florian Kohfeldt followed Mark van Bommel, who was brought in in July 2021 and released just three months later. VfL parted ways with him almost two weeks ago. Now Niko Kovac should fix it.
As far as the many coach changes in the Bundesliga are concerned, Kovac has now found clear words. “It’s a trend that I think is going in the wrong direction. It’s not usual to expect success and change players or coaches every six months or a year,” said Kovac in a Sky interview.
In addition to Kohfeldt (Wolfsburg), Marco Rose (BVB) and Sebastian Hoeneß (Hoffenheim) were recently relieved of their duties as head coach. There were also separations in Mönchengladbach (Adi Hütter) and Augsburg (Markus Weinzierl).
The 50-year-old Kovac benefits at VfL Wolfsburg from the fact that the club has parted ways with van Bommel and Kohfeldt in recent months. But he believes “that continuity is a very important factor. If you look at many successful clubs – not only in Germany – you can see that continuity is very important and that you have to strengthen the coach these days because he is held responsible for everything.”
After successful years at Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayern Munich, Kovac returned to the Bundesliga last Tuesday by signing a three-year deal with VfL Wolfsburg. “What was important to me: the cooperation,” he explained. “I know Jörg Schmadtke from the Leverkusen days, we played together and we always had a very good connection. Marcel Schäfer was also a footballer himself and won the championship with VfL. It’s a small circle of people with football know-how.”
