Silas Katompa Mvumpa (left) led Stuttgart to victory over VfL Bochum around Danilo Soares with two goals.
Photo: imago/Xinhua
Whether Pellegrino Matarazzo saw Stuttgart’s 4-1 win over VfL Bochum on distant beaches or in front of the TV at home is uncertain. If the latter is the case, it can be assumed that he felt this Saturday afternoon almost as bitterly as the hours after his release a few days ago. The former coach must have caught himself thinking how VfB Stuttgart’s home game would have gone if he had still been in office himself.
On Saturday, however, Michael Wimmer was left on the bench because those responsible had sacked Matarazzo on Monday without having made a plan for the time without him. So it was the interim coach who was allowed to see after two and a half minutes how Bochum’s Danilo Soares got Stuttgart’s striker Silas Katompa Mvumpa unnecessarily off his feet and the fouled man converted the penalty to 1-0. Extremely gratifying from a Stuttgart point of view was the crazy idea of Bochum goalkeeper Manuel Riemann, before the second Stuttgart goal, a long ball under pressure, wanting to clear 20 meters from his own goal with a header – which Naouirou Ahamadou was happy to thwart. The fact that goals three and four, scored by Katompa Mvumpa and Wataru Endo, came during VfL Bochum’s strongest phase was another “momentum” that sporting director Sven Mislintat considered the decisive factor of the day. Consequently, he also pushed the praise to the recently dismissed coach that “that’s clearly Rino’s victory as well. That’s his signature and that’s how everyone feels.” Sometimes, says Mislintat, »football is just an asshole«.
At least now the neutral observer almost had to hope that Matarazzo had his first football-free Saturday in years. Otherwise he might have asked himself even more urgently why he had been fired in the first place. Especially since the profile of requirements for the successor who has not yet been found sounds in all points as if one is looking for a type like Matarazzo, who unfortunately, unfortunately, has to have a different name. Basically Mislintat repeated exactly that after the victory against Bochum. The newcomer must “be really keen on this club, and he must be keen on letting football play”. Meanwhile, Mislintat was surprised at the number of coaches who had allegedly already canceled VfB – without anyone having spoken to him beforehand. There was “exactly one,” says Mislintat, who probably meant Zsolt Löw.
At the moment they have two coaches in mind, but the future VfB coach will only be hired if all four decision-makers unanimously give their thumbs up when it comes to finding a coach. That would be the CEO Alexander Wehrle, Sami Khedira, who was recently hired as a consultant, Mislintat himself and his right-hand man Markus Rüdt. And even if Mislintat denied that the relationship between him and Wehrle was “shattered”, one can safely assume that the two will not invite each other to their birthday parties. Whether that will make it impossible to work together in the future is one of the many questions currently being asked at VfB.
The fact that Christian Gentner, Sami Khedira and Philipp Lahm were hired as external sporting advisors without Mislintat’s knowledge is a blatant affront to the sporting director, regardless of who failed to talk about the project beforehand. Either way: VfB seems well advised to clarify all other personnel decisions promptly in the course of the coaching question, not least the question of whether Mislintat can remain responsible beyond the summer of 2023. This is the only way for the club to get back into calmer waters. In any case, VfB, which still seemed to be organizationally and atmospherically consolidated in the summer, is currently experiencing a culture of mistrust that actually seemed to have long since been overcome.
