Bundesliga Coaching Carousel - Football (Soccer) News And Picks

Bundesliga Coaching Carousel
By David Hein
Posted:4:00 am PDT 2007-02-03

The coaching carousel in the German Bundesliga continued Thursday when Thomas Doll was sacked by last-placed Hamburg.

Doll was the sixth coach to have offered his neck this season already, and it came less than 24 hours after Bayern Munich parted ways with Felix Mageth. Borussia Monchengladbach on Wednesday also dropped their coach, Jupp Heynckes.

The other three coaches were Peter Neururer at Hanover, Borussia Dortmund's Bert van Marwijk and Dieter Hecking with Alemannia Aachen.

The biggest switch by far was Bayern's bailing on Mageth after losing at Dortmund last weekend and playing to a scoreless draw at home against Bochum on Tuesday.

The new sheriff in southern Germany is former Bayern boss Ottmar Hitzfeld, who coached Munich to four Bundesliga titles -- including three straight from 1999-2001, the 2001 Champions League crown and two German Cups.

This move is great for Bayern and the Bundesliga because it will bring Munich back into prominence.

The team formerly nicknamed as FC Hollywood has dropped to fourth place behind Werder Bremen, Schalke and Stuttgart. And Bayern are already eight points adrift of both Bremen and Schalke.

Hitzfeld, who coached at Bayern from 1998-2004, gets his first chance to lead Munich in the Bavarian derby with Nurnberg on Friday. And Bayern Munich are clear -120 favourites on WagerWeb.com despite collecting four road losses already this season and Nurnberg -- +260 underdogs -- have suffered just one defeat at home.

Hitzfeld's predecessor, Mageth, may not be out of work long. Just hours after he received his walking papers, a job opened up at the club which he led to the Champions Cup title in the 1970s -- Hamburg.

Reports in Hamburg said Mageth was in northern Germany already on Thursday for contract talks to return to the team he coached in the mid-1990s.

Hamburg, who are last in the Bundesliga with 15 points -- on 12 draws and one victory -- in 19 games, travel to Hertha Berlin on Saturday. Hamburg are currently +333 underdogs on the road.

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