Bombshell at Rapid: End for Coach Stöger

Football Bundesliga club SK Rapid has pulled the emergency brake and relieved head coach Peter Stöger and his assistant coach Thomas Sageder of their duties. The Vienna club announced this on Friday afternoon. The separation comes just a few hours after the 1:4 defeat against Rakow Czestochowa in the Conference League. Stefan Kulovits takes over as interim coach and is already challenged on Sunday against the soaring LASK (17.00).

Rapid Last in Conference League

Stöger was already under pressure after the latest disappointing defeat in the European Cup. In the last four competitive matches, the Green-Whites suffered three defeats and only managed a meager draw (1:1 at WSG Tirol). The 1:4 against the Polish vice-champion was ultimately too much. "This decision is extremely difficult because not only do I highly value Peter Stöger and Thomas Sageder for their expertise and character. However, the developments of the past weeks make these dismissals necessary," explained Sports Director Markus Katzer in a statement.

The 45-year-old Viennese addressed the fact that Rapid's poor results were accompanied by a massive performance crisis. Since the end of September, the Hütteldorf team lost eight out of twelve competitive matches, often delivering extremely poor performances. Although the team around captain Matthias Seidl is still in second place in the league, they are hopelessly last without points in the Conference League. In Poland, "Stöger out" chants were also heard, and the traveling fans left the stadium early in protest.

Stöger "a Stayer and Fighter"

Stöger had repeatedly asked for patience and spoken of a "complicated phase." "I've had more enjoyable days, but I am a stayer and fighter," the 59-year-old said on Thursday evening, but also emphasized, "We already have our ideas." However, there will be no continuation of this.

On Thursday, Katzer also emphasized: "For us, it is important that we do not start a discussion about the coach, especially not publicly. It is important to remain calm in such a situation. One must not be guided by emotions, especially not by the emotions of others, and we do not do that."

By Friday afternoon, everything was completely different. "We wanted to achieve a turnaround after the last international break and were very confident that this would succeed. Unfortunately, the trend continued to decline both in the home game against GAK and on Thursday in the European Cup in Poland. Both the recent results and performances have now led us to this decision," Katzer was quoted in the Rapid announcement.

Rapid initially unbeaten

Stöger was introduced as the coach at the end of May. The start of the season in July and August - with five wins and two draws in the first seven league rounds as well as successful qualification for the CoL group stage - was promising, but from mid-September, the Rapid engine began to stutter massively. In the end, Stöger has only 27 official matches (including 9 defeats) as head coach of the Green-Whites to his name. This is the fourth shortest tenure at Rapid in terms of games played since the turn of the millennium. Only Damir Canadi (2016/17 - 17 games), Georg Zellhofer (2006 - 23), and Mike Büskens (2016 - 25) had fewer.

Now Kulovits and - as an additional assistant - Luka Pavlovic are once again playing the role of firefighters in Hütteldorf. The 42-year-old already took on this task earlier this spring when Rapid parted ways with Robert Klauß. "Stefan Kulovits and the rest of the coaching team will have every support to ensure we quickly experience a turnaround," said Katzer. "Now the full focus must be on the last games of the year, while we are also, of course, exploring the market for suitable personalities for the head coach position without wanting to make a hasty decision."

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.