I’ve Got Your Coach Of The Century Right Here

‘Twas a good weekend for Borussia Dortmund, ’twas a very bad weekend for Arminia Bielefield and their fans. On Friday, BVB went all kinds of bananas on Arminia, channeling their inner Werder Bremen (almost) and routing them 6-1 during a fantastic clinic on routing teams. This is the second time this season Arminia Bielefeld has been on the wrong end of an embarrassing scoreline after burying their heads in the sand while Werder Bremen ran around, through and over them on their way to an 8-1 victory. Maybe Armenia should ask for an whole new defense for Christmas?

(Jan of the Bundesliga offside has all the goals in their glory here.)

It probably doesn’t take the lovechild of Alfred Einstein and Marie Curie to figure out what happened after the game: coach Ernst Middendorp got sacked. Well, they waited til Monday before handing him the axe. Surely so that Mr. M could spend a serene and tranquil weekend of happiness not knowing his job security was hovering around bedrock. So Ernst is out, and amateur (reserve) team coach Detlev Dammeier is in for the time being. I’m in no position to comment but I can’t imagine the AB faithful are all too thrilled with their new (interim) coach coming directly from the “amateur” ranks to a team which has been made to look a little too, oh, amateurish a couple times this season. And on Friday they take on defending champs Stuttgart. Wonderful.

That’s not even the best part. This is the third time Middendorp has been coach at Arminia Bielefeld, and the third time he’s been shown the exit door. And in between those second and third spells, he was voted the club’s Coach of the Century. You know, a century is a very long time. Ernst’s latest tenure began in March, and from March through the end of the seasons they won 7 games, winning 11 total all year, and fighting off the dreaded drop. Decent job by Ernst, I’d say. “Coach of the Century? You’ve got 8 months.”

I’m going to go out and a very long limb here and say that things have not gone particularly well at your club, at least on the sidelines, when your coach of the century has been canned three times. And what does this say about Middendorp? He sounds like a jilted lover who is constantly dumped but cannot help himself in going back for more. Not that we haven’t seen this in Europe before. World football: what have you done for me lately now?

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Category: Bundesliga