Borussia Mönchengladbach's Urgent Search for a New Coach

Borussia Mönchengladbach are searching for a new coach with the clock already ticking loudly in the background.

According to Bild, sporting director Rouven Schröder has around four million euros at his disposal to solve the problem on the bench. That sum gives Gladbach room to move for a coach who is still under contract elsewhere. A compensation fee will not scare the Foals off if they are convinced they have found the right man.

One of the leading names is Brian Priske of Sparta Prague. The Danish newspaper Tipsbladet reports that the 49-year-old is high on Gladbach’s shortlist. Details of Priske’s contract length in Prague remain unclear, but that uncertainty is unlikely to deter a club that knows it may have to negotiate a way out of an existing deal.

Priske is far from the only option. Bild also links Alexander Blessin, most recently at St. Pauli, Horst Steffen of SV Werder Bremen, Christian Eichner of Karlsruher SC and Steffen Baumgart of Union Berlin with the vacancy. It is a mixed field: tacticians with different profiles, but all with experience of German football’s pressure cooker.

The search is being driven by more than one hand. Alongside Schröder, his predecessor Roland Virkus is also working on the shortlist. Since July, Virkus has been operating within the Scouting & Recruitment directorate, focusing specifically on “coach scouting”. His knowledge of the market and of Gladbach’s internal structures gives the process an extra layer of continuity at a time when results on the pitch are anything but stable.

One name on the list would bring a very particular edge back to the touchline: Steffen Baumgart. Before his current spell in Berlin and his time at HSV, Baumgart stood on the other side of the Rhine derby divide. He coached Gladbach’s arch-rivals 1. FC Köln, and he did it with impact. In his first season, he led the Billy Goats to a remarkable seventh place in the Bundesliga and into the Conference League. The run lasted 98 competitive matches before a sporting slump led to a parting of ways in December 2023.

His Köln past would not disqualify him in Gladbach. Quite the opposite. Decision-makers see in Baumgart the kind of profile they now crave: a coach hardened by setbacks, used to turbulent environments, and unafraid of big expectations. It is also said that he has already dealt intensively with Gladbach as an opponent. He would not need weeks of video study to understand the squad, the patterns, the weaknesses. He knows them.

And the situation is urgent. After just three matchdays, the Foals are already in deep trouble. Gladbach sit 17th in the Bundesliga table, still on zero points, with a goal difference of 3:12. Only HSV are worse, goalless and stranded at 0:12. The latest blow was a brutal one: a 0:5 collapse at SC Freiburg, a performance that stripped away any remaining optimism and ultimately cost coach Eugen Polanski his job.

Polanski, 40, had initially stepped in as interim coach last season after the dismissal of Gerardo Seoane. Even then, his position was fragile. He went into the new campaign under scrutiny, promoted to head coach but still needing to prove he could lift a drifting side. Across 29 matches in charge, he managed an average of just 1.10 points. The Freiburg debacle turned a worrying trend into an intolerable one.

Now the responsibility lies with Schröder and Virkus to find the right successor, quickly and decisively. The money is there. The shortlist is drawn up. What Gladbach cannot afford, sitting second from bottom with their confidence shredded, is another misstep on the bench.