Borussia Mönchengladbach's Urgent Search for a New Head Coach
Borussia Mönchengladbach are already staring into the abyss – and it’s only matchday three. The search for a new head coach has become urgent, and this time the club are prepared to pay for the right man.
According to Bild, sporting director Rouven Schröder has a budget of around four million euros to fill the vacant dugout. That figure changes the market. Gladbach will not shy away from a compensation payment if it secures their preferred candidate.
One name keeps circling to the top: Brian Priske of Sparta Prague. The Danish coach is, according to Tipsbladet, high on Gladbach’s shortlist. The exact length of the 49-year-old’s contract in Prague remains unclear, but with money available and pressure rising, that uncertainty is unlikely to scare the Foals off.
Priske is not alone on the list. Bild also links Alexander Blessin, most recently at St. Pauli, Horst Steffen of SV Werder Bremen, Christian Eichner of Karlsruher SC and Steffen Baumgart, currently at Union Berlin, with the job. It is not just Schröder combing through the options. His predecessor Roland Virkus, now working in the Scouting & Recruitment department in the area of “coach scouting”, is heavily involved in drawing up and refining the shortlist.
Baumgart, in particular, would bring a certain edge. The cap, the touchline energy, the blunt honesty – everyone in the Bundesliga knows what he stands for. And everyone in Gladbach knows exactly where he was most recently employed before Union: at arch-rivals 1. FC Köln.
From 2021, Baumgart turned the Billy Goats into a snarling, front-foot side. In his first season, he dragged Köln to a sensational seventh place, booking a ticket to the Conference League. Ninety-eight competitive matches later, the story was over. In December 2023, after a sporting downturn, club and coach went their separate ways, ending a spell that had re-energised both team and fanbase.
That Köln past would not disqualify him in Gladbach. Quite the opposite. Inside the club, Baumgart is seen as a coach who has lived through turbulence, handled setbacks and kept a dressing room together under pressure. Decision-makers also like one very specific detail: he has already dealt intensively with Gladbach as an opponent. He knows the squad, the patterns, the weaknesses. He would not need weeks of video study just to get up to speed.
Time is a luxury Gladbach do not have.
Three games into the new Bundesliga season, the table makes grim reading. Gladbach sit 17th, on zero points, with a goal difference of 3:12. Only HSV are worse off, still goalless at 0:12. The latest blow came in Freiburg, where Borussia collapsed in a 0:5 defeat at SC Freiburg – a performance so alarming it sealed the fate of coach Eugen Polanski.
Polanski’s story at Gladbach had always felt like a tightrope act. The 40-year-old initially stepped in as interim coach last season after Gerardo Seoane’s dismissal. Even before the new campaign kicked off, there were murmurs about whether he was the long-term solution. Promoted to head coach, he collected an average of just 1.10 points over 29 matches. The Freiburg humiliation turned doubt into a decision.
Now the club must get the next call right. A four-million-euro budget, a shortlist packed with contrasting profiles, a squad low on confidence and a fanbase on edge – the ingredients are clear. The only question is which coach will dare to walk into a dressing room sitting 17th, with 3:12 on the board, and try to turn the Foals back into a force.
