"If it is true that the final decision was between me and Bernd Schuster , you can say that the club (Wolfsburg) turned away from the sort of coaches they hired previously and said , let's try something new ", were the words of Dieter Hecking shortly after he was
appointed the Wolfsburg coach in 2012 by Sporting Director, Klaus Allofs. Nobody gave the then 48-year-old former police officer a chance at the Volkswagen sponsored club as his major achievement before his appointment was winning a Bundesliga promotion with Aachen in 2006.
Allofs had spent years working at Werder Bremen turning the club into one of the best German club sides and it was widely expected he would appoint Thomas Schaaf as the new coach of Wolfsburg after Schaaf's 13 years in-charge of Bremen, but rather it was an unknown Hecking that he appointed. Schaaf had been successful in Bremen winning the Bundesliga once (2003/2004), DFB-Pokal thrice and reaching the finals of the UEFA Cup, before losing to Ukrainian Sharkar Donesk in 2009.
While Wolfsburg won the 2008/2009 Bundesliga under Felix Magath with the perfect striking partnership of Bosnian Eden Dzeko and Brazilian Grafite, the club went downhill in subsequent seasons languishing in relegation positions under various managers. Also , Wolfsburg had such big name managers as Steve McClaren and Felix Magath , so it was surprising when Hecking was appointed from Nuremberg.
Dieter Hecking might be making all the headlines in the German dailies right now and taking all the credit for his work at Wolfsburg but what nobody seems to know is that the former Hannover manager has been in management since 2000 (SC Verl). At 51, it seems that the former German U21 midfielder is in his peak as his team demolished Real Madrid 2-0 in the Champions League quarter-final. While the club has not been consistent in the league this season as they lie outside Champions League qualification places, it is worthy of note that they won the DFB-Pokal last season beating a Borussia Dortmund team coached by Jurgen Klopp. They team also made it to the Europa League quarter-final before been eliminated. This season they saw off the likes of Manchester United, PSV and CSKA Moscow to finish top of their group before soundly beating Belgian Champions Gent, to qualify for the quarter-final of the Champions League . This he did without the services of £55 million rated Belgian attacking midfielder Kelvin De Bruyne , who blossomed under his guidance in less than two years before been sold to Manchester City in the summer. This season to show the progress made by the ex-Nuremberg coach, Wolfsburg beat Bayern Munich in the German SuperCup to start the season with a trophy .
Not only is Hecking getting the needed results while playing attractive football, but also the likes of Richardo Rodriguez, Veirinha, Dos Bast, Benaglio, Guilavogui and Vierinha all seem to be having the best of seasons while the stalling careers of Gustavo, Dante, Naldo and Schurlle seem to be revitalised under his management.
To summarise it, the words of the coach will be vital as he said , " I saw the chance to work with established players who had been around the block a few times and with who I could realise my ideas. That was the challenge, I wanted to find out whether I could deal with players like that , or whether in fact I was sort of a coach who can only help young players make the leap to the Bundesliga", and like a prophet he did make the leap perfectly to a world class coach in his four years In charge. Surely with Hecking in charge at Wolfsburg, the club will only get better judging by present events.
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