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Thousands of hooded yobs besieged the club's VIP area on Saturday night, making threats, demanding to see the management. What would have been an all-too-familiar sight in London's West End took the VfB Stuttgart authorities by total surprise. Unfortunately, they didn't have a clipboard bitch or velvet rope to hand, so they called in the riot police instead: only Swabia's boys in green stood between the baying mob and the club's leadership outside the Mercedes-Benz Arena.
"Fucking millionaires," the supporters were screaming, and "board out!". A hardcore element reportedly shouted "we'll kill you if you go down", while others took the opportunity to widen their protest: cries of "fucking government, fucking Daimler, fucking police state" were overheard, too. Inside, the bosses knew that only blood would pacify the crowd. The manager Markus Babbel, who had been given a guarantee that he would be allowed to continue until the winter break only last week, duly bit the bullet. Yesterday, the sporting director Horst Heldt announced the 37-year-old's departure "by mutual consent".
Another depressingly drab 1-1 draw with lowly VfL Bochum that left Stuttgart in 16th place with 12 meagre points had made this outcome inevitable. But Babbel could nevertheless bemoan a sizeable amount of random misfortune. His side, who lost the midfielders Zdravko Kuzmanovic and Thomas Hitzlsperger with injuries before the break and had played unbelievably bad stuff, were somehow leading 1-0 thanks to Serdar Tasci's header until the 89th minute. Then Christian Fuchs, a classic war-hog-type player who you'd never in a million years associate with a bit of technique, stepped up and curled an exquisite free-kick into Jens Lehmann's top corner.
Babbel's time on the bench was up that very moment, and he knew it. Even the influential pro-Babbel faction on the board could no longer support the former Liverpool and Bayern player in the wake of this result. After getting everything instinctively right when he took over from Armin Veh a year ago, Babbel got nearly everything wrong in his first full season in charge. Too apparent was his inexperience, his inability to turn the situation around: the man who started out as the players' friend and all-round nice guy could not and would not transform himself into a believable hard man. Taking the armband off Thomas Hitzlsperger and cancelling Lehmann's privileges last week were half-hearted, ill-advised measures that didn't address the real problems.
For a few hours on Sunday morning, Heldt was rumoured to be on his way out as well. The sporting director plays the media game well but his expensive transfers, especially the Russian striker Pavel Pogrebnyak, have been slow to settle. Babbel made the situation worse by adopting a radical rotation policy in August, a strategy that prevented any sort of consistency from emerging and underestimated the troubling dichotomy at the heart of the side. "Unfortunately, this Stuttgart is the only team in the world who don't show normal form," wrote Süddeutche Zeitung. "They're either very good or very bad."
According to Der Spiegel, "the talented Mr Babbel" was also to some extent a victim of German bureaucracy. Forced to do his management badges in Cologne by the German FA, Babbel was too often away from his team. One leading player admitted they had had only one training session devoted to attacking moves all season.
Unusually, Babbel was allowed to speak at a farewell press conference on Sunday. It was an impressive departure, completely devoid of self-pity. "We realised that those in charge had to act now, because the results were not good enough," he admitted. "We reached a point where it could not go on."
Babbel didn't blame anyone but himself for his sacking but he did have some harsh and heartfelt words about the fans who had attacked the team bus before the game, refused to support the team during the match and protested outside the ground after the final whistle. "We've had two 19-year-old players on the pitch today and they were scared. Even so-called football millionaires don't deserve to be threatened with murder and to be confronted with all this naked, angry hate. In the light of Robert Enke's tragic death last month we all pledged togetherness. I thought we had all learned from that. But when I see the events of Saturday night, it was all a sham. Those people haven't learned anything."
Caving in to the anger of self-appointed "real fans" certainly sets a dangerous precedent. A few months ago, Bochum supporters forced out the manager Marcel Koller in similar fashion. You could argue that this is a direct form of democracy at work but these look more like the first skirmishes in a wider battle for control. If the Bundesliga is not careful, it could all get very ugly.
In the meantime, the ex-Spurs disaster Christian Gross has been brought in to save Stuttgart from relegation and guide them to the last 16 of the Champions League with a win over Unirea Urziceni on Wednesday night. "I want to have success, I don't like grey areas," said the 55-year-old. He's definitely at the right club as far as the second part of this statement goes. With Stuttgart, "up" is never the only way. "I won't say it can't get any worse any more now," said Hitzlsperger on Saturday. "Because that's what I said six weeks ago."
Talking points
• Three 0-0 draws from top teams Leverkusen, Bremen, Hamburg and Hoffenheim made Bayern one of the biggest winners of weekend. The gnus and elephants playing football before the World Cup draw in Cape Town showed more poise than the Bayern midfield against Gladbach and it took a lucky free-kick from Holger Badstuber to secure all three points. The 2-1 win – enough to see them climb to fourth spot – was really only notable for the "hole-in-one" celebration routine after Mario Gómez's opener. Bayern are much more likely to get clubbered by Juventus on Tuesday, however, unless they raise their game dramatically.
• That serial wind-up-merchant Maik Franz (Frankfurt) was shown the finger by his opponent Aristide Bancé (Mainz) on Saturday. "He insulted my father and my mother and called me a dirty ****," claimed the striker. Franz denies making racist comments: "My ethical and moral ideas wouldn't allow it." The FA will investigate.
• TSV 1860's 1-0 away win at Oberhausen in the second division on Sunday night was overshadowed by suspicious movements in the betting market. A few minutes before kick-off, the German FA informed both teams that their early-warning systems had shown up irregular activity and that the match would be subjected to special observation. Nothing unusual happened, apart from the decisive goal: the ball bounced off the shoulder of the Oberhausen defender Marinko Miletic into his own team's net.
Results: Bayern 2–1 Gladbach, Leverkusen 0–0, Hamburg 0–0 Hoffenheim, Köln 0–0 Bremen, Dortmund 4–0 Nürnberg, Wolfsburg 2–2 Freiburg, Stuttgart 1–1 Bochum, Schalke 2–0 Hertha, Hannover 0–0 Leverkusen, Frankfurt 2–0 Mainz.'The talented Mr Babbel' another victim of direct democracy, Bundesliga-style
He's a top guy and it sounds as if he's been unfortunate there.
Too many young managers, typically ex players, are taking up too high profile jobs too quickly. I can understand the temptation but it's surely better to learn your trade first.
Chairmen really need to learn this.
