Hertha Berlin sack Skibbe after five games
Reuters - Sunday 12 February 2012, 13:50
Hertha Berlin have
fired coach Michael Skibbe after only five games in charge,
all of which his side lost.
The final straw was Saturday's 5-0 defeat at VfB Stuttgart
with four of the goals coming in a disastrous first half.
On Sunday morning, television pictures showed around 200
fans marching through the snow to the club's headquarters to
protest about results.
"After five defeats in a row and the 5-0 thrashing in
Stuttgart, we feel compelled to take this step," general manager
Michael Preetz told a news conference.
Skibbe, 46, had replaced Markus Babbel, the coach who led
them back to the Bundesliga last season and was fired in
December after a public spat over his contract.
"I'm deeply disappointment by the performance we have
delivered," Skibbe said after Saturday's defeat. "The first half
was the worst that I have experienced as a coach.
"It was so bad that I can't find words to describe it."
Hertha have dropped to 15th in the 18-team Bundesliga and
are just two points ahead of Kaiserslautern in the relegation
play-off spot. Four of their defeats under Skibbe came in the
Bundesliga with one in the German Cup.
Skibbe, who began coaching at the age of 22 after a knee
injury cut short his playing career, is the sixth coaching
victim of the Bundesliga season.
He follows Babbel, Marcus Sorg (Freiburg), Michael Oenning
(Hamburg SV), Holger Stanislawski (1899 Hoffenheim) and Ralf
Rangnick, who quit Schalke 04 for health reasons.
It was Skibbe's second Bundesliga firing in less than a year
after he was dismissed by Eintracht Frankfurt last March. In
between, he spent six months at Turkish side Eskisehirspor.