The breathless 3-3 draw with Mönchengladbach only highlighted the disarray that has cost head coach his job
L
ukas Kwasniok will always be able to say that he led FC Köln in the historic 100th top-flight Rhineland derby against Borussia Mönchengladbach. He will always be able to say that his team fought as hard as the occasion demanded, overcame myriad setbacks and never deserted the cause, or him.
Yet Kwasniok will also have to acknowledge that this was the end; that even a derby as intense as this and everything his team did right in it could not exist in a bubble separately from an increasingly fraught situation in Köln’s season. The writing had felt like it was on the wall for a while and when sporting director Thomas Kessler spoke after the game, it was sprayed in neon capitals. “It was,” Kessler acknowledged after a thrilling 3-3 draw, “a rollercoaster of emotions but ultimately, we have to say that the point isn’t enough today.” As soon as Kessler conceded that final point it wasn’t a case of if but when for Kwasniok.
The news was confirmed early on Sunday evening, with Kessler having promised “to sleep on it.” He had added, however, that “we can all read the table.” The bottom line is that by the time they take the field in Frankfurt following the international break, Effzeh will have won just twice in five months. In that context, it is perhaps a surprise that they are not in the third-bottom relegation playoff place at the very least. And in the thick of a progressively congested battle to stay up, a promising start has given way to the sort of sticky scenario that the club thought they were distancing themselves from.
