The Season of Peters
Following Thomas Tuchel’s departure, Dortmund pivoted away from former Mainz managers and turned their attention internationally. There was one manager, Peter Bosz, who had gained more than a decade of experience managing smaller Dutch teams before making the jump first to Maccabi Tel Aviv and then to Ajax, the pinnacle of Dutch football management, even leading them to a Europa League final, losing to Manchester United. Dortmund looked at his gradual rise to success and felt BVB was his next logical destination. He could bring what he’s learned and apply it to a larger stage with more significant resources. However, the Bosz-BVB pairing was far from romantic.
With just eight wins, seven draws, nine losses, and zero UEFA Champions League group stage wins, Bosz was sacked before the winter break. His replacement for the season was one of the most unexpected picks in Peter Stöger.
Stöger is an outlier in this article, as he was never intended to be ‘the next Jürgen Klopp.’ Peter Stöger was a stop-gap trainer, through and through. Stöger was well-known in the Bundesliga, having been the manager for FC Köln for over four years, including this same season. In this particular term, the 2017-18 season, Stöger was sacked by Köln in December after accumulating only three points from fourteen matches. A week after his dismissal, Stöger was named head coach of Borussia Dortmund until the end of the season.
Stöger was never going to achieve greatness with Borussia Dortmund. Still, he stabilized the team (arguably better than Kovač is doing). He also managed to finish fourth, qualifying for the UEFA Champions League on the final match day, having brought the team up four places from eighth.
Unlike Tuchel, Stöger is remembered for how well he gets along with those he works with. He’s a class act, and he even attended a fundraiser for disabled youth hosted by FC Köln the night after the club sacked him. Stöger was meant to be a stabilizer, and that’s what he did. But he was never going to stay longer than summer.