Uli Hoeness not surprised by Marco Rose’s Borussia Dortmund sacking

Despite finishing second behind Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga this season, it was a disappointing 2021/22 campaign for Borussia Dortmund. Exits from both the Champions League and, subsequently, the Europa League, underlined what was another disappointing campaign in terms of trying to close the gap on Bayern at the top of the table and in Europe.

It was just announced at the end of last week that Dortmund and Marco Rose would be parting ways in what came as a shock to some, but not so much for others. For former Bayern club president Uli Hoeness, he had seen the writing on the wall before Rose had officially stepped in as manager, coming from Borussia Monchengladbach. After Lucien Favre had been sacked, Edin Terzic stepped in as interim manager and did quite well under the circumstances, guiding Dortmund to a Champions League qualification spot and securing the DFB-Pokal. With how Terzic was doing with BVB, Hoeness saw Rose’s appointment to the club as an “explosive mixture.”

“I always thought so (Rose/BVB being a bad pair). But (Hans-Joachim) Watzke knew that too. And so it’s not surprising now how it came about. Edin Terzic proved at the end of last season that he can lead the team well. He will certainly have the great support of the fans as well,” Hoeness recently said, responding to the news of Rose parting ways with Dortmund (Sport Bild).

Photo by Martin Rose/Getty Images

Of course, Hoeness’ previous squabbles and disagreements with Watzke and Dortmund’s front office precedes itself, but it looks like his initial feelings of Rose being BVB manager were right. It just didn’t seem to fit right and it showed with the performances on the pitch - not to discredit Rose’s managerial pedigree whatsoever. It could be argued that Dortmund’s issues right now go well beyond the manager and they’ll certainly not be buoyed by losing Erling Haaland to Manchester City, but getting both Niklas Sule and Nico Schlotterbeck will certainly help sure up their back line.

For now, Terzic will take over as manager for the departed Rose. He’ll be on a three-year contract for now, but it remains to be seen if he will last that long or perhaps even get an extension beyond that based on performances.