Leipzig have not worked hard for what they’ve achieved throughout their entire, short history. In a league and a country that prioritises organic success and fan involvement, Leipzig’s energy-drink-backed organisation have none of that. Yet, as hard as it can be to admit, one must say that they’ve had success, they’ve claimed trophies, they’ve played in Europe in each of the last seven seasons, playing in the Champions League in six of them and getting as far as the semi-finals. There are many things you can call the team purely created to sell cans of overly sweet nonsense to people whose tastebuds haven’t developed enough to like coffee yet (most of them swear words), but unsuccessful is not one of those things.
However, there is another team that is run by a company, one whose revenue blows Leipzig’s out of the water. The energy drink firm behind the club made a reported €9.6 billion in 2022, miles behind Volkswagen’s €280 billion. The company are behind the likes of Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, SEAT, Skoda and other major car brands as well as Bundesliga side VfL Wolfsburg. The city of Wolfsburg is one of the few in the Bundesrepublik that was planned, being built in the 1930s for the then-named KdF Wagen*, later known as the Volkswagen Beetle. Volkswagen is literally the only reason for the city’s existence, whilst they didn’t run VfL Wolfsburg from the very start, they are now the sole owners of the side, as they are one of the two remaining clubs exempt from the 50+1 rule.
*Side note: the city of Wolfsburg was originally called ‘Stadt des KdF-Wagens’ (City for KdF-Wagens), which has to be the laziest bit of city naming around. Wolfsburg as a name is much better.
Given this, Wolfsburg should be significantly more successful than Leipzig, and they are in one sense. In the 2008/09 season, Edin Džeko and Grafite would form one of the most iconic pairings in Bundesliga history as they drove the side to the title. Apart from that though, in the 27 seasons that they have been in the top flight, they have made Europe just eight times, ahead of Leipzig, but not by much considering their 19-year head start. They’ve not truly competed for the title since their win and they’ve only won the DFB Pokal once. So why are Wolfsburg underperforming to the extent they are? It’s not a question many will be interested in since it’s Wolfsburg and it’s hard to care about a club that just meander around in the middle of the table, but it’s a question I wanted to answer.
This underachievement hasn’t come out of anywhere, most would say that they’ve been poor since their league title win in 2009, but at the very least, it felt like they had corrected their course when Oliver Glasner took the wheel and steered the side to a fourth-placed finish in the 2020/21 season. They conceded just 37 goals in 34 games, whilst Wout Weghorst’s return of 20 goals would have been more talked about if not for Lewandowski’s 41 goal record-breaking season. Still, this Wolfsburg side had created a strong platform to build on, and future European revenue would no doubt help them in their quest to move up the league. Cracks had already started to show however, Oliver Glasner is a coach who has been known to clash with upper management and Wolfsburg was no different. Fuelled by complaints on transfer activity, he understandably saw the ceiling of what Die Wolfe were willing to do as being 4th place. That’s why in the great managerial reshuffling of 2021 that saw Marco Rose leave Gladbach for Dortmund and Adi Hütter leave Frankfurt for Gladbach, Glasner took the place of Adi with Die Adler.
What’s come since then has felt like mismanagement on all fronts. They spent over €80 million through the 2021/22 season on players including Sebastiaan Bornauw, Luca Waldschmidt, Jonas Wind, Micky van de Ven, and Max Kruse, those signings have been hit and miss but bigger problems were found in the managerial department. Glasner’s replacement was Mark van Bommel, a Bundesliga veteran and proven winner … as a player. As a manager, he had just a brief stint at PSV to his name two years prior. His first game couldn’t have gone much worse, his side beat fourth tier Preußen Münster in extra time, but an ineligible sixth substitution was made in the course of the additional period, leading to Wolfsburg’s disqualification from the competition. Van Bommel was sacked in October with the side 9th in the league on 13 points. When hiring a young manager who’s taking the leap up to a higher level, one should expect teething issues, granted, not normally to the extent that Van Bommel did in the Pokal. Wolfsburg either had that on their mind or were not willing to give the former Bayern man the chance to learn and adapt to managing a Bundesliga side. For what’s it worth, Van Bommel has gone on to have success at Royal Antwerp, claiming a league and cup double in his first season for a side that hadn’t won the Pro League in 66 years.
Wolfsburg’s next two managers probably explain why many struggle to find them interesting. First was Florian Kohfeldt, a man who had just taken Werder Bremen down the year before and someone who had a reputation for playing uninteresting football. Where Van Bommel had 1.44 points per game in his short Wolfsburg stint, Kohfeldt had just 1.16 as Die Wolfe slumped to a 12th-placed finish one year after qualifying for the Champions League. Granted they had lost Wout Weghorst in the summer and struggled to replace him, midseason acquisition Max Kruse scored 7 in 14 (which would have been 17 if he had a full season at that pace), but the defence had taken a notable step back (54 conceded) despite no big names leaving. Kohfeldt though would leave and Volkswagen brought in another name that is connected with football that seeks to win more than it seeks to entertain, Niko Kovač.
If Wolfsburg weren’t going to be patient with an inexperienced manager, one can only assume that they were going to be less patient with one who had won the Bundesliga and Pokal. Kovač was reportedly close to losing his job through September and October, but a run of six straight wins quietened speculation as the side bounced back up the league and finished 8th. They would have finished in the European places too if not for a defeat to already relegated Hertha on the last day.
What’s interesting is that for all the prior reports of Wolfsburg having little patience with their managers, that seems to have vanished this year. Kovač’s wolves currently sit 13th in the table, their 25 points from 24 games is just 1.04 per game, far lower than Kohfeldt and the lowest since the 2016/17 season where the side were forced to compete in the relegation play-off. Maybe it’s the gap between themselves and 16th placed Köln that is enabling the side to be so complacent, baring a disaster the side will not find themselves that low in the table, whilst aiming for anything higher might be seen as a lost cause (Hoffenheim in 7th are 8 points ahead with 10 to go, so a push for Europe is incredibly unlikely regardless). As a side, Wolfsburg are not going to have many fans, the city’s population isn’t massive and the club’s status as a works team exempt from 50+1 isn’t going to draw in outsiders, adding to that though is the lack of interesting football that made people pay attention in 2020/21.
The issue though isn’t just that Wolfsburg hire defensive managers who play uninspiring football, it’s also who they’re signing to play under them. Wolfsburg have spent €193 million over the last three seasons, to put that in perspective, that’s €2 million more than Bayer Leverkusen, €73 million more than Frankfurt, €111 million more than Union Berlin and a whopping €161 million more than Freiburg in the same time span. That despite the fact that all four of them have been considerably better at getting in or near the European places than Wolfsburg. Only Bayern, Dortmund, and Leipzig have spent more in the same period, and yet, it’s genuinely hard to name many Wolfsburg players who have been home-run signings. Bayer Leverkusen have had near-perfect recruitment paired with an amazing manager, Frankfurt have signed the likes of Randal Kolo Muani, Ellyes Skhiri and ironically, former Wolfsburg player Omar Marmoush. Freiburg have primarily relied on a well-functioning youth academy, and Union Berlin saw the likes of Taiwo Awoniyi and Max Kruse have success at the club before moving on for big profit. Wolfsburg don’t have many players who fall into those descriptions, most of their big signings recently have been fine or underwhelming and whilst they’ve had profits from the likes of Felix Nmecha and Micky van de Ven, they didn’t reach the heights whilst in Lower Saxony.
Wolfsburg therefore, despite Volkswagen’s investment in the club being huge, recruit poorly and then get underwhelming managers to play uninteresting football in front of half-empty stadiums. Perhaps the mentality of those funding the club is just not there, Volkswagen needs Wolfsburg to be in the Bundesliga for the advertising that’s associated with that, but to get into Europe regularly would require a complete change in the leadership, the structure of the club, the manager and the squad. That doesn’t look like it’s coming anytime soon, and regardless, it’s not like anyone will be watching anyway.
Going Deutsch 
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