Borussia Mönchengladbach are searching for a saviour, and they know it will cost.
According to Bild, sporting director Rouven Schröder has been handed a coaching budget of around four million euros, a clear signal from the hierarchy that they are prepared to pay compensation to prise the right man out of his current job. This is not a bargain hunt. It is an emergency operation.
Priske tops a crowded shortlist
At the top of Gladbach’s list sits Brian Priske of Sparta Prague. The Danish coach, 49, has impressed enough for Tipsbladet to report that he ranks highly among the Foals’ preferred candidates. The exact length of his contract in Prague remains unclear, which only adds a layer of intrigue to any potential approach. What is clear: Gladbach would not shy away from a fee if they decide he is the man to arrest the slide.
Priske is far from the only name in the frame. Bild also links Alexander Blessin, most recently at St. Pauli, Horst Steffen of SV Werder Bremen, Christian Eichner from Karlsruher SC and Steffen Baumgart, currently at Union Berlin, with the vacancy. It is a diverse list, blending up-and-comers with hardened Bundesliga operators.
Schröder is not working alone. His predecessor, Roland Virkus, is heavily involved, now operating within the club’s Scouting & Recruitment directorate in the specialised area of “coach scouting.” He knows the market, and he knows the club’s fault lines. Together, they are sifting through the candidates, searching for the right profile: resilient, experienced, and ready to walk straight into a storm.
One name, in particular, would bring an unmistakable edge.
Baumgart: from Köln cult figure to Gladbach candidate
Steffen Baumgart’s candidacy carries a certain charge. Before his recent spells in Berlin and at HSV, he stood on the other side of the Rhine derby divide, coaching Gladbach’s arch-rivals 1. FC Köln.
With Köln, Baumgart authored a remarkable first season. He dragged the Billy Goats to a sensational seventh place in the Bundesliga, punching a ticket to the Conference League and reviving a club that had flirted too often with disaster. The football was high-octane, emotional, unmistakably his.
The story soured in the end. In December 2023, after a sporting downturn, Baumgart and Köln parted ways, closing a 98-match chapter that had turned him into a cult figure on the touchline. Cap, barked instructions, relentless energy – he became part of the scenery in German football.
His Köln past would not disqualify him in Gladbach’s eyes. Quite the opposite. Decision-makers see a coach who has lived through crises, handled setbacks, and still managed to build something coherent. It is said to count in his favour that he has already studied Gladbach intensively. He would not arrive needing weeks of video work just to understand what is going wrong. He already knows.
Right now, almost everything is going wrong.
A table that tells a brutal truth
After only three matchdays, Gladbach are in deep trouble. No points. A goal difference of 3:12. Seventeenth in the Bundesliga table. Only HSV sit below them, still goalless with a bleak 0:12 record.
The numbers are ugly, but the performance in Freiburg was worse. A 0:5 collapse at SC Freiburg last weekend did more than dent confidence; it sealed the fate of coach Eugen Polanski. The display was alarming, brittle, and devoid of resistance. For the club’s hierarchy, it became the final piece of evidence that change could not be delayed.
Polanski, 40, had already been under the microscope long before this season kicked off. He initially stepped up on an interim basis after the dismissal of Gerardo Seoane, then earned a promotion to head coach. Across 29 matches in charge, he averaged just 1.10 points per game – not catastrophic on paper, but not enough to steady a club with Gladbach’s expectations and history.
The Freiburg defeat turned a nagging concern into a full-blown crisis.
Four million euros and one crucial decision
Now the shortlist lies on the table. Priske, Blessin, Steffen, Eichner, Baumgart – different styles, different temperaments, one shared challenge: dragging a once-proud club away from the trapdoor.
Schröder has his budget. Virkus has his reports. The season, however, will not wait for them. The next coach will walk into a dressing room low on belief, a fanbase on edge, and a league table that already looks unforgiving.
Gladbach wanted evolution after Seoane. What they need now might be revolution. Who gets trusted with that job could define their entire season.
