Wolfsburg allows Coach McClaren to continue

German Bundesliga club VfL Wolfsburg yesterday held a board meeting to discuss the current situation at the club after a dismal first half of the 2010/11 Bundesliga season. It was expected after Wednesday's terrible German Cup performance against second division Energie Cottbus, which the club lost 1-3, that English coach Steve McClaren would be fired. But the club decided otherwise and at least for the moment McClaren stays on with the north German club.

Since winning the Bundesliga title in 2009 things haven't been going right for Wolfsburg. Last winter Armin Veh had been fired and second team coach Lorenz Guenther Koestner had taken over on an interims basis. And this summer McClaren had joined the club from Dutch side Twente Enschede, who had just won their first ever Eredivisie title under him. But since the start of the league McClaren hasn't been able to form a unit though the club spend close to 40 Million Euros on new recruits like Diego and Simon Kjaer.

After Wednesday's embarrassing defeat McClaren had this to say to the media, "I am disappointed, frustrated. We have problems in the dressing room, problems on the field. We have hit rock bottom."

For now the board stands by their coach and after his statement on Wednesday there are set to be changes in the squad, if not now then surely in the summer. With immediate effect Karim Ziani and Caiuby are no longer part of the team and will train with the second team, maybe they'll be sold off in the winter; while youngsters Akaki Gogia, Kevin Wolze and Michael Schulze join the squad from the second team and Florian Hartherz from the Under-19s for the winter training camp.

McClaren has gotten some more time to mould his own team in Wolfsburg, but one will have to see if the experiment of having an English coach in the German Bundesliga will work. Currently as Bundesliga 13th with only 19 points that simply isn't enough for a team which is backed by Volkswagen and wants to play in Europe.