René Wagner has chance to clinch Cologne job full-time
Then Cologne assistant coach Rene Wagner is pictured during the team's photo session at Geissbockheim. Rolf Vennenbernd/dpa Cologne interim coach René Wagner looks poised to be able to win the job full-time if he keeps the club in the Bundesliga. Lukas Kwasniok was sacked on Sunday after a 3-3 derby draw at home to Borussia Mönchengladbach left the Billy Goats fourth-bottom and on a winless run of seven games.
They are two points above the relegation play-off spot and five above the automatic drop zone with seven games left. Assistant coach Wagner was handed the reins ahead of a two-week international break before Cologne's next game at Eintracht Frankfurt. But it now transpires the board may not look elsewhere.
"If I didn't have that thought, we wouldn't have decided like this," sporting director Thomas Kessler told reporters on Monday. "We have complete confidence in René. I am absolutely convinced by his technical expertise.
He is a very smart person. " The former assistant boss at Union Berlin and SV Hamburg will be backed up by the experienced Armin Reutershahn, 66, who previously managed in the top flight with Nuremberg and was an assistant at several clubs. The twice Bundesliga champions are aiming to avoid an eighth drop in club history.
They were promoted from the second tier last term despite a merry-go-round of coaches towards the end of the campaign. Kwasniok was brought in after impressing at second-tier Paderborn, but media reports said players and fans never warmed to him.