Fürth coach Heiko Vogel: Looking for the old identity

Heiko Vogel has only been in office for two weeks, but at this moment he almost sounds like a coach who is up to his neck in a deep crisis and has to fear the worst. Or is the impression misleading?

It’s Thursday afternoon. SpVgg Greuther Fürth will be guests in Düsseldorf two days later at the end of the year and will lose 1:2. But now Vogel is still full of hope and confidence to win. In his first two games as Fürth coach, his team overcame no fewer than four deficits and drew twice. So a start has already been made.

Before the Düsseldorf game, Vogel, 50, sits on the podium in the media room of the Fürth stadium, the camera is rolling. The main focus now is on the recurring defensive problems and the recent 3-3 draw against Hertha BSC. “We didn’t defend at all. We just stood there – and that can’t be tolerated,” says Vogel, “the whole coaching team can think as they want: the situation requires us to run with it.” Are these words that reveal the first signs of powerlessness?

Vogel is not just any coach and Fürth is not just any second division team. No club in Germany has collected as many points in the basement of the Bundesliga in its history as the Franconians. And Vogel took his first steps as a coach at no less a club than FC Bayern. In Munich he only worked in the youth sector for nine and a half years, and later for another three and a half. During this time he had to deal with Philipp Lahm and Thomas Müller, with Pep Guardiola and Uli Hoeneß. They are names from the big world of football. And he, Heiko Vogel, wanted to go there too.

In 2012 he won the Swiss Cup with Basel and the championship by 20 points. “I was 35, was thrown into the deep end and swam,” he says today, calling his time in Switzerland “phenomenal” and “a great success story.”

44 goals conceded – ten more than bottom-placed Dresden

Now, in the Fürth media room, when asked, Vogel explains: There is no powerlessness. As a coach, he “gives the players solutions,” but “when it comes to duels, I have to win duels. No coaching team can help.”

Defense is a key issue because Fürth have conceded 44 goals in their first 17 games: ten more than bottom-placed Dynamo Dresden, the team with the second most goals conceded. The number is exorbitantly high and raises serious doubts as to whether the team, despite all the individual quality in attack, is up to the second division.

Things haven’t gotten noticeably better under Vogel; Fürth conceded seven goals in the first three games. And these statistics, which makes it precarious, are just symptoms. If you want to put it bluntly, you could say: the goals conceded only provide the visible images of the chaos in the background into which the club plunged into in October 2024.

For years, Fürth stood for the attributes that are also said of Heidenheim or Freiburg: continuity, calm, clever and far-sighted work in the niche. That was the image that Football Germany had of Fürth when Rachid Azzouzi was still running the business. But in the fall of 2024, the sports director had to leave out of the blue. Coach Alexander Zorniger was also placed on leave as a result – a change that shocked the entire club. The prevailing opinion in the area is that Fürth has not yet recovered from it.

After the press conference, Vogel sits in a side room. He wears a black training jacket with his initials on the chest: “HV”. The clothes say: He, bird, is here to lend a hand. The only question is: Can he actually change anything in Fürth?

He is already the fifth coach in the past 14 months. After separating from Zorniger, Leonhard Haas failed to turn things around, as did Jan Siewert and Thomas Kleine. Now Vogel has taken on the task of getting Fürth back on track as the next coach.

“During this phase we lost some of our identity,” says managing director Schwiewagner

The gaming association has “left its path,” said Holger Schwiewagner at the general meeting in November. After Azzouzi’s departure, he remained as sole managing director. The pandemic and the second promotion to the first division in 2021 were the starting point of all evil, said Schwiewagner: “During this phase, we lost some of our identity and took increased risks in the sporting area with our eyes open.”

But doesn’t the question arise as to why he supported this decision? And wasn’t it the case that Fürth had only changed course in terms of signing 18 and 19 year olds from now on instead of loaning out 20 or 21 year olds – knowing full well that this would require time and patience?

Schwiewagner was also responsible for this change of course at the time, but then he suddenly released Azzouzi and Zorniger and added two senior employees to his own club, who gave Fürth a face nationwide. And with the double leave of absence, Schwiewagner himself sent the message between the lines that he had nothing to do with the change of course. The fans have long since seen through this maneuver. In the Ronhof sports park, some of them have been chanting: “Schwiewagner out” in recent weeks.

Stephan Fürstner, a player from Fürth’s promotion team in 2012, has been the sports director since November 2024. It was a touch of football romance to bring Fürstner back and later provide him with Thomas Kleine as a coach. At that time, both had achieved the greatest success in the club’s history together, but neither could prove that they could do justice to their role off the pitch. Kleine was released at the end of November and replaced by Vogel. And how well thought-out can Fürstner’s squad planning have been when Fürth sits under the Christmas tree as second to last in the table?

The fact that Heiko Vogel has now taken a seat in the coaching chair could give the impression that two needy people have found each other. Here is the playing association, where things have gone awry – and there is Vogel, who was without a club for two years. “Of course,” says Vogel, “you also worry about whether you’ll be called again. It’s human to ask yourself the question. But I put it aside relatively quickly.”

When he stepped onto the pitch in Fürth for the first time, he felt “a childlike joy”. You’d think his eyes would light up when he said that. The only question is: How long can he keep this joy – now that he has found a place at SpVgg Greuther Fürth?