18.09.2017 14:08 h

Wolfsburg fire head coach Andries Jonker

Andries Jonker became the first Bundesliga head coach to be sacked this season when Wolfsburg relieved him of his duties on Monday after taking four points from as many games.

The 54-year-old Dutchman only took charge in February, when he quit as boss of Arsenal's youth academy, and managed to keep Wolfsburg up last season, but Saturday's 1-0 defeat at VfB Stuttgart proved to be the last straw.

Jonker's entire backroom staff, including assistant coach and Arsenal legend Fredrik Ljungberg, have also been fired.

The new coach, who both magazine Kicker and Sky Sports News claim will be ex-Mainz coach Martin Schmidt, is expected to take his first session on Monday afternoon ahead of Tuesday's Bundesliga match at home to Werder Bremen.

Then follows a tough away match at Bayern Munich on Friday.

"We have two difficult games ahead of us this week, but we didn't want to implement a caretaker solution, rather install a new head-coach with immediate effect," explained director of sport Olaf Rebbe.

A statement by Wolfsburg's supervisory board said they felt the team's development had stagnated.

"Decisive for us in taking this step was not just the impression made upon us during the game against Stuttgart, but rather based upon the perception of stagnated development amongst the team, which was to a great extent newly formed during the summer," said Wolfsburg's board.

"We expressly wish to thank Andries Jonker and his coaching staff, for rescuing VfL's position in the top-flight at the last minute at the end of last season."