Jürgen Kramny has officially been handed the role of VfB Stuttgart head coach on a permanent basis until 2017, the club announced on Sunday.
Promising first few games
The recent up-turn in results would have been a massive factor in the board's decision to give him the role on a permanent basis. Despite being thrashed 4-1 by Borussia Dortmund in the first game of his reign, the Swabians are now unbeaten in their last four games. Kramny picked up draws against Werder Bremen and 1. FSV Mainz 05 before going on to beat Eintracht Braunschweig in the DFB-Pokal and, most impressive of all, took down VfL Wolfsburg at the weekend.
That all meant that Stuttgart ended the year outside of the bottom two, and also the relegation play-off place, having been stuck there for the majority of Alexander Zorniger's reign. Speaking on his appointment, Kramny was extremely pleased to continue his progression with the club: "Of course, for me, this commitment is something special because I have been connected to the club for a very long time. I was already a youth player here, I turned pro here and was recently active as a youth coach."
Dutt - Development speaks for itself
Sporting director Robin Dutt also gave his thoughts on the news, "The development of the team in recent weeks speaks for itself. It has maintained a certain stability. We enjoyed the previous work of the newly-formed-trainer team, which will continue to work in this way [with Kramny]."
Kramny's first action as coach of Stuttgart will be gathering the players back in for pre-season training on January 4th. They'll travel to their usual destination of Belek, Turkey, for their pre-season training camp. After nine days in the heat, the team will return home and continue their preparation for first game of the Rückrunde; they travel to 1. FC Köln on January 23.