On Sunday, Karlsruher SC announced that they had relieved head coach, Tomas Oral from his duties. Lukas Kwasniok will take over in the interim.

The decision comes just two days after the Wildparkstadion outfit had been beaten 2-1 at home by SpVgg Greuther Fürth.

His assistant, Bernd Winter has also departed the club. This followed less than 72 hours after Oliver Kreuzer had been installed as the new sporting director.

Underperforming from the start of the season

Oral was announced as Karlsruhe boss during the last campaign while still at FSV Frankfurt. Unfortunately for him, he was not able to see out his tenure there either.

The club eventually ended up relegated to 3. Liga, and things have not got any better for the former Frankfurt boss.

Karlsruhe now sit 16th - in the promotion-relegation play-off spot - after a weekend that saw wins for 1860 Munich and Arminia Bielefeld drag them down the table.

His replacement is the current under-19 boss, although he hasn't found too much luck in charge of the KSC youngsters who sit 12th in A-Junioren Bundesliga Süd/Südwest.

Kwasniok now has the reins for the final two games of 2016, as Karlsruhe take on Dynamo Dresden and Eintracht Braunschweig. A true baptism of fire for the 35-year-old.

Time's up. Oral's short stint in charge of KSC is over. | Image credit: Karlsruher SC
Time's up. Oral's short stint in charge of KSC is over. | Image credit: Karlsruher SC

The club bosses have their say

Speaking to the club website, Kreuzer said: "The sporting situation has got worse again after the defeat to Greuther Fürth and the results of our competition at the weekend."

He added, "Therefore we acted and want to bring a new impetus with the change of coach."

Club president, Ingo Wellenreuther explained what comes next, "Our sporting director is tasked with creating a profile for the new head coach, to select a suitable personality."

The president concluded, "The new head coach is to be presented at the beginning of January, before the start of training in the Rückrunde."

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About the author
Jonathan Walsh
SoccerSight IFA commentator. VAVEL deputy editor-in-chief/VAVEL Bundesliga editor-in-chief and writer. Email: [email protected]