When you're the second biggest team in Germany, have the second or third biggest budget and haven't won a game since September in the league or Champions League, collecting just four of a possible 36 points along the way, you're likely to get the boot. Particularly when it's December and your team still defends as if you took four random reality show contestants who had never met before and were given no particular instructions other than standing as far as away from Roman Burki as possible.

What's curious is the choice to replace him: Peter Stoger. You may recall that Stoger was himself fired by Cologne the week before, with his team last in the Bundesliga and without a win. Not just that, but Cologne had somehow contrived to score six goals in 14 league games.

Now, it's true that Stoger was still popular among fans and reportedly enjoyed the support of the dressing room having achieved a minor miracle in taking the club to ninth and then fifth place in previous seasons. But it's still a remarkable appointment, the sort of thing you feel could only happen in Germany, where thinking outside the box is de rigeur.

Stoger has a deal through the end of the season and then, presumably, Dortmund will reassess. At some point though, you hope that sporting director Michael Zorc and CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke will also assess themselves. They appointed Thomas Tuchel and then ran him out of town. Then they went for Bosz. Now comes Stoger, who leaving aside the highs and lows of his Cologne experience, has never managed a club of this magnitude.