BERLIN: Borussia Moenchengladbach head coach Dieter Hecking will step down at the end of this season, the club announced on Tuesday.
"We will go into the 2019/20 season with a new head coach," the club announced in a statement on its website.
Hecking, 54, has won just one of his last seven games in charge of Gladbach, in a run of poor form which has seen them drop out of the top four.
He said that he had been informed of the club's decision on Monday, two days after a humiliating 3-1 defeat to local rivals Fortuna Duesseldorf.
"I was very disappointed yesterday, and I still am today," he said at a press conference on Tuesday.
"As a coach, you know that there will be days when everything looks great and the sun is shining. Today is a rainy day."
Hecking has been in charge of Gladbach since December 2016, and led them to ninth-place finishes in each of his first two seasons.
After some brilliant early-season performances, Gladbach had spent much of the current campaign in the top three, but a recent run of bad form has seen them drop to fifth.
Yet Gladbach sporting director Max Eberl insisted that the decision had been made with the club's long term strategy in mind, rather than on the basis of bad results.
"It was very, very hard for me to inform Dieter of our decision," he said.
Eberl refused to speculate on who would replace Hecking at the end of the season amid reports that Red Bull Salzburg coach Marco Rose may be in line to take the reins.
"I have an idea in the back of my mind, clearly," said Eberl.
"We are in talks, but there is no final agreement yet. We will let you know when we have an announcement to make."
In the meantime, Hecking will stay at Gladbach for the last seven games of the season as the club bid to get back into the top four.
"I would be very happy if I could leave the club in the Champions League," he said.
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