The day of release was followed by a day of guesswork.

Who is talking to whom now?

Who decides what?

The separation from Florian Kohfeldt raises both hierarchical and uncomfortable questions at VfL Wolfsburg.

Until recently, managing director Jörg Schmadtke and sports director Marcel Schäfer gave the impression that the head coach they had hired was not up for grabs.

On Sunday evening, both undertook a reverse roll – whether voluntarily or remotely.

Kohfeldt will argue with the club management about a severance payment because he was committed until the summer of 2023.

Schmadtke will have to discuss with the supervisory board which new coach fits better than Kohfeldt in a strange situation.

"We regret this development"

Until the very end, the anticipation of further cooperation sounded very honest.

"I want to start planning the new season again as soon as possible": With these words Kohfeldt said goodbye to the team and the fans on Saturday for the planned summer vacation.

The delta between his emotional spirit of optimism and the factual reality at VfL Wolfsburg could hardly have been greater.

After just nine months, Kohfeldt was sent on forced leave from Lower Saxony, which was communicated as an amicable separation.

"We regret this development," Schmadtke said in a press release.

It was the humorless end of a collaboration that the VfL mastermind had campaigned for himself.

The search for peace and a basis for further development takes on increasingly bizarre forms in Wolfsburg.

Since Schmadtke took office in June 2018, things have progressed sportily and even into the Champions League.

His management of VfL Wolfsburg Fußball GmbH was accompanied by unrest and personnel changes.

With the very successful Bruno Labbadia, no agreement was reached on continued employment in 2019.

This also applied to Oliver Glasner, whose successor Mark van Bommel failed early on and was replaced by Kohfeldt in October 2021.

What is new about the recent dismissal of the coach in Wolfsburg is that it is finally not based on personal animosity.

With Kohfeldt, the club management argues, they would have been under pressure from the start of the coming season.

The fear of fresh frustration was therefore greater than the confidence in a successful cooperation.

“I think the performance is too weak for that”

The recent club history of the football company VfL Wolfsburg proves: It always gets restless in the offices on the bank of the Mittelland Canal when the mother ship appears grumbling.

About two weeks ago, Herbert Diess spoke out dissatisfied in his function as CEO of Volkswagen AG.

“Our club is one of the best equipped in Germany.

And I think the performance is too weak for that,” was his verdict on the VW subsidiary that is supposed to draw attention to itself in professional football with work, football and passion.

At least that was the case with the 2-2 win against Munich at the end of the season in front of their own audience. Kohfeldt stood passionately on the outside line and cheered for his players’ duels as if they were great victories.

Little did he know that behind his back the decision had already been made to look for another coach for a supposedly better performance.

Kohfeldt said goodbye to his players on Saturday for summer vacation without knowing that it was his last speech as Wolfsburg head coach.

He became a discontinued model.