Hertha Berlin fire coach Bruno Labbadia, long-time sports director

Struggling Hertha Berlin fired coach Bruno Labbadia and long-time sports director Michael Preetz on Sunday, following their 4-1 home loss to Werder Bremen a day earlier that left them in 14th place in the Bundesliga.

Hertha have won one of their last eight league games, having also lost the last two, after pumping in hundreds of millions of pounds through investor Lars Windhorst in recent months.

The experienced Labbadia, who has also worked at VfL Wolfsburg, Hamburg SV and VfB Stuttgart, took over in April last year charged with helping Hertha stay up, which he did.

But this season the 54-year-old has been far from successful for the capital’s biggest club, who are struggling for form.

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Preetz, a former Hertha player who has been with the club for close to 25 years, also paid the price for an unsuccessful squad assembly that has failed to deliver.

“We unfortunately have to record that we managed 17 points from 18 matches and we are stuck in a serious situation,” said club CEO Carsten Schmidt. “That is why we decided after a lot of thought to give a new impulse with a change of coach.”