Stuttgart
December 30, 2010Swabia, the region of Germany where Stuttgart is located, is known for the frugality and keen business sense of its inhabitants, and the club conforms to that stereotype. Aliaksandr Hleb, Mario Gomez, Sami Khedira, and now Christian Träsch are some of the players the club has shipped out when the price was right and salary demands threatened to get too high.
They've done surprisingly well with that policy in the past decade, but a penchance for firing coaches who go on a bad run (which seems to happen on a yearly basis) threatens to unsettle the club. Many hope Coach Bruno Labbadia will bring the merry-go-round to a halt, but his past - five coaching jobs in eight years - says otherwise.
Fun fact: In 2007, Stuttgart won their final eight games - and a surprise Bundesliga title.
Author: Jefferson Chase
Editor: Matt Hermann