-
News
- 1 hour ago
The craziest sacking of the season: 'Shocked' manager breaks silence
5 min read
News
Former RC Lens boss Dino Toppmoller has lifted the lid on his bizarre sacking last month, which came just five games after his side beat PSG to win the French Supercup.
The German has had a rather strange 2026. For Toppmoller, the year began in the worst possible fashion as he was relieved of his duties by Eintracht Frankfurt in January. He had led them into the Champions League via the Bundesliga for the first time in club history the previous season.
However, halfway through 2025/26, it was clear that change was needed. The club had failed to adequately replace strikers Omar Marmoush and Hugo Ekitike in the previous two transfer windows, while they also suffered from huge defensive problems.
While Toppmoller wasn't solely to blame for Frankfurt's decline - previously successful sporting director Markus Krosche lost his Midas touch, too - his sacking became inevitable when there was no sign of genuine improvement.
In the summer, he replaced Pierre Sage at RC Lens following the Frenchman's move to Crystal Palace. The footsteps he left behind were huge, considering that he had won the Coupe de France and finished runners-up to PSG the previous season.
From hero to pariah in six games
Toppmoller hit the ground running in the industrial heart of France. In his very first match in charge of Lens, he outsmarted PSG to win the Trophee des Champions.
He also won his Ligue 1 debut and oversaw a stunning comeback in Lens' first Champions League fixture of the season. That said, results in the league weren't entirely satisfactory. Two defeats were followed by a draw with Le Mans.
After just six games, Toppmoller had reached the end of the road - but it had nothing to do with performances on the pitch. On the contrary, the day before his exit, he was being praised by the club hierarchy for winning a point against Le Mans with a shorthanded, young team.
Instead, he was sacked because of internal politics. When Toppmoller took over, he agreed to a major concession. The club wanted to keep their own staff, so the 45-year-old agreed to take only two of his assistants with him.
One of them, Nelson Morgado, quickly became a thorn in the other staff members' side. He was deemed too demanding. The club therefore told Toppmoller that they were planning to sack Morgado.
However, the German did not accept this, which is understandable given that he had already been forced into a major compromise just to have Morgado by his side. Consequently, the club decided to sack both, although it was later framed as a mutual parting of ways.
In terms of the weirdest and harshest sackings of the season, this will take some topping this season, and Toppmoller has now broken his silence on how exactly things went down.
Speaking on the Spielmacher podcast, the 45-year-old confirmed that he was indeed fired because of his protection of Morgado and admitted that this came as a major "shock" to him.
"Of course, at first, it's a huge disappointment and a shock," he began. "As a coach, when you start at a new club, you have to invest a lot [of time and energy] in the people, in the transmission of your philosophy. This is one of the most draining aspects.
"Once you get the ball rolling, everything becomes easier. The results were good, the mood was good, there was an immediate connection with the fans... To then be confronted with the fact that you get shown the door for wanting your assistant to continue is absurd.
"I never once thought about dropping someone who hadn't done anything wrong. I'm glad that I can still look at myself in the mirror after this, even if it means no longer being on the sidelines."
Regarding the specifics of what happened, Toppmoller went back to his earlier comment about "investing a lot." He and his assistants were very "thorough" in trying to transmit his ideas and "demanding" of the club staff, none more so than Morgado.
"Nelson Morgado exemplified our approach from eight in the morning until eight in the evening. He demanded high standards of the other staff, which resulted in a clash of cultures and differing views on work ethic.
"I'm not saying that the others didn't want to work. But we wanted them to show more energy to reinvigorate the place. When you are coming off a successful season, you run the risk of getting too comfortable, so we went into the job with the highest demands.
"That was the main reason why the club hierarchy approached me and told me that they wanted to part ways with Mr Morgado. That was an overreach into my area of responsibility that I just couldn't accept."
His sacking came out of the blue. While he had noticed some tension between Morgado and the other staff, he did not think that it was anything out of the ordinary. He had been at many clubs before, and the occasional difference of opinion between staff members was to be expected.
On the morning of Monday, 14 September, he had his usual phone call with Lens' sporting director, who requested a meeting with him later that day. He arrived at six in the evening and was surprised to find not only the sporting director but also the managing director.
However, he had no idea what was about to hit him. "I did not suspect a thing, not at all," he recalled. "Then they told me that he [Morgado] was not good for the energy of the group. He was too demanding, too loud, rubbed too many people the wrong way, and they wanted to sack him.
"Obviously, at first I was shocked and speechless. Then I made it clear that I wouldn't countenance that and asked them what would happen next. They told me that this step [sacking Morgado] was non-negotiable and that they would have to get rid of me too if I didn't accept it.
"They were actually content with the work we were doing, but they viewed him as problematic for staff chemistry and wanted to make a change. They really wanted me to continue without him."
Toppmoller insisted that the two-hour conversation with his higher-ups was very "amicable" and that they tried to "convince" him that he would be better off without Morgado. However, even after sleeping on it, he refused to let his assistant go.
What stunned him was the fact that there had been no previous instruction from his bosses to rein Morgado in. That's why he believed the clashes between his assistant and the club-appointed staff were not actually a big deal.
In the end, these clashes, with which he had nothing to do, cost him his job.
