Stuttgart hire Jos Luhukay as new head coach, sack Dutt

Just days after Stuttgart demoted Jürgen Kramny, the club have found a new head coach. Dutchman Jos Luhukay has agreed a two-year deal with Stuttgart, as they seek to bounce straight back after their first relegation in 39 years.

Luhukay is a promotion expert, having guided Gladbach, Hertha Berlin and Augsburg into the Bundesliga.

The new Stuttgart head coach "knows the challenges the club faces in the weeks and months ahead and made it clear he wanted to work for Stuttgart," said Stuttgart's marketing and sales manager Jochen Röttgermann, who made the announcement in place of sporting director Robin Dutt, who was dimissed earlier in the day.

According the chairman of the supervisory board Martin Schäfer, Dutt was dismissed after "intensive talks" led the club to feel "the departure from Dutt was the right decision Stuttgart needed to make the necessary rebuild possible."

Dutt himself said "the health of the club was the most important thing", before adding that differences of opinion about how the club should be reconstructed were the reason for his departure.

The club are now without a sporting director and a chairman after Bernd Wahler stepped down after the club were relegated.