The gracious manner in which the 53-year-old accepted responsibility for the club’s worst start in 40 years after ‘listening to my gut’ is unprecedented in the Bundesliga

Nine points from 12 games have made for VfB Stuttgart’s worst start in 40 years but the gracious manner in which Armin Veh has accepted responsibility for the failure is probably unprecedented in the history of the Bundesliga.

The 53-year-old manager resigned late on Sunday after the 1-0 home defeat against Augsburg – courtesy of an early dismissal for Daniel Schwaab and a slightly dubious penalty – and explained to reporters on Monday morning that he was experiencing “one of those spells when things don’t go your way. That’s shit, so it’s better if I’m no longer around.”

Of course, it wasn’t only a “lack of luck,” as Veh gamely argued, that has plunged the Swabians to the bottom of the table. Stuttgart have been woeful in all areas and the much more coherent performances by smaller, less financially powerful, teams – Augsburg, Mainz, Paderborn, Freiburg – have only brought their own shortcomings into even sharper relief.

Veh explicitly denied suffering fatigue in the job – “not the case” – but he did seem tired of suffering unfortunate outcomes week in, week out, without any clear idea about a remedy. “Sometimes you fight and fight but can’t change it,” he said. “I’m listening to my gut,” Veh added, a little bit teary-eyed.

Owning up to managerial impotence is not the done thing in professional football. It’s much easier to wait for the axe to fall, to blame the players and to pocket the compensation for your dismissal. Veh, however, obviously felt too loyal to the club where he had won the championship in 2007 and which effectively kick-started his career at this level. His resignation saved Stuttgart lots of money. “He’s a gentleman,” said the VfB president, Bernd Wahler.

Wahler has veered from crisis to crisis in his 15 months in charge at the Mercedes-Benz Arena. Picking Veh, a coach who was very good at riding a wave of success but has often proved completely unable to solve problems, was a grave mistake – he has obviously underestimated just how poor the team have become in relation to their rivals.

The assistant coaches Reiner Geyer and Armin Reutershahn will prepare the team for Friday’s game at Freiburg unless a successor can be installed before then. Wahler seemed unsure about the type of coach needed in these desperate circumstances. He said they were looking for an experienced operator but also for somebody who could develop the playing style further. Curiously, Berti Vogts has been mooted as the prime candidate. That just goes to show how big the Swabians’ predicament is. They had already fired the sporting director, Fredi Bobic, earlier in the campaign and now have to recruit somebody who would be willing to take over at a pretty big club with no real team and no firm expectation to avoid the drop.

Now that Hamburg look a little less dysfunctional under Joe Zinnbauer, Stuttgart might well become the most-prominent casualties of the overall improvement in coaching and scouting in the league. Smaller clubs have successfully breached the traditional gap, with sheer ingenuity and hard work, and the traditional powerhouses’ sense of entitlement will not insulate them from the storm of anarchy in the table. Stuttgart must hope that Veh’s heartfelt farewell will not turn out to be their one moment of genuine class in the entire season.

From one manager who has ruefully admitted that his time at a club has run its course to … Jürgen Klopp. The Borussia Dortmund manager openly declared his willingness to coach in England’s Premier League – “its the only country for me, next to Germany” – in a BT Sport interview but excitement levels about the said bombshell in Germany are yet to match those in England, where “Kloppo” will reportedly take on José Mourinho’s Chelsea with a minimum of four different teams at his disposal next year. Most local observers simply do not believe he is quite ready to leave his position at Dortmund, a role he called “the best of my life” in the same interview.

The club and supporters at the Signal Iduna Park certainly remain firmly behind him, another setback in the shape of a 2-2 draw with little neighbours SC Paderborn notwithstanding. Dortmund are 16th in the table, still nine points adrift of fourth place, and they will be without Marco Reus until the new year as well. The Germany international ruptured his ankle ligament in, to use Klopp’s words, an “uncontrolled tackle” by Marvin Bakalorz. “It was a horrific moment, I find it hard to talk about football now,” said the manager after the disappointing result.

Dortmund had led 2-0 at half-time, thanks to goals from Reus and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, but struggled in the second 45 minutes. A wrongly chalked-off goal from Kevin Grosskreutz compounded the misery. “We cannot afford to switch into administrative mode,” warned the CEO, Hans-Joachim Watzke before switching into Churchillian mode himself. “Blood, sweat and tears,” were needed to turn around their campaign, he added.

First, though, a relatively pressure-free trip to the Emirates. The Champions League has provided respite from domestic chores – and Klopp will undoubtedly enjoy playing to the gallery this week.

Results Bayern 4-0 Hoffenheim, Hannover 1-3 Leverkusen, Mainz 2-2 Freiburg, Paderborn 2-2 BVB, Gladbach 1-3 Frankfurt, Schalke 3-2 Wolfsburg, Köln 1-2 Hertha, Hamburg 2-0 Bremen, Stuttgart 0-1 Augsburg.