Two lame-duck coaches go against each other Saturday when Bayern Munich hosts Hamburger SV in the Bundesliga.
A third coach, Felix Magath, may not even last through the end of the season despite taking Schalke to the quarterfinals of the Champions League and the final of the German Cup.
Bayern began the week by announcing that Louis van Gaal would leave at the end of the season. Hamburg coach Armin Veh followed a day later, saying he too would depart.
Van Gaal's departure - one year early - was the result of Bayern losing three straight matches, something that had not happened in 10 years. Worse, Bayern is all but out of the Bundesliga championship race and lost in the German Cup semifinals to Schalke.
That means that both titles Van Gaal won in his first season are gone. Bayern is still in the Champions League and faces Inter Milan next week for place in the quarterfinals holding a 1-0 lead from the first leg. Bayern lost to Inter in last season's final.
Bayern is fifth in the Bundesliga, 19 points behind leader Borussia Dortmund with nine games remaining. Van Gaal's side is also seven points away from second place and a direct slot in next season's Champions League.
''It's not about the coach but about the success and the future of the club,'' Bayern captain Philipp Lahm said. ''We want Bayern to play in the Champions League. We are in a dangerous position and that's why we have to win Saturday.''
Lahm said the players still had respect for the coach and that he still had authority, despite the impending departure.
''Because of his personality, he won't have any problems with the team,'' the captain said.
German media are speculating that veteran coach Jupp Heynckes, who coached Bayern for five games after the firing of Juergen Klinsmann in the season before Van Gaal's arrival, would return to the Bavarian capital.
Heynckes is second in the Bundesliga with Bayer Leverkusen and still has not renewed his contract.
Veh decided to call it quits in Hamburg after one season because of the messy situation in the club. Hamburg is a badly run club, Veh said, that threatens to lead the side to ruin. The club's president is also leaving at the end of the season.
''A club needs clear organization and that's what we don't have,'' Veh said.
But ultimately, it's the lack of success that's driving Veh away - Hamburg is seventh in the championship and may not even qualify for the Europa League.
Magath was hired by Schalke after surprisingly leading Wolfsburg to the Bundesliga title in 2009. His job was clearly defined: bring Schalke its first championship in five decades. He was given four years to do it.
In his first season, Magath took Schalke to second place. But he also reshuffled the squad in a major way and Schalke is now 10th, only five points from the relegation zone.
Schalke reached the quarterfinals of the Champions League by beating Valencia 3-1 on Wednesday, the day several German media reported that he would be released at the end of the season, only halfway into his contract.
Magath insisted he was unaware of any such moves, but Kicker magazine on Thursday said Magath would be fired even earlier, as soon as he had a chance to be interviewed by the board, of which he is a member.
''It's not our job to deal with such issues, but it wasn't the best time to talk about it,'' Schalke defender Christoph Metzelder said.
Schalke hosts Eintracht Frankfurt, which has not scored a goal in eight matches.
In other matches Saturday, Wolfsburg hosts Nuremberg, Dortmund visits Hoffenheim, Kaiserslautern faces Freiburg and Werder Bremen is at home against bottom-place Borussia Moenchengladbach.
Third-place Hannover visits Cologne on Friday, while Leverkusen travels to Mainz and St. Pauli hosts Stuttgart on Sunday.
