Rot-Weiß Oberhausen had big goals before the season. The Cloverleafs wanted to knock on the door of the 3rd division after some decent summer transfers – but nothing came of it.

When Jörn Nowak took over as head coach of Rot-Weiß Oberhausen in the summer of 2023 and was delighted to sign prominent players such as ex-MSV captain Moritz Stoppelkamp and former RWE trio Oguzhan Kefkir, Marius Kleinsorge and Michel Niemeyer, it was clear that RWO wanted to attack in the 2023/2024 season and, ideally, return to the third division after twelve years.

However, this plan came to nothing: Nowak was relieved of his duties at the start of 2024 – as third in the table (!). Mike Terranova has only managed to pick up ten points in ten games with the team since Nowak’s dismissal.

Of the four “celebrities” mentioned, only Stoppelkamp still plays a role in RWO’s future. The Cloverleafs want to extend his contract. The three former Essen players, on the other hand, can leave – Kleinsorge and Niemeyer even despite having valid contracts until the summer of 2025.

Why the upheaval in Oberhausen? A glance at the table is enough. The RWO professionals have been disappointing this season. Five matchdays before the end, RWO are in tenth place. Worse than ever before in the last twelve Regionalliga West seasons. To date, the worst position in the table was ninth place in the 2017/2018 season. Stoppelkamp and Co. are currently well on their way to “topping” this negative record within the club’s own regional league.

In the future, with a new coach, who has not yet been confirmed, and many new players, the team is set to return to the upper echelons. Players such as Kevin Brechmann (Fortuna Düsseldorf II) and Timur Mehmet Kesim (ETB Schwarz-Weiß Essen) are expected to help – Forecasting reported.

Rot-Weiß Oberhausen: A major shake-up in the summer

More than half of the players in the current squad are set to leave Oberhausen. There will be a major shake-up in the summer. Given the performances of the current series, however, the radical cut should come as no surprise to anyone. RWO simply has to take a new approach and bring fresh, ambitious players back into its ranks.

Until the end of the season, RWO’s opponents are Schalke II, Rödinghausen, 1. FC Köln II, FC Wegberg-Beeck and SC Paderborn II. The Lower Rhine Cup final against Rot-Weiss Essen is also on the agenda at the end of May. Matches in which the aim will be to prevent a negative record and generate fresh DFB Cup money for the Rot-Weiß Oberhausen club.