Dochev Resigns from CSKA Sofia

One point from three games

Pavel Dochev has stepped down as the coach of Bulgarian giants CSKA Sofia after only joining the club at the end of last season. The coach, and former CSKA player, only achieved a single point in his first three games after losing his opening pair to rivals Levski Sofia and PFC Chernomorets Burgas. His only point then came at the weekend in a 2-2 draw with newly-promoted PFC Vidima-Rakovski Sevlievo.

Dochev admitted that he struggled to keep order in the dressing room at the club and that some of the players "disapproved of the methods that I applied and questioned everything”. He went on to blame "[the] mentality of the [Bulgarian] people" for his failure to implement his strategy despite being from the Bulgarian capital himself. This may stem from the fact that Dochev has spent his entire coaching career upto this point in Germany and that after the shameful 2-2 draw he had to receive police protection after the final whistle.

The search for a new coach begins immediately as CSKA have a game in the Europa League on Thursday against Welsh champions TNS. However, the result of this search is almost a foregone conclusion with Dimitar Penev expected to be appointed coach in the very near future; this will be his fourth managerial spell at the club!