Udo Lattek succeeded Hennes Weisweiler as Gladbach coach — that is well known. Far less well known is how badly Lattek behaved in the move. Not toward Bayern, and not toward Gladbach, but toward Rot-Weiss Essen.\n\nAfter his exit from Bayern, Lattek, then 40, was looking for a new challenge and seemed to find it at Essen.
He even signed for 1975/76 there, only to switch to Borussia Mönchengladbach after Weisweiler’s surprise departure in May. Gladbach were reigning champions and Bayern’s great rivals of the previous years.\n\nLattek’s line was memorable: “What would you choose if you had the choice between a bicycle (Essen) and a Mercedes (M’gladbach)?” In Mönchengladbach, Lattek inherited an intact side featuring Uli Stielike, Jupp Heynckes, Herbert Wimmer, Allan Simonsen, Rainer Bonhof and Berti Vogts, and he reined in the Foals. Instead of Weisweiler’s all-out, hurrah style, he focused more heavily on the defensive side and won the next two league titles, in 1976 and 1977, with a stable back line.
That completed another title hat trick in the 1970s. In 1977 he also reached the European Cup final with Gladbach. That same year, Rot-Weiss Essen were relegated from the Bundesliga and have never returned.