The former Hamburg coach quit after seeing his side finish a disappointing season in 13th place - their worst Bundesliga placement in 20 years.

Despite reaching the DFB-Pokal final, Doll failed to fulfil the huge expectations at the 2002 German champions and he was summoned for a crisis meeting with general manager Hans-Joachim Watzke and director of sport Michael Zorc on Monday.

There the 42-year-old tendered his resignation, which was accepted the club confirmed Monday.

"Thomas Doll secured our safety in the Bundesliga comfortably last year," announced a club statement.

"And, through reaching the DFB-Pokal final, he has enabled the club to play in the UEFA Cup next season, and it is this which remains from his work."

However, it is the second time in his short managerial career, Doll has failed to truly deliver on early promise.

The former Germany international took to coaching immediately after hanging up his boots at Hamburg.

After two campaigns in charge of their reserve team, he succeeded Klaus Toppmoller as first-team coach in October 2004 and led them from the foot of the Bundesliga table to a place in the UEFA Cup via the Intertoto Cup.

In his first full season at the helm, Hamburg finished third behind Bayern Munich and Werder Bremen, earning a crack at the Champions League, but five defeats in six group games saw them crash out of Europe.

They were unable to recover in the Bundesliga and Doll was dismissed in February with the club right back where they were when he took over, propping up the division.

He was only out of work for a month before Dortmund called him to perform a similar job and lead them away from the threat of relegation after Bert van Marwijk and Jurgen Rober had both been sacked.

With 16 points from nine games, Dortmund finished the season closer to a place in Europe than the bottom three and began last campaign optimistically.

Doll was rewarded with a new contract 16 games into the new season, shortly after a 6-1 win over Arminia Bielefeld, putting pen to paper on a deal in January until 2010.

But just four wins since then saw a miserable end to the campaign with attendances at the Westfalen Stadium dropping significantly.

"Despite reaching the Cup final and qualifying for the UEFA Cup, the season was unsatisfactory," admitted Zorc after a 4-2 defeat to Wolfsburg last Saturday.

The strain was getting to Doll even before the German Cup final as he lost his temper at a press conference, accusing the media of being "disrespectful" towards him and his team.

Former Dortmund coach Matthias Sammer, who led the club to the Bundesliga title in 2002, was particularly critical of Doll's outburst.

"As a coach, you act as a role model and I think I know the business quite well, but Thomas has not fully understood it," he told Premiere television.

"That is what has caused all this. Let's not forget that Thomas is a very young coach and this happens to young coaches."

It appears Dortmund are now preparing to put their faith in another inexperienced coach with 40-year-old Jurgen Klopp favourite to become Doll's successor after leaving second division Mainz on Sunday.

Klopp said a tearful goodbye to Mainz when they failed to gain promotion to the Bundesliga and he is regarded of one of the most talented up-and-coming coaches in Germany after leading Mainz into the Bundesliga in 2004.