ANALYSIS-Soccer-Wolfsburg work in progress blossoms into winners

BERLIN, May 23 (Reuters) - Felix Magath delivered ahead of schedule and above his own expectations when his unfashionable VfL Wolfsburg side won the Bundesliga title on Saturday.

The coach, though, will not be around to further develop a team he took over in 2007 after being sacked by Bayern Munich following consecutive league and German Cup doubles.

Magath, whose three-year plan at Wolfsburg did not include winning the title in his second season in charge, is moving on to Schalke 04.

Even Magath and the Volkswagen-backed club, who poured several million euros into new signings, could not have foreseen how effectively his well-designed and well-oiled machine would operate this season.

After clinching a UEFA Cup spot in 2008, Magath had wanted to establish Wolfsburg among the frontrunners for the championship.

"We reached that (UEFA Cup) aim faster than we had planned. We want to establish ourselves as one of the top five teams in order to repeat the results of the previous season," Magath had said at the beginning of the season.

With top striker Grafite banned for two matches, Wolfsburg initially had trouble finding consistency with most players, a motley crew from Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Brazil, Bosnia, Japan and Slovakia, in their first or second season at the club.

A 3-0 win over Hamburg could be easily offset a week later with a 2-1 loss to lowly Karlsruhe.