One of the fascinating things about the commitment of Felix Magath, 68, as coach of the Bundesliga club Hertha BSC, which is threatened with relegation, is the opportunity to remember this: The good old days were not the worst. Magath hasn’t sat on a Bundesliga coaching bench for nine and a half years, more precisely: since he was dismissed as general manager at VfL Wolfsburg on October 25, a few days after a 0-2 defeat against SC Freiburg.
The most exciting, up-to-the-minute political news of that day was actually the question of whether the then CSU boss Seehofer stumbled over a threatening phone call from the resigned party spokesman Strepp on ZDF. In addition, the SZ noted that FC Schalke behaved “like after a win in Würzburg” after a triumph in the Champions League (!) at FC Arsenal. What was also curious, however, was what could be read about Magath in the major gazettes.
“Failed tremendously,” the FAZ captioned a comment and came to a similarly harsh conclusion, as it could be read in the SZ as follows: Magath had “gone further away from the generation of players that the clubs entrusted to him with each passing day”.
This judgment lived on when Magath was presented as the new Hertha coach a good three weeks ago. Now, after a corona infection that prevented him from returning to the Bundesliga stage in the flesh two weeks ago in the 3-0 win against Hoffenheim (3-0), Magath has been living with the next generation of professionals since Tuesday, in one Short training camp in Harsewinkel, Westphalia. And lo and behold: it obviously sparked.
“That was really bad for me! There wasn’t one exception where I would have raised my eyebrow,” enthused Magath
In any case, Magath was bubbling with euphoria when he reasoned about the days at Harsewinkel on the eve of the game against third-placed Bayer Leverkusen (Saturday, 3:30 p.m.). “It was a training camp like I’ve never experienced before,” he enthused at the press conference, jazzing himself up to one eulogy after the other. He was “a bit irritated” by “how high the willingness to perform of this Hertha squad” was, “that was really bad for me!” Because: “There was not one exception where I would have raised my eyebrow and said: What is he doing there?” Magath explained, and that was obviously not an April Fool’s joke. At most mildness of age.
In the win against Hoffenheim, when Magath was missing due to corona disease, assistant coach Mark Fotheringham (left) was still on the sidelines.
(Photo: Soeren Stache/dpa)
He approached the task in Berlin “with a bit of skepticism” because of the image he had gained from a distance and because through his children he had contact with young adults who were about the same age as Hertha today -professionals. That’s when he learned that there are a number of people in their twenties who tend to “put the work-life balance first and the willingness to perform second.”
But because there is a Bundesliga game against “a top team” that could pose a threat to Bayern and Dortmund, he ensnared his players. He praised left-back Marvin Plattenhardt for his free-kicks, the fine-footed Suat Serdar for making the difference, and his assistant Mark Fotheringham for upholding in training what Hertha had done this season (16th place, 26 points , 60 goals conceded) has been missing so often: the intensity.
Fotheringham’s energy is “a godsend for everyone,” reported Magath. With his demanding nature, the Scot not only relieved him of his work, but also gave him the opportunity to get to know the players better. He never intervened in training because he never had to intervene. This means, among other things, that he sees no reason to slow down his assistant coach. In the win against Hoffenheim, Fotheringham coached the team intensively when Magath was in corona isolation. “You should keep everything that’s going well,” said Magath – also indicating that he will hardly make any changes compared to the win against Hoffenheim.