It was already clear on Saturday evening what would happen at Hertha on Sunday. At the latest, when Hertha’s manager Fredi Bobic, 50, stood with the former legend Lothar Matthäus, 60, in the mobile studio of the TV broadcaster Sky and said that those responsible for Hertha would “first talk about it calmly” and finally added : “We will definitely comment on this tomorrow.” At least you could see the first part of the spectacle coming.
On Sunday, shortly after 11 a.m., it was over for the trainer Tayfun Korkut, 47, in Berlin. “After an intensive analysis and evaluation of the current sporting situation, the management of Hertha BSC has decided to release Tayfun Korkut from his position as head coach of the licensed team with immediate effect,” said the club.
Late in the evening, Hertha BSC then came up with a real sensation. An old acquaintance from the grinder division was named as his successor until the end of the season: Felix Magath, whom they also call “Quälix” for good reason.
Magath, who is now 68, has not worked in the Bundesliga since he left VfL Wolfsburg ten years ago. His last coaching position was with Shandong Luneng in China in 2017. As great as the surprise was, Magath’s appointment seems appropriate in the current overall situation, in which Hertha, which is known to be named after a Spree excursion steamer, is racing towards an iceberg called descent. To paraphrase a former Magath player, Jan Aage Fjörtoft, who met the grinder in Frankfurt: It is not known whether Magath will save Hertha. But by the end of the season, the steamer passengers will be fit.
“Felix Magath’s CV speaks for itself,” Fredi Bobic also became manager quoted in a communication from Hertha. The coach will turn the right screws. It sounds bad that some of Hertha’s paths will soon lead to sprints towards Teufelsberg. Unless the coach finds the time and money to build his own hill, like “Mount Magath” in Wolfsburg. Magath became champion in Wolfsburg in 2009.
Fredi Bobic obviously found it difficult to kick out Korkut. Among other things, because it has to be read like the correction of a mistake that Bobic was reminded of in a downright sadistic way – by Lothar Matthäus. On Saturday evening, the 1990 world champion suggested entrusting the thoroughbred Hertha Pal Dardai, 45, with the rescue. What you have to know is that Lothar Matthäus is not only a Sky expert, but also feels connected to Dardai. Connected enough to know how things are going with relations between former Hertha playmates Bobic and Dardai since Bobic fired the Hungarian at the end of November – to bring Korkut.
Kovac, Funkel, Gisdol – the list of names that has been speculated about in the meantime was long
With Korkut there was a “promising start with seven points from the first four games”, said Bobic on Sunday morning, also in writing. Only: That changed dramatically in the second half of the season. In 2022 there has been no victory so far, with Gladbach 0: 2, Hertha only sees SpVgg Fürth when looking back. But to a person with a sense of humor / life seems strange … , the author Peter Hacks once wrote. The defenders Dedryck Boyata and Marton Dardai – Pal Dardai’s son – laughed shortly after Gladbach’s 1-0 lead on the substitutes’ bench, a branch similar to that of Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet after the flood disaster in the Ahr valley. Now Magath is more of an end to the fun. There were players in Frankfurt who christened Magath – after the former Iraqi dictator – “Saddam”, but unlike Magath, he didn’t just dry teabags on a spoon.
Dardai Jr. laughed almost on behalf of the dad, who, according to rumors, has been smiling for a long time about the irony at Hertha biting heartily. In the summer of 2019, Dardai was complimented by the then manager Michael Preetz because his football was not considered attractive enough (which he was not). Then Dardai came back in January 2021 because his successors Ante Covic, Jürgen Klinsmann, Alexander Nouri and Bruno Labbadia couldn’t get Hertha off the ground; At the end of November 2021 he was then again on leave from Bobic.
The irony: at the end of Korkut’s term of office of all things, Dardaism happily celebrated its birth. Korkut had his team upset on Tuesday in front of the cameras, which is not really his style, but happened before with his predecessor, especially with Magath. Then Korkut set up eight defensive players in Gladbach – against their own nature and in the spirit of Dardaism. And up front, Korkut relied on Davie Selke – a decision brimming with agnosticism. Because: The answer to the question of whether Selke is a Bundesliga-capable striker can only be answered in the same way as agnostics answer the question of the existence of God: it has not been clarified. Although there is no need to worry about Selke: Hertha is anything but lonely about him on this issue.
Also striking: There were only two players signed by Bobic in the starting eleven. In addition to Ishak Belfodil, there was only Marc-Oliver Kempf, who came from VfB Stuttgart at the end of January and conceded two penalties against Hertha in four games for Hertha (and saw the red card against Leipzig). In the eyes of many Hertha fans, he is therefore under the – of course outrageous – suspicion of being a member of the fifth column of VfB Stuttgart, which is also in danger of relegation.
“We would prefer to swap completely different things,” moans manager Bobic about the squad
On Saturday it was Kempf’s foul on Gladbach striker Marcus Thuram that prompted Alassane Pléa’s penalty to make it 1-0 for Gladbach. In the second half, Hertha conceded the 2-0 after a corner (59th minute). Manager Bobic made it clear that Niklas Stark had forgotten to be responsible for the later goalscorer Matthias Ginter. But Selke’s passivity when Ginter climbed up next to him to head the ball was incredible and certainly not the fault of coach Korkut. Apparently Bobic also has something like that. “We would prefer to swap completely different things,” moaned the manager on ZDF, which is nothing more than a vote of no confidence in large parts of a dysfunctional squad. “I can tell you, Tayfun Korkut hits everything,” said Bobic. Selke also found that Korkut’s plan was a good one: “We managed to do it over long stretches, but not over long stretches either,” he said. The stretches they didn’t make it over were the longer ones overall.
And now? From the summer of 2019, Hertha received 374 million euros from its investor Lars Windhorst; In the light of the transfers made, one would wish the club in retrospect that it had raised George Best’s famous bon mot to a business plan. In other words: spend the money on alcohol, women and fast cars and squander the rest. Hertha on the other hand? Is no longer just in front of shards, but in front of an existential crisis; which nonetheless does not prevent President Werner Gegenbauer from going further than that as far as statements for the public are concerned missing is applicable. Whereby: He was seen on Saturday in the VIP stand in Gladbach and on Sunday morning in the parking lot in front of the Hertha office. And brought home an amazing message: that all the speculation about Markus Gisdol, Friedhelm Funkel and Niko Kovac was nonsense, and Magath will return to the league.