The faces of those responsible at Hertha BSC still wore features on Monday that left no more questions unanswered. Which wasn’t really a big surprise given Saturday’s rather dramatic false start at VfL Bochum.
The Berliners lost 3-1, so they more or less swapped places with Bochum: Hertha slipped from 15th to the penultimate place, Bochum jumped from 17th to 14th. Not relegation is a “long-term goal”, as coach Sandro put it Black on Monday and probably chose the word with the upcoming program in mind, which Hertha has to deal with in this ice-cold English week alone, although there are two home games to be played. On Tuesday, VfL Wolfsburg, who have just warmed up with a 6-0 win over SC Freiburg, are visiting, on Saturday their neighbors 1. FC Union are visiting the Olympic Stadium – for a city duel that is always overloaded with emotions.
Anyone who studied the trade press on Monday, including the local one, could read between the lines the latent accusation of naivety – and Schwarz and manager Fredi Bobic vehemently defended themselves against this. At Hertha General Headquarters, nobody has ever painted anything rosier than it is, said Bobic with great certainty; Accordingly, no one has to worry “that we are beaming towards the descent,” assured the manager: “We are clear in the head.”
“We know what situation we’re in, what table region we’re in,” says coach Schwarz
Trainer Schwarz, on the other hand, reported that the offenses on Saturday had been discussed extensively internally; the clear criticism he publicly voiced (“too little intensity”, “too little aggressiveness”, “not our claim”) was echoed by extensive self-criticism by the team. He also assured that the team was not lacking in orientation: “We know what situation we are in, what table region we are in.” Nevertheless, the team must approach the task against Wolfsburg with confidence. That will be difficult enough: With temperatures around freezing point, at most 30,000 spectators will want to go to the Olympic Stadium. After all: Dodi Lukebakio returns to the team and embodies Hertha’s hopes for something like playful improvement.
Manager Bobic was upset about the growing speculation about the entry of “777 Partners” at Hertha. The US private equity firm has publicly expressed interest in acquiring shares in Hertha’s professional division owned by Lars Windhorst. On Monday he reported table football, the talks are “close to completion”. Although “the conviction is great that you are far in the talks,” said Bobic, only: “Near the end? I don’t think so.”
Above all, Bobic was annoyed that there were a few leaks. It was “stupid” that information from inside the club would be disseminated to the public. “The club has to shut up,” demanded Bobic without giving any details. Supposedly, 777 Partners – which is also active in European football in Spain at Sevilla FC, in Italy at FC Genoa, in France at Red Star Paris, in Belgium (Standard Liège), Brazil (Vasco da Gama) and Australia (Melbourne Victory). – take over the shares of Windhorst for around 200 million euros.
the Bild newspaper reported these days of a possible capital increase of around 100 million euros, which is only intended to plug holes. Hertha has accumulated losses of around 210 million euros in the past three years. Should new money flow, it would therefore not be possible to put it into the squad, “that’s for sure,” said Bobic, trying to talk the staff strong: “We believe in the squad we have. We’ve proven it often enough that we can do it.”