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Unter den Linden
Berlin is a cosmopolitan city. Since 1989 it has been a free city, unspoilt by restricting walls. For over forty years it was split into pieces - West Berlin deep in central East Germany, yet still considered part of the West. East Berlin belonged to the DDR.
Now the capital city of a united Deutschland, Berlin leads the way in many fields - with one notable exception - football.
Even in the days after the war, teams in the west of Berlin played in the West German leagues. Many fans who were caught the wrong side of the wall were denied access to their teams.
The Berlin soccer scene contains a number of teams who have graced the professional ranks of German Football, however none of these have managed a Bundesliga title since the league was formed in 1963. This makes Germany unlike many other footballing nations where capital city teams dominate or challenge on a regular basis.
Hertha BSC, the biggest team in the capital, did manage back to back victories in 1930 and 1931 but this came back in the amateur knockout days of German football. Three third place finishes and a runners up spot in the seventies promised much, but were only backed up by two decades of struggle. A third placed finish in 1999 brought Champions League football to the Olympiastadion for the first and only time. This was surely an opportunity to move to the next level, however despite much investment the side remains very much a top half team at best, like many others constantly living in the shadows of the eternal 'meisters' of the Bundesliga, Bayern Munchen.
The people of the capital demand success, and crave the Bundesliga shield. When this success is delivered, the natives will take to the streets and celebrate Unter den Linden.
Fako Gotz pays for Hertha BSC's recent poor performances with his job. One win and eight draws from the opening half of the season is hardly respectable form. With fan protests becoming ever more vocal, Gotz was pushed. Chairman Schiphorst claimed that the timing was perfect. The new coach would have two weeks to prepare his men, and a month to wheel and deal in the transfer window.
'The team needs strengthening, and funds must be made available' demanded vocal fan spokesman Stefan Trautmann.
Schiphorst responded in Berliner Zeitung that "relegation is not feasible" and that "fans should be at ease - the board of directors are taking every step to ensure that the club stabilises is the coming months so that it is in a position to challenge next season."
Hertha BSC have surprisingly taken the step of appointing youth coach Ulrich Hess to the post of first team manager. This is somewhat of a surprise given the quality of the other available applicants for the job, and also given Hess's lack of top level experience. Hess will be assisted by former player Andreas Thom, and current reserve team coach Nello Di Martino.
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Hess Conference
New man Hess stated in no uncertain terms that he was the man to take Hertha to the next level, after he has pulled them out of the bottom three that is. He denied his lack of experience would make a working relationship with the players difficult, before proceeding to proclaim that he knew they would survive, not because they were too good to go down, but rather because the players would work as if their lives depended upon it. Crude terminology perhaps - but this man will be judged on his results, not his words.
Hertha BSC gained the point they needed to stave off relegation to Bundesliga Zwei when drawing 0-0 away to already relegated Aue. This point coupled with defeat for last seasons champions Freiburg meant the side from the Black Forest suffered the ignominy of being the first championship winning side to be immediately relegated since Nurnberg in the 1960's.
The other side threatened by relegation - Bochum, also lost their final match of the season but survived by a point thanks to Wolfsburg's 2-0 win over Freiburg.
Bayern ist Meister
Bayern manager Giorgio Pelizzaro vindicated the decision of management committee Beckenbauer & Hoeness in sacking Louis Van Gaal three months ago by delivering the championship shield for the twentieth time. VfB Stuttgart, leaders at the start of play slipped to a 5-2 defeat by fifth placed Leverkusen - opening the way to Bayern and Koln to overtake them.
The fixtures for the forthcoming season - Bundesliga 2008-09 - were revealed today, with Hertha travelling to the BayArena to face Leverkusen. This match will be followed a week later by the first home match of the season against newly promoted Alemannia Aachen.
Uli Hess has stated that the outcome of the first game will provide an excellent indicator of how his side will fare over the course of the coming season. "Once the referee blows the whistle for the start of the match, I expect our players to be snapping at Leverkusen heels, with only one thing on their minds, getting the ball and not giving it back. The golden rule is that football is an easy game when you have the ball."
When quizzed on their first opponents Hess was forthcoming with plenty of praise. "Their victory which denied Stuttgart the title showed what they are capable of. And once again they have worked the transfer market cleverly. They cherry pick malleable hungry young players and forge them into a tight unit by knitting them together with experienced war horses."
Two players in particular have caught his eye in recent months - "Ryan Babel and Maarten Stekelenberg have impressed me in particular, players of their calibre would rightfully grace any team in the Bundesliga, and probably 99.99% of teams in the Champions League."
Hess however didn't restrict the praise to Hertha's forthcoming opponents, choosing to recognise his own side’s strengths. "I've been impressed with many of our own players since I've stepped up to the hot seat, and yes while the results haven't been amazing, some individuals performances have stood head and shoulders above others - naturally these performances have been reassuring." Two particular players who received praise were Gilberto and Marcelinho. When quizzed, Hess replied "The two old men from Brazil, ha, they should have their feet up on the beach by now, but their appetite for glory is phenomenal. If we had eleven players with their attitude and application - I wouldn’t even have a job."
Hess also confirmed that pre-season would comprise of 5 fixtures, an away tie against cross city rivals Union Berlin followed by a 3 date tour of Israel, and a trip to England to play London club West Ham.
Andreas Thom has surprisingly been appointed manager of Mallorca. The news came as a surprise to manager Hertha manager Uli Hess who only learnt of the appointment through the media.
"It was something of a shock, yes. He wasn't in training today which in itself is a surprise. Now I know why, ha ha." Hess was disappointed that he wasn’t consulted but refused to hold a grudge. "It is a wonderful chance for a very good coach. I wish him luck, but we have moved on already. Nello Di Martino will become assistant manager. We have been actively overhauling our coaching structure in the close season and have already recruited Estigarribia and Elio Carravetta from Brazil, so this news simply means that we need to hire one additional team member. It is not something for our supporters to be worried about."
Speculation is rising that existing members of the Hertha first team squad will be released from their contracts in the build up to the expected announcement about players signed under pre-contract agreements. Manager Hess has stated previously that he has secured the signing of a number of high profile players under the Bosman ruling. The identities of these players would be announced on July 1st when the transfer window re-opens.
Various players are expected to be on the culling list including January signings such as Giggs, Del Piero and Marlet. It has been suggested that these players will choose to retire rather than suffer the ignominy of being released with a year still to run on their contracts. They may have been great players in the past, but suffice to say none of the three had the desired impact in the second half of the season.
Strikers Derlei and Artur Wichniarek are also expected to go – possibly being made available for nothing. Derlei has only started one game since signing in January from Dinamo Moscow, whilst the Pole Wichniarek has made just one substitute appearance since the side came under Uli Hess’s tutelage.
Further players on the periphery of the first team are expected to be made available, including strikers Glasner and Jermaine Jones, and wingers Ludwig and Muller. Meanwhile the Dutch pair Lammers and Dorothea have been offered new incentive based contracts despite only making fleeting appearances in their first season at the club.
The Dutch National team were crowned champions of Europe after defeating old rivals Germany 2-0 in the European Championship final in Vienna. In a bad tempered affair three players saw red, with Germany finishing with eight men thanks to a badly timed injury to full back Hinkel.
The fun started with the dismissal of Dutch defender Hofland in the 57th minute. Germany proceeded to make three substitutions to try and force their way through the Dutch defence but were reduced to ten men themselves when Hinkel picked up a bad injury shortly after.
The match limped in to extra time and came to life in dramatic fashion shortly after the start of the second half. Germany were rocked by two red cards in two minutes, first for Christian Schulz and secondly to Philip Lahm. The Germans immediately reorganized and looked towards penalties – which were just 10 minutes away. But they were rocked by a phenomenal free kick from Giovanni Van Bronckhorst, and seconds later torn apart by a savage counter attack that saw Rafael Van der Vaart secure a second European Championship title for the Netherlands.
Uli Hess has made no bones about the fact that he had made significant pre-contract signings during his brief time with the club. In the interests of all concerned he felt it necessary to keep the names of these players under wraps until the day their current contracts had expired. That day is today, and the Hertha manager certainly hasn’t disappointed. Staying up on the last day of last season was one thing, the coming season will be much different given the quality which has been injected into the squad.
Today’s roll call brought seven new signings, all off whom look impressive in the new Hertha home and away strips. Even more impressive was the fact that no transfer fee had been paid for the new troops. Time will tell whether this string of signings is the most significant collective deal since the introduction of the Bosman ruling. It looks promising for sure.
The roll call started with the most high profile player, Nelson Haedo Valdez, a 24 year old Paraguayan striker signed from Werder Bremen. Valdez has proved his class with 52 goals in his last three seasons for the Northern club. His signature is a coup for Hess but a bitter body blow to the title hopes of Werder manager Thomas Schaaf.
Valdez was followed out by Russian forward Alexandr Kerzhakov who joins from champions Bayern. Kerzhakov revealed that Hess’s keenness and ambition were key to securing his signature. Also of importance was the managerial melee at Bayern where uncertainty reigned for a month for the out of contract players, between the departure of Van Gaal and the arrival of Pelizzaro. Hess’s attitude at this stage played a crucial part in getting his man.
Dutch international defender Wilfried Bouma joins from PSV Eindhoven. Having just turned 30, Bouma can play left back or centre back. Bonaventure Kalou, a versatile Ivorian front man arrives from French side Auxerre and Belgian International keeper Silvio Proto joins from La Louviere to add to the competition between the sticks.
Finally come two Serbs – the striker Danko Lazovic from Feyenoord and Red Star Belgrade’s Dusan Basta. Lazovic has a reputation for rubbing people up the wrong way, meanwhile Basta is a full back come right winger very much in the mould of Brazilian legend Cafu.
Having seen these men stand on the turf at the Olympiastadion, the biggest intrigue now for Hertha fans, is where all these players fit into Uli Hess’s first XI. In the run in to the end of the last season, Hertha lined up with just one striker – with Hess perming one from four – Javier Portillo, Rodrigo Tiui, Denes Toth and Gregory Dorothea. Add Lazovic, Valdez, Kalou and Kerzhakov to this and you have a serious selection headache.
In terms of departures, Del Piero, Giggs & Marlet all bade farewell to the capital city after a series of mixed bag performances. Del Piero and Giggs are moving in to coaching, but Marlet still thinks he has another year in his locker. Former U21 defender Markus Steinwerth joins them on the job market are failing to agree new terms with the manager. Hess claimed that Steinwerth’s demands were unrealistic given his standing within the team. Florian Hube also departed, joining Halle. Reserve team players Leone and Gallerre were both released to return to their native Italy having come through the youth system at Hertha.
The revolving door at Hertha’s training ground continues to swing, as four more players depart for pastures new. First out of the door is Jermaine Jones who moves to Wacker Burghausen for £500,000. He is followed hours later by Brazilian forward Derlei who joins the same team but for no fee. Both strikers should be well equipped to deal with the demands of Bundesliga Zwei, but have no obvious future at the highest level.
Artur Wichniarek is the third striker to leave, joining Arminia Bielefeld on a free transfer. Wichniarek has been a good servant to Hertha but is past his best and has barely featured since Uli Hess took the reigns of the first team.
Finally goalkeeper Carlos Idriss Kameni has joined St-Etienne for £2million plus a significant slice of any future sale.
Uli Hess gave his reasons for the departures…
“Jones appears to be a good lad but for me he was simply missing something. I couldn’t put my finger exactly on what it was, so I felt it best to allow him to move on, especially given the quality of strikers we have signed in the last sixth months. It is much better for him to play for a first team in the second division than to be playing in our Amateur team.
Derlei was something of an impulse buy for me. I had seen him many times in previous seasons, and when I heard he was available for a very small fee I felt he might be able to help us as we had been struggling to score goals before Christmas. Unfortunately he is not the player that he was when he was with Porto, and he seems to have lost some of his best strengths – strengths which would enable him to compete against defenders in the Bundesliga. Again given the quality of players that we have brought in, I decided he should be allowed to leave. I’m confident that he can do a good job for Burghausen in the second division.
The decision on Wichniarek was a similar one – an abundance of quality options up front, and his age and injury record last season contributed to him being touted to various clubs. Bielefeld were quick to respond, as they have fond memories of him playing for them not so long ago.
The call on Kameni was a difficult one as he clearly is a very talented keeper and a superb athlete. The offer from St-Etienne came something out of the blue, but I was happy to accept it as I had been considering making him available. Whilst he had played well for us last year, we were forced to switch our starting goalkeeper regularly because of his commitment to his national team – something which he was loathe to give up. Luckily we have signed Silvio Proto under freedom of contract, and he should prove to be a more than adequate replacement.”
Unter Den Linden 
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