[The Old Lady Hertha]

New coach: Lucien Favre
New playmaker: Looks to be Alex of Fenerbahce
New, MUCH improved goalie: Jaroslav Drobny
New investors that might make our debts even worse...
10th place in 2006/2007 Bundesliga
Same youngsters...

Can we improve? I think we can, but it will be difficult. But I believe in our new coach and goalie at least now. Favre is supposed to be a very good motivator and teacher of young players, and considering the amount of young players we have (Ebert, the Boatengs, Schorch, Fathi, Chahed, Lakic, Okoronkwo, Ede, Assani-Lukymia), this can only be a good thing.

Hertha's preseason schedule this year:

Training camp in Stagersbach, Austria: July 9-18th

Testspiele:
July 1st: vs. Carl-Zeiss Jena
July 11: Weiz
July 14: Genclerbirligi
July 17: Middlesbrough

[Dead Fingers]

first page.

[Borussia]

Originally Posted by The Old Lady Hertha

New coach: Lucien Favre

Wow, that's a real surprise!

IMO a good manager ... however, I'm curious how he'll cope with the difficult environment in Berlin.

[merhanng]

If indeed Alex does come through I'd say we'd have big improvements all around. Bastürk was a great player at times but his frequent injuries and mindfulness of leaving Hertha at the end of the season really limited his contribution -- a capable, fit and motivated player in the hole is what we need and he should give it to us. (and the sixth-sense understanding potential of a Brazilian MF triangle of Alex, Gilberto and Mineiro doesn't hurt either.)

Drobny over Fiedler you mentioned, agreed.

And Lulu over Falko and Karsten will definitely be an improvement -- he has actually won things as a coach and can draw on that experience. The players seemed to really want Karsten to stay but he just didn't seem to have a long-term "plan." I know that's where we got into trouble with Falko, waiting for the thrilling conclusion to his youth plan to materialize. He was a hometown boy and a nice guy and a great haircut but he turned out not to be able to motivate players day to day. Lulu is a proven winner, and a winner with a club that, before his arrival, hadn't won a title in decades and was known as an enigmatic fount of wasted potential. (sound familiar?)

I also think with our realtively thin coverage at striker one of the two returning-from-loan boys, okoronkwo or piszczek, might see a lot of time and make an impact. Gotta say piszczek seems the more likely candidate -- he scored 11 last year in poland for a team that won the league (lubin), and just got called into the poland side this week.

All said I like where we stand, obvious financial handicaps notwithstanding. We seem to be getting many of the players we want for very little money and now have a coach who may actually know how to deploy them effectively. If Dieter can manage not to fumble away Jerome and/or K-P Boateng as badly as he did Ashkan Dejagah we should be in good shape with the mix we now have. And by good shape I mean a 3-6 place finish. (we gon' need some mo' money if we want anything better than that.)

[The Old Lady Hertha]

Originally Posted by merhanng

If indeed Alex does come through I'd say we'd have big improvements all around. Bastürk was a great player at times but his frequent injuries and mindfulness of leaving Hertha at the end of the season really limited his contribution -- a capable, fit and motivated player in the hole is what we need and he should give it to us. (and the sixth-sense understanding potential of a Brazilian MF triangle of Alex, Gilberto and Mineiro doesn't hurt either.)

Yea a Samba midfield would be quite good, but I'm just not sold on Mineiro at DM. I think communication is so vitally important especially playing in the 6 role, and Mineiro's German language problem is of great hindrance. Hopefully, he will improve that before the summer is over.

Originally Posted by merhanng

Drobny over Fiedler you mentioned, agreed.

And Lulu over Falko and Karsten will definitely be an improvement -- he has actually won things as a coach and can draw on that experience. The players seemed to really want Karsten to stay but he just didn't seem to have a long-term "plan." I know that's where we got into trouble with Falko, waiting for the thrilling conclusion to his youth plan to materialize. He was a hometown boy and a nice guy and a great haircut but he turned out not to be able to motivate players day to day. Lulu is a proven winner, and a winner with a club that, before his arrival, hadn't won a title in decades and was known as an enigmatic fount of wasted potential. (sound familiar?)

If we get Alex and Raffael (the Zurich Brazilian striker), it would be great.

A lot of Brazilians though....

Originally Posted by merhanng

I also think with our realtively thin coverage at striker one of the two returning-from-loan boys, okoronkwo or piszczek, might see a lot of time and make an impact. Gotta say piszczek seems the more likely candidate -- he scored 11 last year in poland for a team that won the league (lubin), and just got called into the poland side this week.

The Polish posters seem to really like him. However, Hertha do have a penchant for ruining Poles, see Bartosz Karwan and Piotr Reiss.

But with this coach, I can see him doing well. Can he be the long-term replacement for Gimenez though, is the question.

Originally Posted by merhanng

All said I like where we stand, obvious financial handicaps notwithstanding. We seem to be getting many of the players we want for very little money and now have a coach who may actually know how to deploy them effectively. If Dieter can manage not to fumble away Jerome and/or K-P Boateng as badly as he did Ashkan Dejagah we should be in good shape with the mix we now have. And by good shape I mean a 3-6 place finish. (we gon' need some mo' money if we want anything better than that.)

To be fair, Dejagah was a greedy, selfish git who just wanted the money. He might turn out well for Wolfsburg, but to blame this one purely on Dieter would be ignoring other things about Dejagah's personality. Surely, though, I hope Dieter realizes that he needs to deal with his youngsters quickly...Ebert, JeBo and a couple other young players contracts expire next year, I hope he acts quickly, at least more quickly than he did with Dejagah.

[merhanng]

Originally Posted by The Old Lady Hertha

Yea a Samba midfield would be quite good, but I'm just not sold on Mineiro at DM. I think communication is so vitally important especially playing in the 6 role, and Mineiro's German language problem is of great hindrance. Hopefully, he will improve that before the summer is over.

I was never convinced of this issue that Falko made so much of, especially considering Mineiro's immediately increased playing time and improved form under Heine. Even if true though, when the whole MF backbone speaks Portuguese, the issue is no longer so big. And plus if Mineiro is good enough to play DM for Brazil then he oughtta be able to do it for us.

Originally Posted by The Old Lady Hertha

To be fair, Dejagah was a greedy, selfish git who just wanted the money. He might turn out well for Wolfsburg, but to blame this one purely on Dieter would be ignoring other things about Dejagah's personality. Surely, though, I hope Dieter realizes that he needs to deal with his youngsters quickly...Ebert, JeBo and a couple other young players contracts expire next year, I hope he acts quickly, at least more quickly than he did with Dejagah.

I agree that his attitude was not good and his departure may turn out to be a blessing in disguise, but I never blame a player for taking a much much better offer when he gets one. He may have been developed by Hertha and therefor "owe" the club something, but from what I've heard our offer was not even competitive. I think the real root of his departure was one that has been discussed here and written about in Kicker and Tagesspiegel -- young players frustration with being sent down to the youth squad for long stretches under Götz. For all his talk of promoting youth he sure did give our best kids a hard time. Dejagah spent forever down there, Ebert too after his craptaculuar performance in the match at Bayern. Jerome B is clearly chafing at his continued amateur status and Kevin is restless too. Dejagah saw he was the most "ready" of the group and decided to get out before he got another puzzling smackdown from Götz.

That said as much as I like Dejagah as a player I like the Boatengs and Ebert even more and am glad we still got 'em. If Favre can convince them that they (and perhaps Piszczek if he's up to it) are the nucleus of Hertha's future and will be treated as such, both financially and personally, we could be looking at a very nice Stuttgart-type situation in a year or two.

[The Old Lady Hertha]

Hopefully so too. However, we have to give the coach patience and our confidence. I'm sure he realizes how good our youth system is and will use it to his best ability. That being said though, he really does need to improve the team, and if that means getting Alex on a free transfer and a capable RB/CB, then yes he must do it. Wouldn't mind seeing Gilberto revert to LB like he does in Brazil and have Ebert play LM and Boateng RM, with Mineiro and Alex in the middle. That would be a fearsome midfield IMHO.

[Cazlon]

Favre is an excellent coach. An excellent coach would shoo Alex. Thus, Alex won't join Hertha.

What do Stuttgart, Cottbus and Nuremburg have in common ? That's right, no "playmaker". What else ? They were the pleasant suprises of the past Bundesliga season.

Simple, isn't it ? The defensive/central midfielder is the most important position in modern football. Spending all your money on some random offensive midfielder is outright dumb.

Unfortunately Hoeness ignored Kumordzi.

Not all is lost though, thanks to the Boateng brothers. Pro tip: Alhaji Sannie ( Ahmed Sani at the Toulon tournament, Ghanaian no. 11 ) of Ashanti Goldfields.

PS: Favre is a good move by Hoeness, props where it's due.

[European16]

wow, i didnt know alex was gonna go to hertha.
is it final or still talking?
hes an awsome player

[junior6]

Hoeness now certenly wants him.
But the new trainer is known for dislike of a tiny weeny playmaker.
So unfortunately, things not positive for Alex as well as Leandro(sao paulo)
Both are really interesting players though.
I just hope Favre is not kind of couch, Claudio Ranieri