Blindly trapped with Dardai
Hertha BSC will never defeat the monster like this
A comment by David Needy
4/16/2023 4:34 p.m
Oh, Hertha. Sandro Schwarz is gone, but with the new coach Pal Dardai, the BSC is making old mistakes and is still enthroned on a growing pile of shards. It would take a new identity in the club – and a painful break.
It used to be easier for Hertha. Sure, all good, that never really happened with the old lady. But there were times when even the simplest fan chants made sense: In Berlin, on the Spree – there’s only Hertha BSC. Ole! The Hertha team knew who their club was and what it stood for. That it might not be enough for the top, but that was okay. Some people finally shouted: “HaHoHe, Hertha is ok”. That Charlottenburg charm reigned supreme and that the old lady tasted like Schultheiss or Engelhardt on tap. That Hertha had this slightly quirky but endearing capital city cult.
Now Hertha BSC is firing Sandro Schwarz, how many coaches in how many seasons? It doesn’t matter, nobody counts anyway. Or what were the highlights under Tayfun Korkut or Alexander Nouri? Now Pal Dardai is supposed to save the club again in Daily Groundhog mode. He will hardly be able to defeat the great evil alone, the monster that Hertha is destroying more and more.
Again, a coach does not last a full season at the Chaos Club. Of course that depends on the team and the coach. But this dark shadow wafts over it. This pitch-black cloud called Hertha BSC. Confusion, overconfidence, confusion, lack of quality in all structures. The fans have been wondering for a long time: what is the identity of this club? Who is Hertha BSC and what does the club stand for? For which football? With what claim?
Hertha threatens to be forgotten
Charlottenburg and Schulle, of course, that doesn’t necessarily fit into the football business of modern times. Nevertheless, other clubs manage to at least partially retain their peculiarities, even in the midst of absolute commercialism. But where has she gone, this old lady from the Spree? Where once, at least according to the chants, there was only the BSC, but where Union Berlin has now outstripped the west club for several years.
Hertha threatens to be forgotten. Who cares about the club apart from Hertha? For a few years they were the laughingstock of the league, thanks to Klinsmann-Chaos and Big City Club, now in Germany outside of the capital and commuter belt only the surprise team from Köpenick is interested and not the BSC.
Everything should get better under fan favorite Kay Bernstein. But even the new president from the curve does not bring peace to the chaos club. Hertha still does not manage the necessary balancing act between claim and reality. Between “capital cult” and a million-dollar club with an investor. In return, he manages to destroy himself again and again with impressive consistency. Not even close to continuity in the coaching position. No continuous or strategic squad planning for years. Due to the many changes in the coaching position, every new coach has to drag along players that he can’t use at all. Where is the handwriting in the club, so that a coach can bring his own identity with him, integrate and develop it?
The fact that Hertha played in the second division under Sandro Schwarz and conceded the second most goals in the Bundesliga made the 5-2 defeat to Schalke all too clear. A team without a leader (an aging Kevin-Prince Boateng has to take on this role because nobody else has leadership qualities and is overwhelmed) tumbled further and further down for months without Black being able to stop the fall. Even the coach rarely whipped up, often standing almost impassively on the sidelines. Schwarz’ dismissal was as expected as it was logical – but the real evil germinates elsewhere and Dardai will hardly be able to defeat it either.
Hertha falls into the endless trap
So now the Hertha veteran again. The rescuer in need. Pal Dardai, that smells a bit like the old Hertha again. Goulash cannon and Hungarian red wine instead of freshly tapped beer at the bar. It’s quite possible that his angularity and his emotions will nevertheless push the Berliners to the not too far-off shore of salvation. But a goulash doesn’t make a stadium sausage: Despite (or because of) the football romance and nostalgia, Dardai is certainly not what Hertha needs. He will not work through the big problems in the club, the playful signature that the club so urgently needs, and he will not be able to establish a new identity.
Dardai is type fireman. type worker. type mediocrity. Not the architect type. Or even a beacon of hope. He even explained that himself, around August 2021 after the 5-0 defeat against FC Bayern: “Hertha BSC has probably been looking for a great coach for a long time. Pal is a small coach, a nice coach, he helps out as long as it should be.” Now the Pal’sche marmot is back. Instead of a fresh start, Hertha is taking a low-risk path because the new old coach and his appearance have been known for decades (373 games as a player for the club in two terms), which promises little success. Although he knows the team and can make it possible with his disciplined defensive football, Hertha has never developed into an attractive team under him: conservative football, lack of playful elements, tactical weaknesses. Now Dardai is going into his third term as Hertha coach.
Hertha falls into the endless trap again. Again and again it fails because of the monster of its own problems. In other words: somehow prevent relegation. One, maybe two years eleventh place in the table. Then again relegation battle. Then fire Dardai again. Nothing changes in the club, identity formation is zero. Or should this eternal sadness be about Hertha BSC von der Spree? As bitter as a “restart” would be (how many would it actually be?), but the shambles Hertha really leaves no other choice. Mind you: A real reconstruction is needed. Things have often changed at the BSC, and the problematic structures have never changed, even with new staff. Now it’s in marmot mode towards the abyss.
Resurrection of the Old Lady
Werder Bremen will play in the Olympic Stadium next Saturday. The Hanseatic League also staggered towards the second division for a long time until relegation was finally unavoidable. Lo and behold: The restart, albeit painful, did us good. Has welded together. Has released new power, even new identity. In Bremen, everyone knows that smaller rolls will have to be baked in the years to come. That would be something for Hertha, where at the beginning of 2021 the then head of management, Carsten Schmidt, trumpeted: “We want the biggest catch-up race that German and maybe international football has ever experienced.”
Of course, Schmidt is no longer there, but even without grandiose big-city fantasies, Hertha has not yet found its way back onto the healthy track. Who knows, maybe Hertha will do the same as SVW – without another botched season including a narrow rescue – and build something real, something real in the capital via the Unterhaus detour. The Resurrection of the Old Lady. As a club that doesn’t overestimate itself, that has the right strategy and realistic expectations, and that – no matter how successful it is – is building an identity again. The scent of the West End, which is still in the air even with 777 Partners millions, but still comes across as new and fresh.
Dardai is not the right coach for this. Monsters or not. And so it will probably be a while before the capital once again says with conviction: In Berlin, on the Spree – there is Hertha BSC.