After a 1-1 draw against Augsburg, Hertha BSC is on leave of club icon Pal Dardai. The successor is not called Rangnick, not Tedesco, but Tayfun Korkut. He was out of the soccer business for a long time. Hertha boss Fredi Bobic has great confidence in the chameleon from Stuttgart.
Pal Dardai is history. His second term at Hertha BSC only lasts ten months. The still new sports director Fredi Bobic is on leave on a Monday morning. Two days after a draw against Augsburg, which Hertha left in the lower third of the table. While Dardai mostly failed in his first time at Hertha in the games that could have brought the old lady towards international ranks, the club from the West End has been in the basement of the Bundesliga for far too long. Despite numerous departures in the summer and another upheaval in the squad.
As is so often the case in recent years, when Hertha BSC is increasingly in danger of taking on the unloved role of the stumbling traditional club. Despite gigantic cash flows from investor Lars Windhorst and his Tennor group. The crash of a major club, just like that of Hamburger SV, like that of Werder Bremen and like that of FC Schalke 04.
At all three clubs, the long-term infirmity of the clubs was underpinned by a loud, incredulous roar from fans of other clubs and the media. The fascination lay in their failure. With the emergency brake, Bobic wants to free the club from years of chaos and save it from another fall. There is not much air. Still, it’s a bold move. With an old friend at Bobic’s side: Tayfun Korkut, the sixth coach of the Windhorst era, the second under Bobic.
Nobody in Berlin has been waiting for Korkut
He will certainly not be received with advance praise in Berlin’s Westend. Too little can be said about the coach Korkut. It is said of him that he is a friendly person, a personable and a thoroughly good coach with a lot of expertise. Hardly anyone says a bad word about Korkut. His first, quiet and shy start at Hertha BSC shows why that is the case. Not without charm.
The future of Berlin belongs to Korkut (left) and Bobic (right).
(Photo: picture alliance / dpa / Hertha BSC / Pool)
And with the certainty of taking over an association that is “not in an easy situation, but also not in a hopeless one”. That says Hertha sports director Fredi Bobic, who is responsible for this surprise coup and explains it this Monday. Or at least put it into words. Cold, well-considered and clear, he politely says goodbye to club icon Dardai, but leaves no doubt that it’s over now.
Shortly beforehand, Korkut and the sports director enter the small media room through the back door – the front door is locked – in Berlin’s Westend. He sits down in the middle and first hears Bobic singing a hymn of praise for him. “It’s good to be here now,” says the 47-year-old, who three years after his last position at VfB Stuttgart is back in business and “full of energy”. In his break from daily business, he allowed himself the luxury of spending time with his family. “I was never bored,” says Korkut. He adds: “I am a passionate coach.”
Hertha’s eternal dance on the edge
Korkut, who played under Joachim Löw in Turkey, has rarely been able to prove this for more than two dozen games in a row. Then his time in Leverkusen, Kaiserslautern and also at VfB ended, which he only led from 14th place in the direction of the European Cup on his last station, only to be dismissed in the following season after an early cup bankruptcy and a few league games .
Only in Hanover did it last longer. To Stuttgart: family, luxury and always football. International and Bundesliga. There are also frequent conversations with Bobic, whom he knows from days together in Swabia. He as a youth coach, Bobic as head of sport. Conversations in which the new job ultimately emerges. Korkut says he wasn’t surprised about the offer. He has already seen too much in the coaching business.
So now Hertha BSC, this indomitable club between megalomania and capital city charm, which in recent years has brought stories to the league for eternity and repeatedly robbed the fans of their minds. Coaches came, games came, coaches left, players left. The constant: the chaos and the dance on the edge. Even more striking and even more in public due to the sovereign takeover of power by the capital city rival Union, which these days, at least athletically, is doing a lot right.
Expedition into the animal kingdom
At Hertha, on the other hand: chaos and the dance on the edge. Like last season and the one before. Break after break. Players who were lured to the Spree with a lot of money and showed nothing more. Money that made the core of the club, the team, not better, but worse. A team that has not broken up in the last few months and can still swim in the unfortunate Bundesliga. Not more. Which should get better now. Step by step. Help from the animal kingdom.
“As a trainer you have to become a bit of a chameleon,” says Korkut this Monday. His plan for the first few weeks in Berlin: “Do the simple things exceptionally well” and approach things “pragmatically”. As always when a new job calls. The first “quick analysis” of the squad has been created. The comparison with reality and the becoming a chameleon begins this Tuesday. Then he meets the team for the first time that Bobic had not informed him about the decision in advance.
At the border between chaos (Hertha) and order (Bobic) everything is only loosely connected. The interests are too different. The chaos tugs at the order, gains the upper hand and swirls the things that used to be. They tear apart, disoriented, regroup and ultimately change into a new order at some point. The system has adapted, reorganized. Fredi Bobic has stood on this limit for a long time. As an observer.
He becomes a chaos researcher. He looks deep into the club. In the chaos he recognizes everything, but not patterns, as it is when things are out of control. He sees perfect games (against Frankfurt), passionate games (Gladbach), inconsequential games (many, very many) and those with deep, immeasurable abysses – like the disastrous derby at Union Berlin. The actual end point of the Dardai period. Then a final decision is formed. The game against Augsburg can’t change that either.
“I need a drink right away”
Hertha received the equalization with the last action of the game. Late again, like against Leverkusen. Four points given away. “If we had won 1-0, the decision would have been the same,” said Bobic. “There are moments when decisions have to be made. That time has now come.” After months of teasing between Dardai, the original Berliner from Hungary, who only took over Hertha for the second time at the beginning of the year, held the league, smoked a cigar and yet was not the man for the future. He stayed because there was no other solution. And he endured the eternal rumors about the search for a successor, sometimes more and sometimes less calmly.
The constant swipes of the investor Windhorst are likely to have worn him down in the long run, making him even more closed Luxury yacht in the Mediterranean in a Whatsapp circle, the dpa reported at the time. The bizarre investor and his own media public.
The “little Pal” felt that his good years in the Westend were long behind him and he conveyed this impression not only in the interviews in which he flirted with his resignation, but possibly also in exchange with the team and the club management, says Bobic at. “When you have conversations, you know: ‘Okay, there’s more to come, or nothing more or you mess your way around,'” says Bobic, who saw after the derby that there was nothing more to come. Except for the end and a transition into a new order.
Nobody found out anything about it. Until the bang on Monday. That is rare at Hertha, says Bobic, quietly triumphant. A small victory. On which there should be many more consequences. On the way out of the chaos. In a new order. With his old friend Korkut. At least until the end of the season. That would be a success. For the time being, Hertha remains a gigantic mystery.