Well, a familiar face, actually. Michael Preetz is Hertha’s former captain and all-time leading scorer. He played 227 games for Hertha from 1996-2003, gaining promotion and retiring. Born in Düsseldorf, he started his career at Fortuna Düsseldorf and spent time at FC Saarbrücken, MSV Duisburg, and SG Wattenscheid 09 before settling (and more) at Hertha. Before Hertha he was known as something of an in-between sort of player: too good for the 2. Bundesliga, not quite good enough for the 1. Bundesliga. It was his time at Hertha, where he arrived at the age of 29, that he shook that reputation, scoring goal after goal and bringing Hertha their first taste of the Champions League.

Even as a player he was known as an intellectual, for a footballer, the sort that read books and not just the sports pages. He’s got a degree in sports management and was vice-president of the player’s union. When he retired from playing he transitioned quickly into management, starting as an assistant under Dieter Hoeness and eventually moving to his last position, in charge of the Hertha player licensing department. He’s also been on the bench next to Lulu for quite a while now.

Clearly, he’s had his eye on this for a long time.

So what does this mean for Hertha, now?

It’s always interesting to see teams that hold onto players past the time they’re on the pitch. It’s been a trend in the Bundesliga, particularly in the more successful teams- Werder Bremen, Bayern Munich, and VfB Stuttgart all have old boys upstairs. There’s something to be said for having ex-players in charge. They would, theoretically, have an attachment to the team and want it to succeed. They’d know the culture and the history. They’d have an investment in its success that goes beyond the monetary. (Theoretically, anyway.)

The question with Preetz is, of course, experience. Hertha’s not an easy club to run and he’s never managed before. However, he has spent the past six years learning how to. A lot of ex-players don’t have that sort of apprenticeship period- Heldt, for example, went straight from the training ground to the decision-making. Preetz has been working to this point since 2003.

He’s been saying all the right things- about teamwork and about Hertha’s place. He’s marketing himself as a clear break from his predecessor. His more recent quotes are about being a team player and not single-handedly running the club, which is definitely a jab at Dieter, who often got accused of attempting to be an autocrat. He’s also talking about the holy grail of Hertha- changing the image of die Alte Dame.

He’s got his work cut out for him on several levels. Image is one thing. There’s also following up on last season, finding players, singing them, making deals in the way that always seemed to elude Dieter Hoeness. There’s dealing with the expectations. But I have hope- he has the energy, ideas, and the coach on his side (who might get yet another new contract).

Besides, I’m always an optimist.

As of this week, he is no longer the manager.

There’s a lot to be said for his tenure. Despite everything, the club has stayed in the Bundesliga since it’s come up, becoming Berlin’s one representative in the top league. Hertha have flirted with Europe, both in Champions League and UEFA Cup form. We’ve had the occasional interesting player wear the blue and white. And, most importantly, Hertha has stayed in the Bundesliga. According to Dieter Hoeness, Hertha was a bit of a mess when he came in, and he’s stabilized it into what we know today.

But that doesn’t mean he’s been universally beloved. I remember a Rafael Honigstein article where he suggested that Uli Hoeness, the notoriously ruthless Bayern Munich general manager, instilled his less-talented brother at the Hertha position to ensure that Berlin never challenged Munich as a Bundesliga power. There have been several different ‘Hoeness out!’ demonstrations throughout the years. And for all the flirtations with Europe and interesting players, there’s mostly debt to show for it. He’s also been known for being paranoid and slightly argumentative, paranoid that his contribution isn’t being noticed and unwilling to let others take other credit.

The heart of the firing seems to be the simplest- players. It’s been Dieter’s job to find players for Hertha, and that’s where he’s been most at odds with possibly his most successful signing, coach Lucien Favre. It’s been felt that Dieter hasn’t been working the Hertha budget in the best possible way, and one could claim that the debt Hertha finds itself in is at least a large way due to his actions in the transfer market. The Hertha history is littered with signings that didn’t quite work out, particularly South Americans that never settled properly. The final straw seems to have been the possibility of Lucas Barrios, the Argentinian striker we were getting close to signing. Hoeness was enthusiastic of signing this untried player from the Chilean league, despite Colo Colo wanting a price close to what Liverpool wanted for Andriy Voronin, a player we already knew worked for us.

In the end, it was Hoeness’ best signing that lead to his downfall- Lucien Favre, the Swiss coach who’s done such a fantastic job in turning the fortunes of the club around this past season. While not quite wanting English-style control of the club, he clearly didn’t see eye-to-eye with Hoeness on the way the club should be going. With Hertha’s good season and interest from bigger clubs, like Hamburg and Bayern Munich, Lulu had a lot of power. He’s a manager that other clubs are interested in and that players are interested in playing for. For a club that hasn’t had much of an identity and that has had trouble attracting good players, that’s clearly something worth keeping.

And that’s what, in the end, the board thought as well. Lulu played the interest from those bigger clubs expertly. Now it will be him and ex-captain Michael Preetz- who’s been Dieter Hoeness’ “apprentice” and gained a degree in sports management since his retirement- to keep the club moving forward.

It’s not an easy situation. Hertha’s not an easy club to run. Time will tell who will prove to be right- Dieter Hoeness, who’s said he’s done all he can, or the new team of Preetz-Gegenbauer-Favre, who think they can do better.

As for me, the simple blogger, thousands of miles away from Berlin, with a substandard grasp of German and trying to figure out what’s going on? Well, I’ve been on the side of Lulu for just about the whole time I’ve been writing this blog. I’m not about to change that now.

This comes on the news that the coaching positions at Hamburg and Bayer Leverkusen, both of whom had courted Lulu, have been filled. Which means that, for now, no one is trying to pry him away. However, president Werner Gegenbauer likely knows that this won’t be the last time his name comes up in conjunction to a bigger job. With this move, it looks like the club will be trying very hard to keep him happy.

I expect there to be more news on Monday. Hoeness has already given an interview to Bild that sounds like there’s a fine story to be told.

Instead, a 1-1 draw at Bielefeld, combined with a draw for Hoffenheim and a win for Bayern (along with Hamburg’s loss) means that we’re third instead.

Most comments I’ve read have had mentions of the missing Marko Pantelic, but to me, the real problems were missing Arne Friedrich and Gojko Kacar. We’ve been winning games without Pante this season, but we rely on our defense to do it. Arne’s been a rock this season and Kaká…well, he’s not exactly Kaká, is he?

The first goal was taken by Andriy Voronin, on 13 minutes- a combination of skill and route one football. In some ways, that describes Hertha very well. Drobny’s long ball found the Ukrainian, who controlled well and lashed it into the net. He had a chance to make it 2-0 only a few minutes later, but his lob over Dennis Eilhoff hit the crossbar instead.

Still, things were looking decent until Leandro Cufré, on his debut, lost track of who else but Artur Wichniarek. The Polish striker pounded an excellent header into the goal on the 40th minute. Of course, Wichniarek would be the scorer- not only has he scored most of Bielefeld’s goals, he’s an ex-Herthaner.

Cufré came off for Amine Chermiti at the break, but there were no more goals. Chermiti looked bright, though, and fast, so it’s likely we’ll be seeing some from him soon.

So, no first place for us, but we didn’t lose and that’s good. Hopefully we’ll have some of our missing players back for next week’s top-of-the-table clash (that’s still weird for me) with Bayern Munich. We lose heavy to the Bavarians on a regular basis, but maybe we can do it better this time?

In other news, just because the transfer window’s closed doesn’t mean that we can’t still talk about transfers. There’s some talk that Saturday’s goalscorer Andriy Voronin might be on his way back to Liverpool. With Robbie Keane back to London, Torres with injury problems, and Liverpool without other suitable strikers, there’s some talk that he might be recalled this season. Hmmm.

Slightly more worrying is a wholly unsubstantiated rumor that Bayern Munich is sniffing around Gojko Kacar. I’ve always thought that he’d be one of the first to get picked off if we started to do well. I was just hoping it wouldn’t be soon.

We’re also allegedly interested in another Swiss player.

In non-transfer news, there’s apparently been some deal brokered to give Hertha BSC Berlin a women’s club, although not right away. A cooperation agreement with 1 FC Lübars, a Berlin-Reinickendorf women’s team, has been announced, with Lübars adopting the Hertha colors and becoming associated with the existing Hertha men’s team. The deal provides Hertha with good community marketing, and FC Lübars with more money- so they can, for example, get a license for the women’s 2. Bundesliga, which they couldn’t afford before. There’s also some talk that Lübars might eventually be absorbed entirely into Hertha, but that won’t happen before at least 2011. Women’s football is a big deal in Germany, with one of the best women’s teams in the world, and they’re set to host the World Cup in 2011. It’s good to see a women’s club associated with Hertha- hopefully they can improve and provide some players for the German team in that World Cup.

The signs are looking pretty good. We’ve got a lead of two away goals going into the home leg (to be played, as was the game against Nistru Otaci, at the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark). Ljubljana’s form hasn’t much improved since the last time- they’ve yet to win a game. Their last game was a 4-0 drubbing from the league champions NK Domžale.

On the other hand, Hertha’s form has been pretty good. We won the opening game and drew the most recent one. We’ve been playing well and looking good. While we failed to convert a lot of our chances at the weekend, we don’t need much. I’d settle for some kind of clean sheet. I’m hoping it’ll be a clean sheet involving a goal or few for us, but let’s not get greedy.

Player-wise, we’re likely to see a bit of rotation, especially with the mighty (and stuttering) Bayern Munich coming up at the weekend. Lulu’s been talking about rotation, saying he’s going to do it. Considering the lead we have going in, it’s not a bad idea. Fortunately, we actually have a squad to do so right now. While it’s always worrying to play without Marko Pantelic, who’s nursing a slight knee problem and likely to sit out of the game, this is a chance to really get a look at Armine Chermiti. We’re likely to see a few other changes, as well- it’s unlikely that Arne Friedrich, struggling with a back problem, will be playing.

The big question is whether we’ll be seeing Josip Simunic or not. The big Croat didn’t play against Bielefeld and there’s a lot of talk of dissension in the ranks. Simunic himself said that “Probably even Albert Einstein could not explain why I did not play,” and Patrick Ebert agreed so much that he was forced to pay a €5,000 fine and apologize to Lulu. It’s definitely a potentially worrying situation. After Pante’s goal against Bielefeld he (and the other players) ran over to celebrate with Josip, bypassing Lulu as they did. While Ebert’s fine has quieted him for now, this is unlikely to be the end of it. Could this be a sign of tension between the old Hertha players and Lulu’s new set?

I suppose we’ll see. But first, there’s a team from Slovenia to take care of.

There have been two away games since I wrote last. Both have been won. For a team that’s known for not traveling very well, it’s a good sign.

The first game was the UEFA Cup qualifier against NK Interblock Ljubljana. They’d just sacked their coach, but it didn’t do them very well against us. Marko Pantelic scored a goal in each half. New boy Armine Chermiti got his first start, and had a goal ruled off for offside. Injuries made it so that Lulu had to play Lukasz Piszczek, the young Polish striker, in the back four, but that didn’t stop us from keeping a clean sheet in Slovenia.

This puts Hertha in excellent position to make the UEFA Cup proper, with two away goals and a home leg to play. Europe isn’t always our specialty- we’ve been knocked out by renowned teams such as Dyskobolia Grodzisk Wielkopolski and a Lulu-lead Servette- and it’s too early to really say that the trend won’t continue, but it’s nice to see us be comfortable in an away win, anywhere.

The more surprising away win, though, was the one from Sunday. The opening game of the Bundesliga season, away to Eintracht Frankfurt, who’d finished last season a place ahead of us in ninth. They’re a solid team, although injury-hit at the moment, and had drawn with Real Madrid earlier in the week. And we had a 2-0 win that can be described as comfortable.

Let’s put this in context. Hertha hasn’t won an opening game in this millennium- the last opening win came in 1999. Hertha’s away record isn’t great to begin with, and combined with the opening-day stats…well, let’s just say that I’m very pleased to see this kind of turnaround. Not only was it a nice away win against a solid Bundesliga team, but it was done in quite a lot of style- quick passing, good defending, strong counter-attacks. Frankfurt’s coach called the win ‘fully warranted’, praising our skill and class.

This time, the goals were scored by Raffael and Patrick Ebert, both from Pantelic assists. It’s nice to see scorers other than Pante, although this wasn’t entirely a Pante-less win. The long-haired Serb was integral, as always- I dread the thought of replacing him, although I do have some hope for Chermiti (and Bild is irritatingly getting my hopes up). But the whole team impressed in Frankfurt.

The manner of the victory was as notable as the fact. This was Lulu’s first year with a full pre-season, and a whole summer (and winter) to scout and implement transfers. The team is now shaping itself to his specifications- the style of play he wants, his vaunted ability with youth (7 starters under 25 against Frankfurt), the hope and confidence that he wants in players and fans. Arne Friedrich is now saying that “people feel that this is a team with which they can identify.” Slowly, Hertha is turning into a team that people may actually want to see.

Part of this has to be from some of the young players. Lulu was always known as someone who was good with the youth team, able to discover young players and pluck the best out of the academy. There are signs he’s done that this season. Four local boys- Sascha Bigalke, Florian Riedel, Lennart Hartmann, and Shervin Radjabali-Fardi- were given professional contracts this season after impressing very much in the pre-season. Hartmann became the youngest player ever for Hertha when he replaced Gojko Kacar (back from China, and not exactly old himself at 21) in the 67th minute of Sunday’s game.

It’s a risky experiment. Lulu, and the club, are extremely ambitious. Lulu famously wants to challenge for a title in 2010. It’s hard to say if you can do that with kids and cheap transfers. The club wants to see improvement over two 10th-place finishes, and the press insists that Lulu is under a lot of pressure to improve. They’re also skeptical of whether that can be done- Goal.com previews the upcoming season and predicts a 14th-place finish.

Can Hertha go forwards? Is Lulu on the right path?

It’s too early to say, especially on the back of one (admittedly impressive) league game and a few good wins against unknown Eastern European sides. But confidence is high at the moment, and I’m an optimist. Why can’t we surprise a few people?

After all, what use is a new season without hope?

While I’ve been gone, Hertha elected a new president. His name is Werner Gegenbauer, which I think is an awesome name to say. He was also the only candidate standing, so it’s a good thing he won, then. He says the right things about raising Hertha’s profile, qualifying for the UEFA Cup for real, and eventually, someday, challenge for the title.

What’s more interesting to me is the financial statements- a profit of €6 million and a debt reduction to €30 million. It points to, somewhere, there being financial responsibility at the club. Which is something I like to see in my football clubs, and something that has been somewhat lacking at Hertha. A few more years of this and talk about challenging for the title won’t sound so odd.

And in general transfer-like news, this website says that das Bild said that we’ve signed Armine Chermitti, the young Tunisian striker. We’ve been linked to him for quite a while, since the last transfer window at least, with multiple reports that we’ve agreed terms. He’s supposed to be quite decent- he’d better be, if we’re really paying €2 million for him. We’ve also now officially signed Valeri Domovchiyski from Levski Sofia for €1 million- I guess that goal against Bayern was worth it…

Our other loanee, Rudy Skacel, is officially still a loanee, but he’s also been called up to the Czech Republic squad for the Euros. However, Steve von Bergen has had to withdraw from the Swiss squad after a hand injury. I can only imagine how upsetting that is for him, so good luck, Steve.