The Arne deal underscores your point about our defense, Jan. While we’ve found good deals and unearthed some neat signings in midfield and attack, our attempts to do the same with defense haven’t been nearly as successful. von Bergen can’t stop giving away penalties, Kaka may as well not exist. (Stein’s been OK though.) Our defensive record is built on players that, Drobny apart, predate Lulu- Friedrich and Simunic. We haven’t been able to find other defenders to make up a new-look defense. So keeping the ones we have, that are playing well and giving us the base to get where we are, may be the better option given our record in defensive scouting.

We’ve got a good future ahead of us- I was actually really positive after the first half, and I don’t think we were really out of it until the penalty when everyone’s heads went down, and a 4-0 scoreline was definitely harsh. We do need a little more quality to become a presence in Europe, and even establish ourselves in the top bits of the Bundesliga. But money is tight and that’s unlikely to change. I’m not sure it’s best spent on Voronin, but…

Hertha had alot of luck so far this season, just not in Europe. I think it is great we are in 3rd place, but we are there mostly due to the poor performance of Bremen, Hamburg, Schalke and Leverkusen. Where they have lost to minnows, we have pulled out victories. When we come up against some real class ie Bremen and Munich we get creamed, same last night.

What’s really sad is that the people of Berlin just aren’t interested. We are in 3rd but still only 35,000 come to watch.

About Voronin:
he’s a valuable addition to Hertha’s squad, but certainly not a standout superstar player. He’s earning €4m a year at Liverpool with Hertha currently paying €2m of that due to the loan deal. Voronin certainly won’t be willing to miss out on a lot of cash and Liverpool will want to have a transfer fee as well. So based on his overall price tag (wages + transfer fee) I think he’s too expensive.

About the UEFA Cup:
I’ve been switching between the Stuttgart and Hertha match. Stuttgart took the early lead, so I stayed with the Hertha game for most of the first half. And it was a very good and confident first half by Hertha. They certainly had more control over the game than Olympiakos and some great chances to take the lead. Different to the league they have been woefully wasting them all though. Second half then took a different turn and after Hertha fell behind I watched the Stuttgart match, since I was more after a relaxed evening and not some nailbiting or frustrating stuff. From what I read afterwards though, Hertha again wasted some clear chances, despite having lost the grip they had on the game. A few more thoughts:

- Pantelic has been a bit slow both physically and mentally. He is known to slow Hertha’s game down and be too egoistic, but this time he also couldn’t anticipate the other’s moves, he didn’t speculate on goalkeeper errors and so on. One of the performances, which underlined why he is not a perfect fit for Favre’s system.
- Hertha have been compensating a lot of injuries, to an extent that not even Hertha have been moaning or talking about them too much. But most of them have been in midfield or attack. That’s where Hertha already have some depth. But certainly not at the back. Losing either Simunic, Friedrich or Drobny or any combination of those players is fatal. The problem is that Hertha have no funds to invest in quality backups, since there are still positions in the starting XI, which need a bump in quality first.
- Steve von Bergen conceded a penalty again. I don’t know how much more of a bad season you can have.

At the end of the day, if you leave out the second half against Olympiakos, all of Hertha’s matches in the UEFA Cup were very close – similar to a lot of games in the league. Just that the results didn’t go Hertha’s way. So, Hertha may miss out on a bit of extra cash, which may have an impact on Hertha’s moves on the transfer market, but at least there won’t be such a strain on the team anymore. This should have a positive impact on Hertha’s performances in the league. Even without any new players, there’s still a lot of unearthed potential in the squad, once all the injured players are back at 100%. A lot to look forward to in 2009 I think.

I’m still neutral on Voronin — I obviously haven’t watched him play as much as you, Abby, but I think he’s a solid commodity and hopefully a reasonable deal can be struck with Liverpool if Hertha do want to buy him.

I’ll be rooting for Hertha tonight!