The Successor
By: Abby | October 3rd, 2009It’s official: Friedhelm Funkel is the new coach of Hertha BSC Berlin.
He spent the past five years as manager of Eintracht Frankfurt, before leaving at the end of last season. At Frankfurt, he got them up, kept them up, and even brought them to Europe via a cup final, so he has the sort of firefighter qualities that Hertha are looking for. He was also known for being pragmatic and cautious over all else, more concerned with not losing than with possibly winning.
But, he does know how to keep a somewhat-mediocre, patched together with no funds team together, and in the Bundesliga, as that’s what he did at Frankfurt for five years. Eventually his system and his style quit working there, but they did for long enough to hope that he can turn Hertha around. Style, as always, can wait. His contract, interestingly enough, is just until the end of the season. If he succeeds and Hertha stays up then it’ll be extended.
Of course, he’s saying all the right things- calling Hertha a “top club” and talking about how excited he was when Preetz called him. But he also says how we shouldn’t be expecting miracles and he’ll work on things piece by piece to affect a turnaround.
So that’s it, then. Funkel will be on the bench tomorrow against Hamburg.
In general I think he’s a decent, if perhaps not exciting, choice. His time at Frankfurt shows that he’s what Hertha probably need right now, and he’s certainly a better selection than a few others I heard- Lothar Matthäus, for example. And I’m glad that the search wasn’t drawn out for very long. Having a new coach and a bit of stability going into the next game is better than the alternative. I remember Schalke’s manager search at the end of last season. Better to have it all in place as soon as possible. And “Friedhelm” is kind of fun to say.
The ousted Lucien Favre will be holding a press conference on Tuesday to talk about his future, a subject that I’m still interested in.
But before then, there’s still a game to play. Let’s see if Funkel, or just the motivation of a new manager, can hold back Hamburg.
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Comments | Add your comment
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What are you going to call him? Funky? Freddy? lol.
Posted from
Australia
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First he has to show that he deserves a nice nickname, I think
Posted from
Germany -
Once he deserves one you could go for Sparky or Twinky (funkeln is the German word for to sparkle/to twinkle).
Posted from
Germany -
Hamburg bring their Rapid Vienna face to Berlin, Berlin punishes it, plays aggressive forechecking, goes 1-0 up and then Hertha singlehandedly score and set up three goals for Hamburg. Haven’t seen such a tragic comedy in quite a while…
Posted from
Germany -
yeah.
im glad we won, but im sorry it had to end up like it did…Posted from
Iceland -
You have to give it to Hertha, scoring what were essentially 3 own goals is a pretty amazing achievement.
Posted from
United States -
Maybe Hertha can build upon that by stealing the NBA claim “Where Amazing Happens” to get a few more people into the Olympiastadion. 38000 against Hamburg made this game almost feel like an Europa League match.
Posted from
Germany -
It was 49,208 people if I remember correctly.
The universe is against us. What do you do in such a situation?
Posted from
Germany -
Oops, seems the site with the matchstats had a wrong attendance number at first.
Anyway, you can’t pile up that much bad luck every weekend. With the attitude the team was showing, there are three points ready to be collected in Nuremberg.
Posted from
Germany -
I don’t know what to say. I just don’t. I am glad there is a week off. I am not ready to watch another Hertha match next weekend. I need some time to digest this.
Posted from
United States
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