Sunrise, Sunset

By: Abby | June 2nd, 2009

I needed a bit of a break before I could write this- the mix of emotions for a Hertha supporter over the last just about a week and a half. From highs to lows, hope to despair, and the final confusion of what, exactly, to make of everything?

I still haven’t read up on, much less watched, the final game of the season. I was away at my parent’s house when it was going on and woke up to find the last result I expected, to say the least. I haven’t been able to read a recap yet. It’s a long-standing thing with me and football; when a result is particularly depressing, I don’t even want to acknowledge that it’s existed.

So in the end, we didn’t get that Champions League place that had seemed to be within our grasp. Our budget has been slashed accordingly, and with that, we’ve got to say goodbye to Andriy Voronin and Marko Pantelic. It’s a shame. I don’t think any Hertha fan truly wants to see either of them go, for different reasons. Voronin for the form that propelled us to such an unlikely height. Marko for the heroics of his four years here. Voro goes back to Liverpool, who are likely to offload him somewhere else that can pay, while no one’s quite sure yet where Pante’s future lies.

But a bit of time away from the news has helped me to stop dwelling on the depressing. We may have fallen, embarrassingly, at the final hurdle, but we’ve still had the best season in recent memory. We still went from 10th place to 4th without the flash typically heralding such a rise. The season has made me giddy and excitable. I don’t want to forget how great the past months were despite the past week. I’m still incredibly proud of the team and Lucien Favre for what they’ve accomplished.

Besides, the period of mourning for the Champions League is over. (And realistically, we probably would have ended up in the Europa League anyway, after qualifiers.) It’s time to start thinking about next season. In fact, we’ve already made our first signing- Christoph Janker, formerly of Hoffenheim. Perhaps he’s most famous for showing up late for a doping test, being investigated, and then having the investigation suspended. He’s a defensive all-rounder who, most importantly, was available on a free. Without the extra boost from the Champions League we have very little money to spend, suggested to be as low as €5 million unless we sell one of our prize assets.

The confirmed goings so far are limited to Sofian Chahed, the Berlin-born defender who has been at the club since 1999. He and his agent demanded a salary of over €1 million and that was deemed to be just too much for him (he only played 13 games last season, after all). Janker is his direct replacement. It’s a shame to lose a child of the club, but there are cuts that have to be made. in the same vein, it seems that we’re cutting quite a few youth/amateur players as well.

There’s also the next rumor of Lulu himself going, which I think will be a factor whenever a club bigger than Hertha loses a manager. Thanks to the departure of Martin Jol, that club is currently Hamburg. Bild says that Lulu is now a candidate, but it seems to be built on a case about as strong as the one that suggested he would go to Bayern. Part of it is based on an interview he gave to Swiss newspaper Blick, where he was somewhat bleak about Hertha’s chances next season, especially in regards to finances. I don’t think I can begrudge him a bit of frustration at being expected to improve on this season with nothing to do it with, but he does already seem to be starting on trying to do just that.

Even though Lulu’s still taking a well-earned vacation with his family, there’s still transfer rumors afoot. AS Monaco’s Yohan Mollo, a talented 19-year-old midfielder, is being mentioned. There’s also talk of a possible loan deal for ivan Klasnic, the Croatian striker who had a fine Bundesliga career with Werder Bremen, two kidney transplants, and recently relegated from Ligue 1 with Nantes.

Whatever the case, I’m unlikely to be idle during the summer months.