Hertha's implosion

When Lucien Favre arrived from Switzerland in 2007, he promised a revolution. One that would lift Hertha BSC, the German capital's moribund club, out of its impulsive and underachieving past into a stable future built on solid footballing fundamentals.

That included: a young, athletic first team of players capable of filling positional gaps all over the field; a youth system built around his preferred playing style, feeding new talent into the senior side at regular intervals; a power structure in which the coach and general manager understood and agreed on the basics of which players to bring in and how to treat them.

Favre got his revolution, even accomplishing a healthy proportion of those goals. But he forgot to reckon with the volatile aftermath of revolutions. They often include backbiting, backroom intrigue, and yes, a seemingly suicidal series of purges.

Setbacks follow success

First the club, on Favre's wishes, parted ways with its mercurial striker Marko Pantelic. Then Hertha pushed out its long-time sporting director Dieter Hoeness. Then it lost its back-line boss Josip Simunic to a buy-out clause in his contract, and followed that up by failing to put enough money together to buy the forward Andrey Voronin from Liverpool, who had played such a big part in Hertha's success while on loan there last season.

The club had lost some of its most dependable hands, but Lucien Favre suspected he could weather whatever storm might come. When some of his buys from this summer failed to produce the goods - and an injury crisis hit - however, there was nowhere left to hide. And then there was nobody left to purge but Favre himself.

Seeds of discord

Four-and-a-half months ago, in mid-May, it would have been unthinkable for Hertha to fire the Swiss coach. With two games to play, the club was a point off the top spot, in the frame for Champions League football the next season, and had an easier run-in than some of its rivals.

Then the team drew at home to a mid-table Schalke (who had nothing to play for), and were hammered 4-0 away to Karlsruhe (who were just about as good as relegated).

At the time it seemed like bad luck, or a sign of a team that just didn't have anything left in the tank after a long season of overachieving. But with the benefit of hindsight, it's clear some of the troubles that got Favre fired really did start with the team's skid across the finish line in May.

Problems with players

After a red-card suspension in April, Andrey Voronin had been in and out of the starting line-up. Against Schalke he was out of it, and presented a sullen front to reporters afterward. He had a partner in crime, too, in Hertha captain Arne Friedrich.

The defender was out injured for six games leading up to the Schalke match, and grumbled afterward to the press about not playing. Even though Hertha had won four of its six matches and had kept things tight at the back in his absence, he felt that, as captain, he deserved to start.

Favre reacted like a man who felt he needed to set a clear disciplinary line. Despite Hertha's needing a spark in its last match in order to regain its Champions League place, Favre didn't put Friedrich (or Voronin for that matter) in the starting eleven for the Karlsruhe match.

Indifferent captain

As Hertha's ship has gone down this season, Arne Friedrich has cut a startlingly indifferent figure. He has played well at times, at others badly, but has hardly filled the role demanded from him as captain: to motivate and stabilize the squad as it went through a difficult period.

And as defensive organizer, Friedrich receives a failing grade after seven games. Without his onetime partner in central defense, Josip Simunic, Hertha has shipped in 17 goals - with a whopping nine in the last two matches alone.

It's questionable that Friedrich has been deliberately playing badly in order to speed up Favre's departure, as some have accused him of doing. But it would seem almost certain that the 30-year-old didn't feel like giving much more than the minimum required of him - especially if it meant helping out a boss he no longer liked or trusted.

He's likely to have upset some of his teammates, and a significant number of the club's fans have turned on him - so the disappearing act may well cost Friedrich the Hertha captaincy.

And moreover, as the team's actual motivational heart, long-time central midfielder Pal Dardai, reminded him this week, "if he keeps playing like this he might not be in the national team much longer.”

Where to?

Regardless of the grounds for Favre's exit, the immediate result is clear: Hertha needs a new coach, and soon.

Interim coach Karsten Heine can be all but ruled out. He's led the team three times before, always on a short-term interim basis and has never been seriously considered for the job.

So-called 'firemen' in the mold of Hans Meyer (who has saved Hertha once before) are also rumored to be out, as the club management believe it's too early in the season to turn to a coach who is certain to be a one-season-and-done solution.

Speculation has turned, then, to coaches with Hertha connections whom the club could see taking over for the longer term.

Juergen Roeber, who led Hertha during its last, brief period of glory at the turn of the century, is said to be a candidate. He's recently seen his club in Turkey get relegated by the FA there under controversial circumstances, and may be looking for a way out.

Surprises are possible

Other names that have come up are Kjetil Rekdal and Eyjolfur Sverrisson, who fit the profile in that they are both former players from Roeber's time. But neither one has been much of a success as a coach.

Without a doubt the most interesting rumor is that Hertha are considering hiring Lothar Matthaeus. He's Germany's most-capped player, and has had largely successful coaching stints in Hungary, Serbia, Austria and Israel. But he is also a magnet for the tabloid press and was, during his playing career, famously difficult to get along with.

Because of this prickly reputation - and the perception that, despite his obvious mastery of the game, he might be more a distraction than a help - Matthaeus has never landed a job in Germany.

He may have to wait a bit longer. But if there's a club audacious (or reckless) enough to give him a shot, it might well be Hertha.

Author: Matt Hermann
Editor: Michael Lawton