When the full-time whistle blew at BORUSSIA-PARK, Gladbach collected just their second win in ten games, putting some of their genuine relegation fears to rest. But on the other side of the coin were Hertha Berlin, whose collapse has been reminiscent of Schalke’s capitulation a couple of seasons ago, and who are staring down the barrel of the 2. Bundesliga for the first time in a decade. But it was all supposed to be very, very different.

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When Lars Windhorst completed his purchase of the 49.9% stake in the club, the excitement around the capital was palpable. The huge potential of a glamourous, cosmopolitan project was supposed to finally be fulfilled, with Windhorst and his partners pumping hundreds of millions of Euros into the club in an attempt to compete at the top of the league with Bayern, Dortmund and Leipzig. He has only been involved with the club for around three years, but those years have been farcical to the point of being unbelievable. Despite a net spend over the last three years in the Champions League places – behind just Bayern and Wolfsburg – the loss to Gladbach saw Hertha slip into the automatic relegation places. What on earth has happened?

When Windhorst first took over the club, the ambitions obviously had to change. An army of technical, administrative and financial staff that had been focussed more on avoiding relegation were suddenly tasked with building a side for European football. While behind the scenes it was difficult, on the pitch required a complete culture shift. Hertha legend Pal Dardai, whose pragmatic style had been effective if unspectacular, was dismissed just before the takeover, and after overambitious attempts to bring in the likes of Erik ten Haag and Andre Villas-Boas, were left promoting the promising, but inexperienced, Ante Covic from the B team. His more progressive approach failed to generate results, and he was removed from his position at the end of November.

Hertha then turned to a big name, in Jurgen Klinsmann, to inspire their new side with his own reputation as a superstar. Windhorst and the board backed the former Mannschaft head coach too, spending €70m in the January transfer window, the most ever by a German side. When the window slammed shut, the message that Hertha were ready to compete had been sent, and everybody looked forward to a better second half of the season. Except that less than two weeks later, Klinsmann resigned. Citing a lack of trust and support, it’s difficult to also ignore that results had not been great and that, perhaps, he realised that he wasn’t the man for the job.

Alexander Nouri took over for the next four games, conceding 11 goals, before the Hertha board turned to the Bundesliga’s fix-it man Bruno Labbadia, who managed to stave off relegation. He lasted until the following January, when the club went full circle to bring back Pal Dardai. Dardai’s reign was the best of any Hertha manager under Windhorst, but not good enough, and he was replaced by Tayfun Korkut in November. The former Stuttgart and Kaiserslautern man was himself dismissed following the defeat to Gladbach, with Felix Magath installed.

Seven managers is more than any other club in Europe’s top leagues in the 2 and a half years since Windhorst took over. It’s the kind of instability that would derail any project, but for a club going through the transformation that Hertha has, it is catastrophic. Behind the scenes it was no more stable. Michael Preetz, the man who spent that €70m in January 2020, seemed unable to adapt to the new direction, but equally could not revert immediately to the pragmatism of before. Which mean big money signings like Krzysztof Piatek and Lucas Tousart struggled to become the relegation fighters that Hertha needed, while after Klinsmann’s resignation, also not being given the freedom to do what they are good at. Recruitment, whether managerial or players, has been a mess.

On top of that has been controversy. Club ambassador Jens Lehmann was sacked for racism after asking with Dennis Aogo was a “quota black guy” in Sky’s football coverage. This was hot on the heels of an interview by coach Zsolt Petry in a Hungarian newspaper that was racist and homophobic, taking in such topics immigration leading to criminality and “moral downfall”, and condemning Peter Gulacsi for speaking out in support of same-sex marriage. Hertha, a club that prides itself on liberal values in the most cosmopolitan city in the country, acted too slowly, only condemning both parties when the public anger reached a fever pitch.

Over the summer, Hertha replaced Preetz with highly rated Fredi Bobic in a move that was supposed to signal a restart of the project. Bobic had done exceptional work at Eintracht Frankfurt, turning them from relegation fodder into European semi-finalists with a succession of shrewd signings, many of whom were sold for substantial profits. But it hasn’t led to an upturn in fortunes. Dardai’s stock had risen too far for Bobic to replace him, but the Hungarian wasn’t happy working with the new man, explaining after a difficult start that “I’m not clinging onto my job; I’m just helping out. Hertha has probably been looking for a great coach for a long time. Pal is a small, nice coach.” By the time he was in a position to be sacked, Hertha were struggling and the pool of managers available to Bobic was limited, and the situation has only got worse.

Global events may also have overtaken the club. Windhorst has been a controversial financier for some time, once claiming that everybody has a billion or two in debt. But that debt seems to be catching up to him. Windhorst is reported to have spent the summer rapidly trying to reduce the amount he owed, while he is also believed to be very close to a number of Russian oligarchs, and questions have been asked about financial firm H2O’s investment gamble on the rouble since the war in Ukraine started, alongside its exposure to his investments. Nothing has been proved, but Hertha’s biggest shareholder’s relationship with Russia seems to be murky, and at the moment, that could be a concern.

If Magath can keep them in the top flight, whether by Windhorst’s millions or Bobic’s genius, there is scope for the project to finally get on track in its third season. But staying in the 1. Bundesliga, that is far from a certainty.

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