How Hertha BSC is planning for the new season: Bruno Labbadia and the politics of quiet hand sports

The two old men dragged themselves together in front of the camera one last time. Especially the younger of the two looked badly injured. He had got rid of his socks, had a bandage around his left ankle and a bandage around his right calf. But Per Skjelbred felt no pain, neither physically nor mentally. The Norwegian beamed.

It’s over. Seven years of Hertha BSC, but above all a long season that had drawn on everyone involved. And yet Skjelbred enjoyed his last moments in the Bundesliga after the 1-2 loss at Borussia Mönchengladbach. When none of his colleagues had been on the lawn for a long time, he still had to pose for various souvenir photos. Thumbs up, smile on the face.

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Vedad Ibisevic looked almost serious when he stood next to Skjelbred in a television interview. His situation is similar – and yet different. At Ibisevic, the contractual relationship with Hertha also ends on Tuesday. But while it has been clear to Skjelbred for months that he is returning to his home in Trondheim and to his home club Rosenborg, Ibisevic still does not know what will happen to him.

After all, just like Peter Pekarik, he was not one of the players on Sunday who were officially adopted by Hertha in the team. Skjelbred, Marko Grujic, Alexander Esswein and Marius Wolf were once again honored and given. Substitute goalkeeper Thomas Kraft was missing for private reasons, as was the suspended Salomon Kalou.

Marko Grujic can imagine his whereabouts

The loan players Wolf and Grujic have not yet made the final decision about continued employment. Grujic could well imagine staying. “It’s my club,” he said on Sunday. “I feel very welcome here.” However, his performance on Saturday in Mönchengladbach was not necessarily a recommendation.

Unlike the appearance of Vedad Ibisevic, which again did what you would expect from Vedad Ibisevic: he was in the right place at the right time and scored just before the end with his seventh goal of the season to the 1-2 final. The Bosnian turned 36 in August, but despite his advanced age, he was the season’s top scorer (along with Dodi Lukebakio) in Hertha’s squad.

In an interview with Sky television, trainer Bruno Labbadia confirmed that there were discussions with Ibisevic that he himself was “very, very open” on this matter, he said. “But it is an overall construction that we are thinking about.” Ibisevic will no longer play a major role in this construction, but for certain moments it could still have added value at Hertha.

The squad only needs to be strengthened selectively

Labbadia already has a scaffold that has a certain stability and also has some potential. In an interview with the “kicker” last week, he himself said that “three or four pieces of the mosaic” were still missing. “We’re trying to take advantage of our opportunities, but it’s not like we can get five or six top players.” A goalkeeper with number one potential should come, a right-back, possibly a striker and a central midfielder.

“The club is on the right track with the new coach,” says Marko Grujic. In fact, Labbadia’s policies of steady hand and inner serenity have done good to both the unsettled team and the stray club.

Measured by its own demands last summer, Hertha’s tenth place in the final table with 41 points is a mixed result. Measured against the violent turbulence during the season, it is more than one could have expected in the meantime. Werder Bremen just saved on the relegation place with 31 points. That means that Hertha made the relegation perfect in the second game under Labbadia, by 4: 0 against Union.

Arne Friedrich becomes the new sports director

Through Labbadia’s work, the team quickly got their feet back on the ground. But it can’t hurt to tread this floor a little bit to strengthen the foundation. Hertha is also repositioning itself organizationally: On Sunday, the club announced that Arne Friedrich, 41, would become sports director and should act as a link between the team and the club’s management. Jürgen Klinsmann brought Friedrich to Hertha in autumn as a so-called performance manager.

Overall, the mood around the club is again significantly more positive. With the entry of investor Lars Windhorst, the club is in a much better position than the majority of its competitors. Hertha already spent more money on new players in winter than any other club in the world. And Hertha will also be able to spend money this summer, while many clubs have to save as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Bruno Labbadia stands for the fact that the expectations do not shoot up again immeasurably; that the sporting quality is more important for the upcoming transfers than a name as big as possible. Hertha’s trainer has a strong sense of reality, but that doesn’t mean that he lacks ambition. After successful relegation battle, he led both VfB Stuttgart and VfL Wolfsburg into the European Cup the following season.

It was the Europa League. Not the Champions League.