Hertha Berlin fires another coach but can’t so easily get rid of its troubles

BERLIN (AP) — Hertha Berlin is hoping yet another coaching change will solve the team’s ever-recurring problems.

After four straight defeats in Germany’s second division, Hertha fired Cristian Fiél on Sunday and replaced him with former Hannover coach Stefan Leitl on Monday.

It’s the 11th coaching change at Hertha since Pál Dárdai led the team to Bundesliga mediocrity in 2019. Ambition amid a huge spending splurge funded by investor Lars Windhorst prompted the club to try the likes of Jürgen Klinsmann, Felix Magath, Bruno Labbadia and others – Dárdai also returned for two more stints in charge – but Hertha was continually involved in relegation battles before it was finally demoted in 2023.

Dárdai last season and then Fiél this season were meant to lead the club back to the Bundesliga, but Hertha is languishing in 14th place in the 18-team second division, closer to being relegated to the third tier than returning to the first.

What went wrong?

Fiél, who arrived in the summer after enjoying success with Nuremberg, was well-liked by the players at Hertha. They tried. On Saturday the team had 21 shots at goal against Fortuna Düsseldorf compared to the home side’s nine, but still lost 2-1.

“When you’ve lost four from five games after the winter break, you don’t have many arguments on your side,” Fiél said afterwards.

It was a similar story in each of the matches before – outshooting the opposition, yet still losing.

Hertha lost despite playing well. There were frequent errors in defense, in attack, and everywhere in between.

Fiél tried changing his goalkeeper in January to little avail. He wasn’t helped by the summer departures of top-scorer Haris Tabaković and defensive chief Marc Oliver Kempf.

Arrivals haven’t had the desired effect. American defender John Brooks hasn’t played since his return, and injuries also limited Diego Demme and Kevin Sessa’s impact.

What’s next?

Hertha is still floundering financially following a series of bad decisions going back to Windhorst’s first investments into the club in 2019. Windhorst sold his shares to Miami-based investment group 777 Partners in 2023, but 777 has since become embroiled in legal and financial turmoil. A court in Belgium last year ruled that all its assets in the country could be seized.

The implications for Hertha are uncertain, but it’s clear the club has little money for reinforcements – Fiél did not get his requested replacement for Tabaković in the winter transfer period.

Hertha in 2023 needed to restructure a 40-million-euro loan so it could be repaid two years later. It was enough to get its license from the German soccer federation for the 2023-24 season. But the money needs to be repaid in November this year.

Hertha BSC GmbH & Co. KGaA, the company behind the club, posted a consolidated net loss of 33.3 million euros last year for period from July 2023 through June 2024.

The club faces the dilemma of needing to sell its best players to service the debt. It hurts its chances of promotion to the Bundesliga, which is more financially rewarding than the second division.

The likes of the 19-year-old Ibrahim Maza, arguably the club’s most promising young player, will likely have to leave in the summer despite signing a contract extension last August to 2027.

The immediate future

Leitl, who is being joined by former Hertha captain Andre Mijatović as assistant coach, will make his debut at home against in-form Nuremberg on Friday.

The 47-year-old Leitl began coaching at Ingolstadt in 2017, initially on an interim basis. He took over Greuther Fürth in 2019 and surprisingly led it to Bundesliga promotion in 2021. Fürth only lasted one season in the top division. Then in 2022, Leitl took over in Hannover, where he was fired in December.

Berlin’s soccer federation on Monday extended a ban on all outdoor games until Thursday because of a blast of seriously cold weather in the German capital. It won’t stop Hertha’s match at Olympiastadion, but the icy conditions will ensure Leitl has a fresh start.

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