“That,” said Benjamin Weber, “was a real slap in the face.” Hertha’s sporting director has been in situ for less than three months, but he is already acclimatised to the chaos of the capital club. Not surprisingly, perhaps. Before returning to the club in late January he had served them for almost two decades in a variety of roles. “I’m a Berliner. I’m a Herthaner,” he told his introductory press conference.
This, then, will hurt. Hertha have been circling the drain for a while now, retaining their top-flight place via the relegation playoff last season having finished two points clear of the playoff spot the campaign before. This season has been more of the same struggle and instability. However this, as Weber’s assessment suggested, was something so much worse than the troubles to which they have become accustomed in recent times.
