The curious Klinsmann bang
Preetz settles accounts with Klinsmann
Niklas Trettin
It was a departure that is second to none. Around eleven weeks after Jürgen Klinsmann came to Hertha BSC as a beacon of hope, he resigned with a bang. A review.
Jürgen Klinsmann had set himself the ambitious goal of polishing up the image of Hertha BSC. Away from the gray mouse, towards a top club that fights for international business.
In cooperation with investor Lars Windhorst, who pumped millions into the project, the 58-year-old should steer everything in the right direction and tinker with the “Big City Club”. What initially sounded like a clear plan in theory failed exactly three years ago with a bang.
Completely without prior notice, Klinsmann pulled the ripcord after just 76 days and ended his coaching job in Berlin. After “long deliberation”, he then came to the conclusion that he should resign from his post, he wrote on his Facebook account and plunged the capital club into chaos.
Klinsmann: “Bye, I’ll be gone then”
Gradually, the details of the big bang came to light. Michael Preetz, former managing director of Hertha BSC, said a few days later in Bild– A podcast phrase mowerthat he had “never experienced” such a departure.
“The order this morning was that he first informed the coaching team in a small group and then the team. Then he came into the office and was gone again,” said Preetz.
When leaving, Klinsmann had already put the resignation post online on Facebook. When the ex-Hertha boss wanted to confront him, Klinsmann is said to have replied that there was nothing more to discuss and that he was going back to California.
“Bye, I’ll be gone then,” according to Preetz, were the last words of the former national coach as Hertha manager.
Windhorst’s sharp reaction was not long in coming. “You can maybe do something like that as a young person, but it shouldn’t happen in business life among adults,” he commented on the curious circumstances of Klinsmann’s resignation.
Klinsmann diaries caused a stir
Provided additional fuel Klinsmann with a kind of diarywhich is in the wake of the sports picture had reached the public. “The club has no performance culture, only vested interests and there is a lack of charisma in the management,” the document read, among other things.
Again and again in the center of criticism: Michael Preetz. “The management must be completely replaced immediately,” Klinsmann demanded. (NEWS: All current information about the Bundesliga)
The ex-national coach denounced “Michael Preetz’s catastrophic failures in all areas for years”. The squad put together by Preetz is said to have included “too many older and full players” who had “no power at all” to survive the relegation battle.
In addition, the players in the squad were also rated individually and sometimes given unflattering descriptions such as “no added value”.
Klinsmann wrote a total of 22 DIN A4 pages, which should give the impression of a desolate capital city club.
Diary was ‘never intended for the media’
Last summer, Klinsmann looked back on his failure on the Spree. “I’ve had to experience so many things that just weren’t good – from my point of view,” he explained More than a gamethe podcast of the DFB foundations.
“Then after 10 weeks I said: It doesn’t work anymore, I’ll go again. But the club was already stable again at that point, which is why I said: Better an end with horror than endless horror,” said the native of Göppingen.
Klinsmann described making this decision as “completely correct”, but qualified himself: “If you look back, you should have communicated it differently. It should have been done differently – from my side. But then I’m a guy, I get very emotional when the last straw comes to me.”
Only the fact that the diary entries ended up in public annoyed the ex-national coach. “This was an internal report that was never, ever intended for the media. But he was honest.”
That’s why Klinsmann is still behind the explosive content. “Everything that was in there, because it was an honest work report, was correct. I don’t have a bad conscience now. I was just sorry that it was then spread over weeks and months, because of course it had never happened in this form,” he explained.
Klinsmann regrets Hertha decision
After the time at Hertha, it “took a few weeks to get along with you again and to accept that you made a mistake or two,” revealed Klinsmann.
However, the 1990 World Champion never kept the clear conclusion a secret: “Of course, in retrospect it would have been much more pleasant to make the right decision right away. So not to go to Berlin and become a trainer.”
A lot went against Klinsmann’s ideas – and so February 11th, 2020 will certainly never be forgotten at the capital city club.
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