Hope Dies Last

BEFORE Christmas Hertha Berlin looked dead and buried. Now, three
games into the second half of the season we have closed the gap on our
nearest rivals to six points. Can it be done? Can we escape? I want to
believe that it can be done – but people keep telling me that hope
dies last – especially other Herthaner.
Still you cannot fault the positive approach of the team since
January. Friedhelm Funkel clearly has a tactic to play attacking
football to get us out of trouble. It is going to be a tough battle, but despite not scoring goals in the last two games, we have still
picked up points. If we keep going at this rate, we will be alright. I
have mentioned before: Five points every three games until end of
season = 35 points = survival. Easy!
I found the first half of the season,
the worst feeling I have known in football. Week after week of losses,
bad news coming out of the club – managers leaving, players arguing
publicly, etc.
But since the restart of the season I have found Hertha’s
transformation quite exciting. It is good to see us playing with two
strikers - Gekas and Ramos. Both players look a threat and I am sure
there is more to come from them. Arne Friedrich seems more focused and
determined and the team as a whole seems to be playing with more
confidence.
We go to Bremen on Friday which, everyone knows, will be a tough task.
But I feel confident that we could at least get a point, which would
be another step in the right direction. We must be patient. Each time
we look at the Bundesliga table, it still looks like a long hard
fight. Every point we get is slowly helping us close the gap on the
others. Keep the Faith!
Before the Hoffenheim game on February 26, a group of international
Hertha BSc fans are meeting at Hanne's Bar in Joachimstrasse, Berlin
at 13.00. Germany, England and Sweden are represented so far.
I will travel from Leicester to cheer on the
team.
Thomas Bjelvenmark and two others, members of the Swedish fan club, and
friends of Hertha Unser fan club, will travel from Uppsala, Sweden.
Thomas said: "I've newly fall in love with the club our relationship
have only been for a little more then a year. When I saw Hertha for
the first time (Hertha-Frankfurt in january 2009), it was the first
time I've experianced true love too football, I've seen soccer many
times too, but Swedish soccer sucks. When I stepped foot on
Olympiastadion for the first time and felt its atmosphere I fell in
love, I've never felt that commitment that Hertha Supporters do for
there team before. I've never got goosebumps when other soccer teams
fans sing. But now I know why people all over the world loves this
game."
True love indeed!
Others will follow shortly – please come along, say hello and show
your support for the Old Lady in these difficult times!

Misty water-coloured memories of the way we were...

It is all over. And this time I know it is for real. My love affair with Sheffield Wednesday - which was already strained at the start of this year, has come to an end.

I was wondering how I should break the news. I did consider taking Brian Laws out to dinner and explaining that it's not him, it's me.

Most people cannot understand why I am walking away from the team which I have followed so closely since 1992.

I dont want to get in to the murky details of why I cannot continue my romance with the Owls other than to say I feel very let down by someone very close to me who has done little to improve the situation (well... absolutely nothing, well... the situation is now worse).

As our one common interest is SWFC, I have now decided that I would rather watch Shepshed Dynamo from now on than suffer the indignity of standing in Hillsborough feeling uncomfortable. Incidently Shepshed won 3:2 today away at Osset Albion.

Several of my friends and colleagues have said I should not ditch the Wednesday over this, but they do not know the fine details and I am a man of principle. I ditched my interest in the club a few weeks ago and I am not missing them or looking out for their results.

I would, at this point like to express my sincerest thanks to John Sheridan, the Waddler, Thirsty Hirsty, Paulo Di Canio, Benito Carbone, Kevin Pressman, Chris Woods, Super Guy Whittingham, Alexandersson, Brighty, Pembo, Des, tricky Trev, Pervy Pleat, Big Ron, Paul Sturrock, Brian Laws and the Barmy Army for an amazing time. However, its time to move on.

My two boys are five months old next week, I will be happy to take them to see their home town club, Leicester City, when they are old enough.

When Sheffield Wednesday visit the Walkers Stadium on December 12, I wont be there. In fact I'm planning my trip to Market Drayton Town to watch Shepshed Dynamo away.

I will be continuing my support of Hertha Berlin, who are rooted at the bottom of the Bundeliga at the moment. Hopefully things will look better when I get to the Olympiastadion again after Christmas.

If I was a clever, witty writer I would need to end this with a cliche about romance like love is blind, Sheffield Wednesday was an eye-opener or something deep like: “Relationships are like glass. Sometimes it is better to leave them broken than try to hurt yourself putting it back together.”

However I like this one:

"It's better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all." At Sheffield Wednesday I loved and lost most weeks.

Falling out of love...

I have had enough of Sheffield Wednesday and want a transfer. Why do fans have to be loyal to one club? Players certainly aren't. In fact when we got relegated from the Premiership in 2000 none of the existing players are there, they couldn't wait to leave and all got a transfer. Now I want one.

In the past six seasons I have seen my new adopted club Hertha Berlin more times than the Owls. It is a bit worrying that I can manage to see a team in a foreign country more times than a team about an hour up the M1 from Leicester. The reason is that I fell out with a good friend who was a co-Wednesdayite.

Although there are still 26,000 likeminded individuals still turning up at Hillsborough, its not the same, so I dont go. I made that decision about two years ago. Since then I have followed Hertha BSC, hooking up with my friends in Berlin for the games - four to six times a season. At the moment that is totally unsustainable, aside from the cost of going to Berlin (its worth every penny by the way and worth saving for...) I'm missing English football.

Until I landed a job which required me to work Saturdays, I travelled home and away to watch the Wednesday (pictured above in 1878) for (almost) every game for eight years. Now I am sort of lost. The recent changes in my work rota will mean more free Saturday afternoons than I have enjoyed for a long time.I want to be a fan again, but cant face Wednesday due to my personal fall out. I live in Leicester, which has a team which looks like its going places.

I cant say I am excited at the prospect of watching them every week. However, I have twins on the way who will be born in Leicester. My wife says our children should support their home town club. By that logic I should support Lincoln City. I spent my childhood on the terraces, standing in the Stacey West at Sincil Bank. So maybe that's what I'll do. Unless the Foxes fans or supporters of any other clubs want to convince me otherwise...