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Berlin (dpa) - Bruno Labbadia symbolically rolled up his sleeves.
Michael Preetz, on the other hand, looked pretty buttoned up next to the Hertha coach, who was still fighting.
Passive, defensive, always relativizing.
This is how the manager of the Berlin Bundesliga club is perceived in the midst of the major earnings crisis.
Even before the possibly groundbreaking game against Werder Bremen on Saturday (6.30 p.m. / Sky), the 53-year-old got caught in some phrases.
"There is not only sunshine, also dark sides," said Preetz.
At the moment, quite a thunderstorm is brewing over him.
Before the Bremen game, Hertha fans want to demonstrate for his resignation and the end of the era of club president Werner Gegenbauer.
How many blue and white supporters will actually gather on the Olympic Square is open.
More than 3800 have signed the online petition with the provocative title «Enough is enough!
11 years of bad work and still in office »signed this month.
Preetz reacted confidently to the unusual action approved by the capital's police.
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"Anyone who is responsible has to face criticism," said the 53-year-old.
The fact that there is now headwind from the fan scene should give the former top attacker something to think about.
As a traditionalist and club icon, Preetz still had a lot of support among the loyal following, who think more in club clichés than in investment categories of financier Lars Windhorst.
“He can actually identify with the club.
I still know him as the top scorer, when someone like that is still at the club and holds this position, more badly than right, admittedly, it's a bit positive, ”said a leading Ultra representative, called Kreisel, at the end of the year in a ZDF -"Report".
The same gyroscope also said that he would prefer to stay in 9th to 13th place rather than a glittering football world bought with Windhorst millions.
This gray area is precisely the region in which Preetz is chronically located.
With him as manager, Hertha managed to qualify for the Europa League twice and was relegated from the Bundesliga twice.
On average it was enough for twelfth place.
The nickname Mr. Mediocre goes against Windhorst's premier class fantasies.
The tension between the club management and the sponsor is massive.
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Preetz always refers to a “partnership-based cooperation”.
Windhorst's statement sounds like a booming contrast: "Of course I come from a different world than people who have been with the club for 20 years."
Preetz has been there for almost 25 years, in various functions.
He has a patron saint in President Gegenbauer.
Nevertheless, the entrepreneur is said to have recently helped to drive Carsten Schmidt's appointment as head of management.
So far, Preetz and finance boss Ingo Schiller have been able to work quite independently there.
It is eagerly awaited how and when the former Sky boss Schmidt will position himself.
Some see him as an extended arm of Windhorst, who cannot actively make club politics himself.
That would be fatal for Preetz.
Preetz also survived the Hertha episode under Jürgen Klinsmann.
When he realized a year ago that he could not fight the traditionalists' power, he fled to California again.
His Hertha files, which later became public via “Sport Bild”, had a devastating Preetz judgment as the centerpiece.
There was talk of a “culture of lies” and “catastrophic failures”.
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Preetz is now accusing his critics of catastrophic omissions when it comes to spending the Windhorst money in the three-digit million range.
While local rivals Union Berlin marches towards Europe as a bargain hunter, Hertha is in the table-14.
only two points before the relegation zone again in the Bundesliga struggle for existence.
Nevertheless, Preetz stopped further investments.
The most expensive squad in club history compiled by him turns out to be a collection of average goods - a lot of mediocrity.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210122-99-128305 / 2
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