It is said that envy is the highest form of recognition and one has to work for it.

The second part also applies to cultivated disinterest, and if there is malice as well, you end up at Hertha BSC in no time.

It's hard to believe, but it was only a little over two years ago that Jürgen Klinsmann at least thought this club was "the most exciting football project in Europe".

The reality today is very different.

Hertha loses and loses, keeps sliding down the table – and nobody in the rest of the country really cares.

And, even worse, hardly anyone in the capital.

Hertha is a club of limited regional importance compared to the nationwide attention that came with the demise of FC Schalke, Hamburger SV and SV Werder Bremen.

But the Berliners are met with blunt glee, not only in Frankfurt because of Fredi Bobic's departure.

Anyone who, two years ago, was already in danger of relegation, talks about themselves as a future big city club because Berlin deserves a mega club, has quickly flipped through a few chapters in the marketing manual and might be in favor of a quick influencer Suitable for a career – but nothing has changed yet.

Hertha was an average Bundesliga club with obvious downward tendencies and, after rumored investments of between 300 and 400 million euros, not only did not make any progress on the desired path to the top, to the place in the sun.

It's much worse: the Berliners are in even worse shape than before, and that's a very special feat.

A change of mentality is needed, and fast, said coach Tayfun Korkut on Sunday morning.

What should you say if you conceded a counter-goal within 28 seconds of your own kick-off the day before at the bottom of the table?

In addition, this truism can be heard at Hertha as if on a continuous loop.

Ultimately Korkut is responsible for making that happen, however all his predecessors have failed in recent years and Jurgen Klopp is busy at Liverpool right now.

Hertha is in free fall, and the rest of the republic looks at the poor houses of the league in Fürth or Bielefeld with some appreciation, as they try there as Gallic villages with a lot of cohesion and - yes - mentality (!) with their mini budgets to create the impossible.

And Herta?

There's only a shrug.