Whenever a new year begins, there is maximum excitement at Hertha BSC.

Those who are less inclined to the Berlin Bundesliga club also say chaos.

A little flashback: In February 2020, after Jürgen Klinsmann's loud departure, the club was the focus of reporting for days, a year later it hit Klinsmann's opponent Michael Preetz, who was dismissed after more than ten years as manager.

Last spring: Felix Magath's campaign to bring him back from coaching retirement.

And now: sports director Fredi Bobic, who came from Frankfurt as a great hope.

All coincidence?

Not at all.

At the beginning of each year, Hertha was always forced to correct the mistakes of the previous months.

There were many of them.

So many that the club got into existential difficulties.

The coffers are empty, sporty relegation threatens.

As a result, said coffers would be even more difficult to fill.

So it is understandable that Hertha's new president Kay Bernstein decreed the next change of course, no matter how radical it may appear.

Bobic's release and the forthcoming sale of shares in Lars Windhorst's Tennor Holding officially brought an end to perhaps the greatest odyssey in the club's history.

Since investor Windhorst got on board in the summer of 2019, Hertha BSC has been wandering through the Bundesliga and not only was in danger of falling several times, but also received a lot of ridicule.

"Big City Club", Windhorst's neologism, became a dictum and a synonym for megalomania and lack of knowledge.

Hertha wants to discover their own DNA

What should not become of Hertha.

German champion, champions league participant, major European club.

In order to realize these visions, all sorts of people from all sorts of areas of the football circus came.

Players, coaches, officials.

Some more, some less talented.

Fredi Bobic was the last representative of a "higher-faster-farther" philosophy that was doomed to failure even before his arrival.

Despite all the mistakes he made, he is not the only reason for Hertha's misery.

His sacking and the bringing back of Benjamin Weber and Andreas Neuendorf marked the definitive end of the Big City era.

Hertha wants to discover its own DNA, rely more on talent, become more regional than global.

Sounds good, but it's grotesque because it all happened before.

Before Windhorst joined, Hertha BSC had painstakingly but meticulously worked to establish a reputation as a respected training club.

The permeability from the junior academy to the professionals was considered comparatively high, the Bundesliga team attracted national and international talent with the prospect of taking the much-cited next step in their career.

No wonder President Bernstein wants to go back there.

But the past, misguided four years cannot be forgotten that easily.

Bernstein says that as the Bobic successor, they deliberately did not want to bring in industry giants such as Horst Heldt, Andreas Rettig or "the Stuttgarter" (meaning Sven Mislintat).

Turning away from megalomania is courageous, consistent and correct.

But it can mean that you need a lot of patience.

Especially in the event of relegation to the second division.