Lego* is brilliant. The toy of choice for generations. Hours, days even, could be spent building elborate constructions, alone or with siblings. From simple moon bases to complex cities and civilisations were not beyond the ken provided you had imaginations, enough bricks and a mother who didn't insist on 'tidying all this mess up before your father gets home'.
Over time, the original kits to build a specific items were merged with others into a generic pile of bricks. Where one kit started and ended wasn't important as the pile of bricks grew and grew, enabling you to break free from the shackles imposed by the creators and build something previously unimagined in scale and practicality. But no matter how complex and impressive your creations were, they did have to be dismantled, whether it was before your dad got home or otherwise, and often the destruction process was more enjoyable than the initial planning, design and build phases. And that's like Hoffenheim.
The Sinsheim club are the Lego creation of SAP founder Dietmar Hopp. Having seen his approaches rebuffed by a number of clubs, instead he took the side he once played for, in the suburbs of Sinsheim, and took them rapidly upwards to the Bundesliga under the stewardship of Ralf Rangnick. He spent on infrastructure too, building a stadium into which the population of Hoffenheim could fit ten times over. But now he's in the process of taking the whole project apart.
Whether he's bored or not, you'd have to ask him, but the rot set in when he sold Luiz Gustavo out from beneath Rangnick against the master-coach's expressed wishes. Rangnick left. Holger Stanislawski was persistently undermined in his short tenure and, frankly, he's best off out of it. Having spent 19 years with St Pauli as player and coach, the likeable Stanislawski has seen his shot at the big time blow up below him. He deserves another chance. His successor is Markus Babbel. Fine player though he was, he's not made a great fist of jobs at Stuttgart - where the requirement to attend courses in Koln to do his badges having been given dispensation by the DFB didn't help - and Hertha BSC who offed him during the winter break after a complete breakdown of relations. This smacks of self-sabotage by Hopp.
What does Hopp want? If he is bored, then he needs to have a sustainable model that someone else can take on. That does not exist - the club is entirely reliant on regular injections of cash from Hopp to keep operating as it does currently. If he's winding it down, the club will end up back where he picked them up from - the regional leagues - but with a 30,000-seater reminder to ambition mixed with hubris.
The house that Dietmar built is falling down. The question now is whether he has the will to build it back up again.
* - other building blocks are available
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Showing posts with label Markus Babbel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Markus Babbel. Show all posts
Friday, 10 February 2012
Monday, 7 December 2009
Babbel out, Gross in: Bundesliga reviews
Bayern 2-1 Monchengladbach
Dortmund 4-0 Nurnberg
Stuttgart 1-1 Bochum
Hannover 0-0 Leverkusen
Hamburg 0-0 Hoffenheim
Wolfsburg 2-2 Freiburg
Eintracht 2-0 Mainz
Cologne 0-0 Bremen
Schalke 2-0 Hertha
A point against Bochum actually moved Stuttgart up a place on the league ladder, but they remain in the bottom three and that was enough for the board to sack Markus Babbel as manager. A year ago, he took over a shambles of a side after Armin Veh was dismissed and set about building an impressive unbeaten run that took the club to within an ace of winning the league. Mario Gomez was sold, but in his place came Pavel Pogrebnyak and Alex Hleb: the former simply hasn't settled while the latter embodies the old cliché about never going back. A dismal Champions League campaign also hasn't helped Babbel's cause and he's out with Christian Gross - who still somehow has a decent reputation in Germany - coming in. Serdar Tasci's goal on the hour looked to have won a valuable three points, especially when Diego Klimovic was sent off for Bochum with time running out. However, a stunning Christian Fuchs free-kick in the last minute rescued a point for fellow strugglers Bochum and sealed Babbel's fate.
Draws were order of the day at the top end, Leverkusen held by Hannover for whom goalkeeper Florian Fromlowitz was outstanding, Cologne kept Bremen at bay, Hamburg and Hoffenheim failed to muster a goal and Wolfsburg were held by Freiburg. Freiburg were ahead twice through Mohamadou Idrissou and Ivica Banovic, but were pegged back twice, first by a terrible own goal from Feliz Bastians and later by Fabian Johnson, set up brilliantly by Zvejzdan Misimovic. Edin Dzeko looked to have won it late on when picked out six yards from goal by Misimovic, but a great save from Simon Pouplin secured a point for Freiburg.
So anyone scoring a win at the top end made hay and two of them did: Bayern and Schalke. After a goalless first half, Schalke eventually got the reward that their dominance of the game against Hertha deserved. Kevin Kuranyi headed home their first on the hour from a suspiciously offside looking position and Hertha's task was made much harder when Christoph Janker was sent off for a second yellow. Rafinha added a penalty in the dying few moments to wrap it up leaving Hertha still further adrift at the bottom. Bayern looked to be heading for a draw in the Friday game at home to Gladbach, Roel Brouwers equalising Mario Gomez's opener, but a superb free-kick from Holger Badstuber found the inside of the far post to nick all three points.
Dortmund won again and it's been ages since they last lost. They were three up by half time, Kevin Grosskreutz, Lucas Barrios and Mohamed Zidan sending BvB on their way. Mats Hummels added a fourth in the second half to send Dortmund up to seventh, just a point off the European places. Eintracht won the Rhein-Main derby with Maikl Franz reaching a deep cross at the back post to volley home on the half-hour. Mainz's Chadlj Amri was sent off after the break, his second yellow resulting in the inevitable red twenty minutes from time. Mainz battled hard, but Alex Meier was on the end of a quick break that had Eintracht four-on-two with seconds remaining to seal local bragging rights, for the time being at least.
Dortmund 4-0 Nurnberg
Stuttgart 1-1 Bochum
Hannover 0-0 Leverkusen
Hamburg 0-0 Hoffenheim
Wolfsburg 2-2 Freiburg
Eintracht 2-0 Mainz
Cologne 0-0 Bremen
Schalke 2-0 Hertha
A point against Bochum actually moved Stuttgart up a place on the league ladder, but they remain in the bottom three and that was enough for the board to sack Markus Babbel as manager. A year ago, he took over a shambles of a side after Armin Veh was dismissed and set about building an impressive unbeaten run that took the club to within an ace of winning the league. Mario Gomez was sold, but in his place came Pavel Pogrebnyak and Alex Hleb: the former simply hasn't settled while the latter embodies the old cliché about never going back. A dismal Champions League campaign also hasn't helped Babbel's cause and he's out with Christian Gross - who still somehow has a decent reputation in Germany - coming in. Serdar Tasci's goal on the hour looked to have won a valuable three points, especially when Diego Klimovic was sent off for Bochum with time running out. However, a stunning Christian Fuchs free-kick in the last minute rescued a point for fellow strugglers Bochum and sealed Babbel's fate.
Draws were order of the day at the top end, Leverkusen held by Hannover for whom goalkeeper Florian Fromlowitz was outstanding, Cologne kept Bremen at bay, Hamburg and Hoffenheim failed to muster a goal and Wolfsburg were held by Freiburg. Freiburg were ahead twice through Mohamadou Idrissou and Ivica Banovic, but were pegged back twice, first by a terrible own goal from Feliz Bastians and later by Fabian Johnson, set up brilliantly by Zvejzdan Misimovic. Edin Dzeko looked to have won it late on when picked out six yards from goal by Misimovic, but a great save from Simon Pouplin secured a point for Freiburg.
So anyone scoring a win at the top end made hay and two of them did: Bayern and Schalke. After a goalless first half, Schalke eventually got the reward that their dominance of the game against Hertha deserved. Kevin Kuranyi headed home their first on the hour from a suspiciously offside looking position and Hertha's task was made much harder when Christoph Janker was sent off for a second yellow. Rafinha added a penalty in the dying few moments to wrap it up leaving Hertha still further adrift at the bottom. Bayern looked to be heading for a draw in the Friday game at home to Gladbach, Roel Brouwers equalising Mario Gomez's opener, but a superb free-kick from Holger Badstuber found the inside of the far post to nick all three points.
Dortmund won again and it's been ages since they last lost. They were three up by half time, Kevin Grosskreutz, Lucas Barrios and Mohamed Zidan sending BvB on their way. Mats Hummels added a fourth in the second half to send Dortmund up to seventh, just a point off the European places. Eintracht won the Rhein-Main derby with Maikl Franz reaching a deep cross at the back post to volley home on the half-hour. Mainz's Chadlj Amri was sent off after the break, his second yellow resulting in the inevitable red twenty minutes from time. Mainz battled hard, but Alex Meier was on the end of a quick break that had Eintracht four-on-two with seconds remaining to seal local bragging rights, for the time being at least.
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