– Before the national team qualifiers, Hertha in the Champions League managed quite a win by defeating Leverkusen who is in the same group as Real Madrid. On Sunday, the Berlin derby against the mid-rate Union Berlin ended in a tie. Is the team atmosphere calmer now?
– Somewhat. Pál Dárdai had a difficult task ahead of him when he took over the team in January. He inherited a completely demoralized team and it took weeks to make the players understand that they could only succeed against elimination if they acted as a united community on the field. There are plenty of big egos and self-centered divas in the team – they needed to be straightened out. I really hope that with our victory against Leverkusen we got out of the danger zone. We were close to surprises against Bayern and Dortmund, but there was so much individual indiscipline at both games that cannot be tolerated. In the match against Leverkusen, Hertha acted as a team, as well as in the Berlin derby match.

Fotó: Nemzeti Sport/Szabó Miklós
– It’s a huge battle to avoid being eliminated. The fate of the leading Schalke is sealed, Bielefeld and Cologne are only two points behind the remaining Mainz and Hertha. The draw is in Hertha’s favor. They are past the Bayern, Leipzig, and Dortmund matches.
– Indeed, the last big one left for us to play is Mönchengladbach; but they aren’t in great form this year, I think we can beat them.
– On the day of the Berlin derby, Imre Szabics led Mol-Fehérvár for the first time as head coach. Were you surprised by his appointment?
– I was up to date through Pál Dárdai because the Fehérvár decision-makers sought out his professional opinion. I don’t personally know Imre Szabics, but I’ve heard a lot of good things from Pál. He believes he’s a good fit for this position. I wish him success at Mol-Fehérvár.
– What message does this send: a leading Hungarian club can buy out an assistant coach from an Austrian national team that made it to the UEFA summer tournament?
– As an assistant coach for the Austrian national team, you won’t make as much as the head coach of a leading Hungarian club team. In Imre Szabics’ career, an exciting challenge has just emerged: moving from an assistant coach to head coach is a big opportunity. I’m sure Imre is very curious on how to solve these more serious tasks.