Hertha Review

Hertha Berlin Review & Manager Biography

Welcome to my latest blog telling you about my time at Hertha Berlin....and if your still awake after reading it  I have included a biopic about myself in real life to let you get to know me a bit better



The Top 100 - Hertha Berlin

I joined the league on March 6th, after Stephen Beddows invited me, following a Facebook comment on the Soccer Manager page. The season was 16 games in and Berlin sat in 5th place. My aim was promotion and the side I had was pretty good. 

Under my guidance we managed 10 wins 7 draws and 5 defeats, scoring 49 and conceding 31 with a season total of 75 goals scored (the 2nd top scorers outside of the top flight) we finished 4th, securing a play off spot which we lost to Celtic 3-1.

I was not happy at failing to go up so thought long and hard about next seasons aims, after discussions with the chairman I have set a target of 76 points in the league.

The Squad

I inherited a good first team and my star players were Demba Ba, Balazs Dzsudzsak, Vladimir Stocker, Vladimir Darida and Alexandre Pato. We lacked young players though so the majority of the transfer budget went on signing 27 players - most of those were 22 or under. The 22 games I was in charge gave me a chance to assess everyone and for the coming season I decided changes were needed to freshen up the squad.

First out the door was my old enemy and part time pie seller - Emiliano Viviano he was booted out in exchange for Rene Adler and £3m

Rene Adler

Emiliano Viviano

                                                         
After long and hard deliberation Demba Ba the man who scored a 7.52 rating, hit 15 goals, 11 assists and 7 man of the match awards went in exchange for Luis Muriel, Paul-Jose Mpoku and £9m. John Terry - £2m, Florian Thauvin - £10m and Damian Suarez £2.8m also came in to take the new signings total to 5. Walter Montillo is the only other player to join Ba and Viviano in departing. Over the next few weeks I still hope to do more business with 1 or 2 coming in and 1 or 2 leaving.

Luis Muriel

The New Season

My hopes and aims for next season are simply to be promoted, ideally automatically. Berlin will enter the youth cup but I don't expect us to be front runners and the domestic cups will be an opportunity for the reserves to gain some experience.

I expect a very tough and exciting season in division 5, the four relegated clubs will all be looking to bounce back and ourselves, Celtic, Santos, Olympiacos, Anderlecht, Brugges and Independiente will all be in the mix to I'm sure.

My aim is to entertain the fans and play with a swagger. I demand goals and will be encouraging attacking play at every opportunity. Hopefully this approach and a combination of formations I aim to rotate throughout the season will see us succeed.

Mark Stewart The Person

About me.......where to start? well I'm 40 years old and from Cardiff. I support Cardiff City and Man United and I first got into football in 1983 when I watched my first ever game - Man United v Brighton in the FA Cup Final. I decided to support the winner, which United won 4-0 after a replay.

In 1987 I discovered live football and started standing on the old Bob Bank Terrace at Ninian Park, the home of Cardiff City FC. Ninian Park was a special place for me which generated a phenomenal atmosphere that fired my passion for the game.

The Bob Bank

I loved the experience of lower division football in the 90's and travelled the country watching the mighty Bluebirds, visiting all sorts of places like Rochdale, Barnet, Wrexham, Maidstone, Bristol Rovers, Middlesborough.....the list goes on.

For all the games I watched though my  favourite was in 2003 when we played Leeds United who were top of the Premier League in the FA Cup 3rd round. We were 2 divisions below them and live on Sky in front of a capacity crowd and the very best atmosphere I have ever experienced.... we triumphed 2-1 which sparked wild scenes of celebration.

Other notable highlights include trips to Wembley for the FA Cup Semi Final and Final in 2008 and the League One Play Off Final in 2003.

As a Man United fan nothing will ever beat the treble winning season in 1999 and euphoria of the way we lifted the Champions League. Plus every game that we've beaten Liverpool :)

Football is such a big part of my life I loved playing the game as a child and played parks football until my early 30's. I still have the odd kick about but am garbage now. 

My experience of playing football management games actually stretches back 30 years when I started playing Football Manager on the ZX Spectrum! From there I moved onto the amazing Championship Manager which almost took over my life until I banned myself from playing it in 2004. After a long sabbatical I yearned to play a management game again and discovered Soccer Manager in around 2010.

The father of all football management games, originally released in 1982!!!

I also enjoy reading about football and my favourite books to date are Diego Maradonna's autobiography, Soul Crew and The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro (a gem of a book, Stephen Beddows if you haven't read it I'm sure it would be right up your street)

A fantastic read, I recommend to any football fan

My favourite players in my lifetime have been Diego Maradona (for me the best ever). 

Eric Cantona, Ryan Giggs and Christiano Ronaldo. My favourite Cardiff players have been Nathan Blake, Phil Stant and Cohen Griffiths

The iconic image of Maradona running at Belgium...see the fear in the 5 defenders faces

Away from football i enjoy watching boxing, playing poker, getting drunk on Vodka and going to the gym. I have worked for the government for the past 17 years, in late 2014 I decided to join the Reserve  Army and I spent 8 months training. I received my army number and was sworn in, I was one course from qualifying when I quit in July 2015. It was a great experience though and was brilliant for character and strength building.

me and the Mrs

In my personal life I have a girlfriend of one year and have never had children, I love socialising and treat everyone with respect, I look up to no man and look down to no man, I'm happy go lucky and try and live life to the full. Right now I'm eagerly awaiting the European Championships, it will be a special tournament for Wales as the first tournament we have qualified for in my lifetime. Hopefully we can stick one on the English :) and qualify from the group, anything else is a bonus. Anyway I hope you have enjoyed my piece I'm off to eat a bag of Skittles, until next time......