Ahead of Saturday’s clash with Hertha BSC, Freiburg coach Christian Streich is impressed by the opponent’s resources and believes that money does indeed play a weighty role in success.
Financial mogul Lars Windhorst has invested 375 million euros in Hertha BSC in recent months. And yet, after last week’s 0:6 defeat and only two wins from six games this season, the next opponents, SC Freiburg, are on fire on all fronts. “There’s unrest in Berlin because there’s a big investment there and it’s going to be a big club. That’s not the case on the pitch at the moment, because it also takes time,” described SC coach Christian Streich, but stressed that he felt “no schadenfreude” about it. Ahead of his team’s clash with Hertha on Saturday (3.30 p.m., LIVE! on kicker), he even dares to counter the often-circulated thesis that you can’t buy success in football after all.
“If you do a good job and have a lot of money, you can buy success. “
CHRISTIAN STREICH
“You can buy success – if you work reasonably well on the track,” Streich believes, pointing to the top clubs in the Champions League, for example. “If you look at which financiers are active there and which clubs, you unfortunately have to say: you can buy success,” says the 56-year-old, who traditionally gets by with rather down-to-earth means in Breisgau. And after six games without a defeat, he is currently in fifth place.
However, it is not possible to do without a lot of work. “That doesn’t mean that you don’t have to work well,” Streich emphasised, adding: “But if you do a good job and have a lot of money, then you can buy success.” When asked whether the work done at clubs with more money, such as Schalke 04 or Hamburger SV, which were even relegated from the Bundesliga, was worse than elsewhere, Streich didn’t want to answer at first. After a short pause, however, he pointed out that in the medium term you can be more successful with more money. And he added: “But only if you work well. By the way, he doesn’t think that’s a bad thing: “You can also buy other things… “