Hertha Berlin

Hertha Berlin have a reputation for being one of the league's least harmonious clubs -- with good reason. Now Swiss coach Lucien Favre, fresh from a championship season with Zürich, has been charged with taming Hertha's motley assortment of personalities.

Brazilian midfielder Lucio has looked good in preseason, and Hertha hope new goalkeeper Jaroslav Drobny will give some confidence to last year's shaky back four. But Berlin has lost a number of its vaunted young talents, who got better contracts elsewhere, as well as defensive mainstay Dick van Burik, who was kicked off the team after his father, a players' adviser, negotiated many of those selfsame contracts.

Hertha wouldn't be Hertha if management let chaos interfere with delusions of grandeur. There have been vague murmurings about a return to the top five -- but a relegation battle is equally likely, especially as coach Favre has admitted the team lacks quality.

Coach: Lucien Favre

Acquisitions: Lucio (Palmeiras Sao Paulo), Jaroslav Drobny (VfL Bochum), Lukasz Piszczek (Zaglebie Lubin), Pascal Bieler (returns from loan)

Departures: Andreas Neuendorf (FC Ingolstadt 04), Yildiray Bastürk (Stuttgart), Ashkan Dejagah (Wolfsburg), Nico Pellatz (Werder Bremen), Robert Müller (Carl Zeiss Jena), Kevin Stuhr Ellegaard (Randers FC), Ellery Cairo (Coventry City), Kevin-Prince Boateng (Tottenham Hotspur), Christopher Schorch (Real Madrid), Christian Gimenez (Deportivo Toluca)