Our world has been roughly deciphered and demystified, but some football clubs continue to pose great puzzles. In this country, the Hamburger SV in particular causes headaches, because nobody can really explain what actually prevents this traditional club from exploiting its natural potential and from serving the Hanseatic metropolis as a representative of the first class.
Recently, however, some evidence condensed into a coherent overall picture, as was pointed out by some fans and observers. “Crazy HSV premiums revealed in the event of promotion!” Was one of the headlines before the Hamburg team had made their third non-promotion in a row last season. The reports stated that a successful season end would have cost HSV dearly, because a considerable number of people would have earned a lot from it – apparently the ex-manager Ralf Becker, who left Hamburg two years ago and is now with the league competitor Dynamo Dresden works.
Of course, it would be total nonsense to explain the repeated failures with resentment towards previous employees or business considerations, especially since opulent pots of money could be tapped when returning to the top division. On the other hand: none of the explanations proposed in the past have been able to drive out HSV’s culture of failure.
Seen in this way, the match day planners may have done FC Schalke 04 a favor when they started the duel with HSV at the start of the second division this Friday (8.30 p.m.). Royal Blue is greeted with a kind of information brochure about how difficult life in the House of Commons can be, how heavy a glorious past sometimes weighs on the gloomy present – and above all, what obstacles have to be overcome on the way back.
HSV sports director Boldt wants a new hierarchy in the team
In Hamburg, they would have gladly done without setting the old record of KSV Hessen Kassel, which already in the eighties accomplished the dubious feat of finishing fourth in a row for three years and thus missing the promotion in the narrowest possible way. At HSV, as usual, the first summer months were spent with a relentless analysis, which subsequently resulted in radical changes. A lack of work ethic and lack of nerve strength among the kicking staff were identified as the main factors for the continuous failure, which is why the Hamburg sports director Jonas Boldt, 39, pushed for a sweep in the squad as a first step. He has terminated contracts with a number of players, including those who are expensive to maintain and who are disappointing in terms of sport, such as defender Gideon Jung and goalkeeper Sven Ulreich.
The second step was to turn the hierarchy completely inside out.
For this purpose, Boldt has hired a new trainer, Tim Walter, who could be described as a lateral thinker, if this term weren’t so negative in the meantime. Walter, 45, is an uncomfortable reformer who sometimes goes on confrontation behind the scenes and is considered an ideologue in tactical matters, because he has a reputation for not deviating a millimeter from his intended ball possession football – and that it closes in his first few weeks has taken unusual measures to bring a breath of fresh air to the sleepy traditional club. In Hamburg’s Volkspark, soccer players have recently been spotted every day who enter the training area after being late in the trellis, do somersaults, carry themselves piggyback through the area or even practice the “ass bolt” known from village squares after losing training matches.
“He embodies exactly what we need,” said Boldt at the season opener last Saturday, when Hamburg beat FC Basel 1-0 in front of 4,000 spectators. On the other hand, Boldt also endeavored to provide the new coach Walter with a squad that he needed for his complex pass fireworks. Probably the most exciting additions are the lively midfielder Ludovit Reis, 21, who was loaned to Osnabrück last season and has now moved from FC Barcelona to the Elbe on a permanent basis, and defender Sebastian Schonlau, 26.
Like Reis, Schonlau was signed on for a free transfer, which could prove to be a real stroke of luck: In the preparation for the season he already stood out with his imperial movements and excellent positional play, Walter immediately handed him the captain’s armband. The coach emphasized that this was not the same as downgrading the previous captain, Tim Leibold, but that HSV would have to distribute the burden on several shoulders in the future.
The departure of striker Simon Terodde should be absorbed by the collective
Which brings you to the next principle to be implemented under Walter. In the past, the dependency on individuals was too great, was a result of the large HSV failure analysis. That is why the striker Simon Terodde, who has migrated to FC Schalke and who scored more goals last season than the rest of the HSV starting line-up, has to be replaced through the collective. After all, Robert Glatzel (Cardiff City) and the young Mikkel Kaufmann (FC Copenhagen) came for the attack, quite promising names, but especially inconsistent individual players like playmaker Sonny Kittel are now expected to play themselves permanently in the foreground.
Where will the upheaval lead this time? In any case, sports director Boldt “cannot imagine a more attractive task than HSV because it is so complex”, as he recently did kicker betrayed. As a good omen it could turn out that a new report caused rather little attention. “HSV involved in embarrassing jersey mishap!” Was the headline of a post, which, however, complied with clickbaiting. It is correct that HSV will have to do without their away jerseys until the fifth match day, because they were accidentally flocked with the wrong sponsor.
The culprit for the mishap was not the usual suspects such as players, coaches or officials, but a sporting goods manufacturer from Herzogenaurach.