HSV 2012/13 - 50th Anniversary Season - A Glimmer of Hope

I must admit I've found it very hard to come here, it seems like the club is wallowing in misery. I'm following closely, but it's tough to talk about it. I agree with Epitome, the most important thing that needs to happen is for Westermann to go back to central defense. I cannot see Sobiech or Djourou on the pitch for another minute. I just hope that Westermann and Tah will work out together. I also think it's a shame that BvM is not giving Lam another chance. I'm hoping they will either let him play or loan him out. I cannot imagine him being sold, there is too much pressure on the management to have some homegrown talent in the team.

I still think that the team is much better than their position in the table. On a halfway decent-day for both teams only Bayern, Dortmund, Leverkusen, Schalke, Gladbach and Wolfsburg are stronger. And, ever the optimist, I have still not given up on that spot no. 7, my mind refuses to accept that we're not better than Hoffenheim, Mainz, Augsburg, Stuttgart, Hertha and Werder. We can pass these guys in the table, then again 12 points is an awfully big head-start to make up.

Anyway, the current malaise may make all club members realize that something has to change in a big way. The annual meeting is coming up on Jan. 19. I just hope that enough people will realize that HSV+ is the only way to go and refrain from following Hunke, Ertel and Liebnau, who have also placed reform proposals on the table, however, each of these proposals is a thinly veiled preservation of the status quo. We need the change, a smaller supervisory board and most importantly money. The most recent annual financials have just been published two weeks ago or so and it looks like all things included the club is nearly 100 million in the red. This includes the rest of the stadium mortgage, the anniversary bond for the new campus and all other debts (all being paid off as planned), but it still means that we're roughly 50 million in the hole and not thirty as most people thought. Either way, January 19, will likely be the most important date for the club this year. Perhaps the bad run over the last few games will help all the members to realize how important it is to effect a change. BTW, one piece of good news is that the city, the club and the zoning department appear to have pretty much all the details for the construction permits for the new campus worked out. It looks like construction will commence in the spring.

Here's a photo:

 

One more thing. Today I found this most comprehensive of all the reports I have seen on the financial and structural situation of the club, including an analysis and the projected effects of HSV+. Anyone who reads German and is interested in the topic should have a look. The report dates from late October, but I found it to be such an apt analysis, that the most recent financial figures blend right into the picture that is being painted.

http://spielverlagerung.de/2013/10/29/finanz-analyse-hamburger-sportverein-hsv/

The interesting thing is that in accordance with the most recent Deloitte Money League report for 2013, HSV still ranks as no. 18 of all European clubs in terms of sheer turnover.

http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_GB/.../5aa11261e7c5c310VgnVCM3000003456f70aRCRD.htm

In comparison to team results, HSV ranks somewhere between rank 64 and 142 in Europe, depending on how you look at it:

http://www.uefa.com/memberassociations/uefarankings/club/

http://footballdatabase.com/worldrankings.php?Rnk=101 (I admit this second ranking looks at all clubs worldwide).

This is just another illustration of the huge disparity between potential and size of the club on the one hand and the results on the other, confirming my view that HSV has for the last years been and continues to be the biggest underperformer in UEFA. All parts of the club have lots of room for improvement, the corporate structure, the management and the team itself.

My only conclusion is, again and again, HSV+ has to happen, anything else would be a catastrophe in the long run.

There will be no immediate effects on the team in the next year, I think that is an entirely different aspect, the biggest problem that BvM will have to solve for the second half of the season is the stabilization of the central defense. We're scoring plenty of goals and the midfield is working fairly well, but the defense has to improve, which of course includes the defensive play of the entire team, not just the back four. There's not going to be any new defenders during this transfer window.

What also has to somehow happen is a change in mentality. Every single good game is followed by a nightmare. If you look at the nominally stronger clubs in the league (Bayern, Dortmund, Leverkusen, Schalke and Wolfsburg, perhaps Gladbach), HSV did not win against any of them, but Dortmund is the only one against which HSV really looked bad (ok, Gladbach, too). It's the games against the smaller teams that are much more important and the team seems to simply put in a lacksadaisical performance, believing it will suffice (never shown more clearly than in the two recent games against Augsburg and Mainz), in particular after games that were won. That's a mentality problem and it has to stop. If they can find a way to do that, perhaps we can find ourselves at least in the top half of the table at the end of the season.

 

Berchtesgaden, I checked it out on Google and just found this:

http://bundesligafanatic.com/hsv-the-never-ending-story-of-frustration-continues/

This also seems to be a very good English language site for the Bundesliga in general. I've never seen it before. I'll have to check it out in more detail, a recommendation from Honigstein can go both ways in my book.

 

With respect to the annual member's meeting coming up on Sunday, there was an excellent posting on MatzAb today, which I believe may be of interest to all those who follow this thread and who read German (sorry, no English version).

http://hsv-blog.abendblatt.de/2014/...ckt-viel-wahres-drin/comment-page-1/#comments

Scholle posted a comment originally posted in a blog by an FCK fan named Rhinemike who is sympathetic to HSV. In his blog, Rhinemike provided one of the best histories of what went wrong at HSV over the last 25 years that I have read. His posting was greeting with much approval and agreement by Scholle and the overwhelming majority of MatzAb commenters.

From the televised debates between the different groups over the last days, one thing has become certain. The concepts provided by Liebnau, Ertel and Hunke only serve one interest, which is to divide the votes on Sunday to prevent HSV+ from happening. This is their only concern. In order to be succesful, HSV plus must win 50% +1 vote on Sunday, after which the other concepts will drop out and the supervisory board will instruct the board of management to draft a concept for the implementation of HSV +. Then the actual voting on HSV+ will take place during an extraordinary member's meeting to be held in the summer, where an approving vote of 75% will be required. Only after this, can any change take place. In order for HSV+ to achieve this large majority, it will be necessary that the motions to introduce mail voting are approved on Sunday. Apparently there are again four or five different motions here, to distract from the real intent and to confuse voters. The opponents of HSV + will leave no stone unturned to prevent it from happening and this also means to prevent mail voting. If the voting on Sunday is successful, expect some legal trickery.

During the televised debates there was an online poll that showed roughly 90% approval for HSV plus, but nobody knows how representative this figure is of the 8,000 to 9,000 members that will show up on Sunday to participate in the vote.

I'm saying my prayers.

BTW, if you've read anything about Jansen leaving the club in the summer in today's news, rest assured that this is just Bild trash. Jansen has said repeatedly that change needs to happen, indicating that he may think about leaving the club if HSV+ fails. Apparently his contract includes a clause that allow for him to be bought out of his contract for EUR 5 million in the summer. If he wishes to leave, this will make him a very attractive transfer target, but it is believed that he will want to stay if there are signs of change.

 

After all the awful team news over last few weeks

• Rudnevs given away for 6 months with a buy option for H96 at EUR 2.5 million, that's pretty much a birthday present;
• Jansen can leave in the summer for EUR 5 million, contrary to what I posted yesterday, Matz Ab reported on insider sources that he already gave his word to Loserkusen; (if this was in the contract and known to the management team, it's downright criminal negligence to let Augo go for EUR 3.5 million in the summer, this means we lose two quite decent left fullbacks way, selling them way under price with no replacement in sight);
  
• Beister out for six months with a torn cruciate ligament;
• Kerem Demirbay also out for several months again with a torn tendon;
• both Preetz and Luhukay telling anyone who will give them the time that they want nothing but Lasogga back in the summer, since other clubs are already vying for Ramos, they will need him, too.
  
• no getting rid of Tesche and Kacar during this transfer window, either. These two guys are really just sitting it out on their salary.

There is finally a bit of good news. Ola John will come on loan from Benfica. The 21-year old 2 time Dutch International was sold from Twente Enschede to Benfica for EUR 9 million a year and a half ago and has not really had a breakthrough (he spent most of this season on the bench), however, the competition at Benfica is tough. Apparently we even have a buyout-option for the summer (rumored to be around EUR 7 million, expensive, but not impossible in the summer if he works out really well and we finally get some of those guys off the roster). The guy is will be playing in BeisterS position, he is supposed to be technically gifted and very fast. A fast and versatile attacker is exactly what we are lacking. This could be good and if he does not work out, we don't lose anything. There is no loan fee, we're only paying his salary for the rest of the season, which is reported to be about the same as that of Rudnevs (i.e. approx. EUR 600,000 for the rest of the season). This may have been Kreutzer's first commendable act on behalf of HSV (as far as I know Lasogga cannot really be billed to him).

http://www.transfermarkt.de/de/ola-john-zu-hamburger-sv/topic/ansicht_154_1002764_seite3.html

There are rumors that van Marwijk handed a list of Dutch offensive players that might be available to Kreutzer recently. With his background, van Marwijk would be in an excellent judge of his talent. Apparently John is already on his way to Hamburg. Another good thing is that there is still the chance of a call-up to the Elftal for the World Cup, so he will work hard to put in the best possible performance and van Marwijk and van der Vaart will help him to settle in quickly.

 

For anyone interested in John, I might add that John was first invited to the Elftal in February 2012 by van Marwijk. Later he was part of the preliminary squad for the EURO 2012, but ended up being one of the nine players who had to be cut from the final team.

http://espnfc.com/euro2012/en/news/1071286/league/UEFA.EURO/season/2012/team/449

Well, we all remember how that ended.

 

And another Dutchman, Ouasim Buoy!

http://www.mopo.de/hsv/nach-john-transfer-auch-juves-ouasim-bouy-kommt-zum-hsv,5067038,25910522.html

Sounds like a similar story. Was one of the hottest talents out of Ajax's de Toekomst academy until he was sold to Juve in early 2012. Never quite made his breakthrough, tough luck with injuries, etc.
Who knows what will happen here. Unfortunately it sound like we don't have a buyout-option for either player. Too bad!
On the other hand I don't really see that we have use for him. Now that the biggest problem of the first half of the season is likely taken care of (Diekmeier out and Westermann out of position, with Djourou and Sobiech performing abysmally in the center; now both Diekmeier and Westermann can go back to their normal position and the central defense with Westermann and Tah should be much more stable), the second biggest problem is still there: We don't have a strong defensive midfielder, no destroyer like either Bender, Gustavo or Martinez, to name some of the best ones in the Bundesliga. Badelj and Arslan are more forward-oriented (and I don't see Buoy displacing either of them) and Rincon is past his prime. I think the first half of the season has shown that playing both Badelj and Arslan in the defensive midfield creates an imbalance in the team. Both are decent going forward, but not good enough defensively, which is a big part of our defensive problem, even though the blame is always cast almost entirely on the central defense. In conclusion I fear Buoy won't see much playing time at HSV, either.

 

Wow, that went fast, the two new kids on the block have already joined training:



http://www.mopo.de/hsv/ola-john---o...eren-schon-mit-dem-hsv-,5067038,25916358.html.

Both are clients of one of the most famous agents in the business, Mino Raiola (also manages Balotelli, Ibrahimovic, Mkhitaryan, Lukaku, Pogba, Hamsik, Maxwell and many others). Raiola came with them to Hamburg today. Let's hope it works out for them and for us.

 

Actually, there will be a little money, after all, Kreuzer's been selling the silverware.

HSV won 4:2 against FC Basel today, some awful defending again, but also some very nice touches in the offensive. Good Job, the real battle takes place tomorrow. Again, the passing of the remote voting resolutions is even more critical than the voting on HSV+, which should not have to much trouble getting more than 50% of the vote.

 

It's all said and done. Here's what went down:
It was not 12,000 people who attended, it was not 10,000, not 8,000 but at least somewhere around 7,000. They had booked room enough to seat 12,000 members at the CCH (Conference Center Hamburg). The doors opened and people found their seats at 9:30 AM and the meeting was commenced 11:00. There were reports and all the people who had submitted reform proposals were given ample time to speak. Then others chimed in, random speakers from among the fans, but also very prominent people gave their voice for the first time, e.g. Jarchow (CEO) and Hilke (CFO) who had refrained from positioning themselves in any way before (there was an agreement between the board of management and the supervisory board, that no one would take sides in this campaign, which did not stop Ertel and Hunke from going on a huge campaign for their models, attending more than 20 events to drum up support, constantly proclaiming that they were doing this not in their official capacity but as simple club members. Complete Hypocrisy! Read about it here: http://www.bild.de/sport/fussball/hsv/falsches-spiel-vom-aufsichtsrat-33450104.bild.html ). Say what you want about Jarchow and Hilke, but their held their own on Sunday and clearly positioned themselves behind HSV+. Kühne's general agent also took to the stand and said they had reviewed all reform models and Kühne was backing HSV+ and was prepared to invest in the club. The chips were all down at around 5:00 PM when the voting started. All other models were struck down and HSV was approved with 79.6 percent of the vote (over 5,0000 votes) and 20.3 percent against (around 1,300 votes). Remember, all they needed was over 50%. This means the supervisory board will now (be forced to) instruct the board of management of draft a plan for the practical implementation of HSV+. During an extraodinary members' meeting the date for which has yet to be set (sometime in the summer), there will be another vote, where the HSV+ final concept will then have to be approved with a vote of 75%.
Anyway, after much cheering, people settled down again, and it was on to the remaining motions. There were numerous other motions, including two for remote voting. The other motions were again debated at length and all struck down, the voting for the two remote voting motions did not take place until it was almost 8:00 PM. By this time, only 4,000 people remained. Both motions failed, the one having achieved 72.1 and the other 73.7 percent of the vote (both needing 75% because they constituted amendments to the articles of association). The 26.3% who had voted against it were the same roughly 1,300 who had voted against HSV+ earlier. If only 50 of the more than 2,000 who had left, had stayed, it would have sufficed. Those guys who struck it down were mostly the group supporting the supervisory board, the supporters club leadership and the ultra fan group "Chosen Few". This was their plan all along, they knew they never had a chance to prevent HSV+ from getting over 50% of the vote, but if they wasted enough time with bogus motions and discussions, they can kill remote voting, which means, you have to basically get the same group together again in the summer. It took months of debate and public campaigning, the favorable opinion of nearly all media outlets and a positively dire situation with respect to finances and table standings to mobilize this group. It isn't at all sure, that this many people can be mobilized again to come to Hamburg. A very large part of the membership lives outside of and in parts far away from Hamburg and outside of Germany. All of the large soccer clubs and every major stock corporation have remote voting. There is absolutely no reason to take the membership fees from people who live far away but then to, de facto, deny them the vote. This is all about HSV+. It is widely known that the overwhelming majority of fans is pro HSV+ plus, the only ones against it are the roughly 1,500, who represent less than 5% of the membership, who are continuing "hold the club hostage" because they always manage to muster the required quorum in order to strike down the motions for major change. Once remote voting is approved, they can no longer do this. If all members can simply send their vote by mail or through online voting, their power is gone. This also shows that all their bull about democratic principles and co-determination rights is pure hypocrisy: They don't care about the say of the members of the club, just about their own. If remote voting had been approved there would not be a doubt in anyone's mind as to the approval of HSV+ in the summer, now there's a major question mark. Who knows if that many people can be mobilized again. And it's all the more frustrating since this would not have happened if only a few guys had stayed an hour longer. What a shame. It's like catching an equalizer during extra-time. The ironic thing is that during his concession speech after the HSV+ vote went through, Hunke literally said from the stand: "Teams that are up 1:0 often end up losing in the end."
Anyway, there was a small consolation. At around 9:00 PM, when only 400 people were left, the supervisory board and board of management rendered their report for the previous year and their discharge was to be the final vote of the day. The actions of the board of management were approved, but the supervisory board received no discharge. As far as I know there are no direct consequences to this, also because it would be very difficult to prove that their actions resulted in financial losses, but it's a nice slap on the wrist.



Anyway, the first step is taken, now on to the next. When the final concept is presented, together with a "shadow cabinet", which might include people like Magath for CEO and a supervisory board made up of people with sports and economic expertise (e.g. van Heesen, Hieronymus, Hrubesch, Cord Wöhlke (CEO of Budnikowski), etc) it could work out. As Rieckhoff rightly said in his "acceptance speech" (he continues to say he is not aspiring to any office), now it's back to sports, next up is Schalke on Saturday. Nur der HSV!

 

For anyone who hasn't read enough yet about the HSV+ thing, here's a blog (again German only, I'm afraid) that's worth a read. It was written by a fan who completely against HSV+, very passionately. I don't agree with him one bit, but I think he deserves to be heard and the discussion in the comments section has some people making excellent points:

http://linkerlaeufer.wordpress.com/2014/01/21/schone-neue-vereinswelt/comment-page-1/#comment-124.

I have to admit that I did not know that the two remote voting motions that entered the vote and failed on Sunday, both only provided for remote voting with respect to the decision on HSV+. Many people appear to harbor serious concerns about remote voting rights. I don't get it. Of course many members are disinterested in many of the day-to-day issues that go on, but as a member I would want the freedom to choose to become interested in any issue that catches my attention and then to choose to participate in the voting or not, just like any member who lives in Hamburg. I'm not a member myself, but I've toyed with the idea for a long time. The two issues that mostly keep me from signing up are the fact that I would automatically be made a member of the supporters club and half my annual membership fee would go to the supporters management also. I have some serious issues with the supporters club management and the way they are completely disinterested in the overwhelming majority opinion of the club they are representing and I certainly don't want to throw any money at them. My second issue is the absence of remote voting rights. One more thing, the annual meeting in this scope cost the club half a million Euros. The second one (BTW it will be held in late May or early June) will likely cost the same. This is expensive, too. Certainly a webpage where you enter your member number and your vote would be much cheaper and more efficient.

 

Blehhh! I just subscribed to HSV Total (which works like a charm, by the way, the only nuisance is you don't see a game clock on the screen).
Schalke didn't play that well, either, which makes it all the worse. Oh well, in the first half of the season, it was not the big teams that we looked so bad against. If they get beaten by the big teams now, instead of tying and then win against the smaller teams, that's a trade I'm willing to accept.