HSV 2014/15 - A new Beginning

I figure after everything that's happened, this is as good a time as any to start a new thread, also to "celebrate" the new beginning at HSV. After all that has happened over the last few months, we're finally starting to see some of the results of the major change that was effected with the approval of the HSV+ program by a majority of 86.9% of the members' meeting on May 25.

Just a few words on what has happened in the meantime:

• Klaus Meetz, a volleyball-star who played for HSV in the late sixties, managed to file enough motions and complaints with various Hamburg courts and authorities to delay the entry of the new HSV AG to the commercial register, thus tying Beiersdorfer's hands for about an additional two weeks.
  
• Calhanoglu managed to leave the club after one of the ugliest transfer stories of the last several years in the Bundesliga. HSV was intent on keeping him, but after having done everything to force a transfer, Calhanoglu submitted a sick note when he was supposed to appear for training at HSV. He recuperated miraculously on the very day his transfer to Bayer was completed. Bayer also played bad role in all of this, just as they did with Öztunali last year. If anyone's still looking for a club to strongly dislike in the Bundesliga (you should always have at least one), look no further. If need be I will gladly supply added reasons to dislike this mother of all plastic clubs. Now this thing is done. HSV got a handy amount of cash (EUR 12.5 million) for the kid and the rest is more water under the bridge.
• HSV signed Pierre-Michel Lassogga for four years and despite the interest of several PL clubs (Everton apparently) and Wolfsburg, HSV won out without having to pay the EUR 12 million asking price. They settled for just over EUR 8 million, which can be considered a bargain, considering the competition. Well done Didi.
• Sports Director: Oliver Kreuzer is gone. There was some speculation as to whether he might stay, but now he's gone and I'm glad for it. His position will be filled by two men in the future, one who will be in charge of the youth development and one to be the sports director for the first team. The first one has already been hired, Bernhard Peters, who has built up the Hoffenheim youth department. Say what you like about Hoffenheim, their youth work is well respected throughout the German soccer-scene. They are generally considered one of the best academies for young players to go to and they have several players in every DFB-youth team. Peters is recognized as the author of all this and his move to HSV has raised some eyebrows around Germany. Great signing for HSV. The other sports director, the one with responsibility for the contracts and scouting for the senior team, is yet to come and things look very much like it will be Peter Knäbel, who is at this time still the technical director of the Swiss Football Association. Just a few hours ago Hamburger Morgenpost reported that his signing is as good as secured. I must admit, I 've never heard of Knäbel before a you weeks ago, but he also appears to have a very good reputation in the business and he is Beiersdorfer's first choice.
• HSV Campus: For a long time it looked like Jarchow and his boys had already tacitly used up all the funds collected with the HSV anniversary loan almonst two years ago (EUR 17.5 million) to plug other financing holes, now it's clear. They did take the money, but apparently only about half of it. The good news is, they will build it, it's a priority for Beiersdorfer and the supervisory board, and just about all of the licenses and zoning problems are overcome. It looks like we will finally see the beginning of construction come fall.
• Kühne: Personally, I've become more and more wary of Kühne's engagement over the last few weeks. It looked like he got everything he wanted: HSV+ and his right hand man, Karl Gernandt as chairman of the supervisory board and thus, basically in control of the club (especially if you followed the events in May, you will have noticed that it looks like his word goes very far among the ranks of the new six-man supervisory board). In May, Gernandt made it sound like Kühne was willing to fork out a lot of cash, once HSV+ was approved and the signing over of a certain amount of shares was a mere formality, that didn't really matter that much. Well it matters, right now, the club value is subject to a thorough and professional assessment and once that is done, we will know how much a HSV share is worth and what the size of the stake will be, that Kühne will own. Gernandt made it sound like Kühne mostly wanted to help the club, but he certainly does want to be compensated. We needed the money over the last couple of weeks, while good players are still on the market, but Kühne was unwilling to budge. I've also learned on Matz Ab, that the van der Vaart deal for isntance, was not as generous as deal as many thought. The media often made it look like Kühne bought vdV for the club and we knew that was never true, I always thought he merely gave them a good deal on the interest for the loan. But apparently, HSV is still paying 6-8% interest on that loan, which is a lot these days in Germany, ask any homeowner, so he is being compensated handily. That makes you wonder about his engagement. I remain hopeful, but wary. Just this morning, several news outlets reported that while the final assessment of the value of the club is still outstanding, Kühne is now apparently prepared to fork over some cash and we can finally have a closer look at some of the transfer prospects that Didi has been eye-balling. I will address those in my next post, which will hopefully come no later than tomorrow.

This is just a wrap-up of the events surrounding the club. My wish for the coming season is that the team will have nothing to do with relegation and that we can talk more about games and players and less about supervisory boards, shares, stakes and zoning rights in the future. In spite of the many critical voices concerning the changes effected over the last two months, I'm very hopeful and indeed see this as a new beginning, hopefully guiding us to a brighter future. Here's the new jersey for the season, which I like quite a bit. I may even get one for myself, if so, it will have Tah's name on the back, ever hopeful for the future of the club: Nur der HSV!

 

Here's a roundup of what happened with the squad so far over the transfer season:

Departures:

• Aogo: The loan is done, Schalke bought him for EUR 2 million. The buy-out option under the loan deal provided for an option to buy at EUR 3.5 million, but Schalke reportedly bought him for around EUR 2 million. I know he was out sick (torn cruciate ligament) for most of last season, but two million is a joke. When he was fit, he started for Schalke and likely will again, he's worth at least five. Thanks again, Mr. Kreuzer.
• Sobiech: He's off on loan to St. Pipi. He's shown very good games in the past, but none of them for HSV. This is one transfer that never worked out one bit. We'll see how he does at that other club.
• Mancienne: Sold to Nottingham Forest (2. English League) for EUR 1.25 million. Thanks for everything Michael, sorry to see you go. He was the most professional out of the bunch and there when he was needed, after everything that went on before. I say he gave our defense that little bit of stability that they had in order to survive the relegation games against Fürth. Without him we couldn't have done it. All the best to you and with lots of playing time, may you return to the PL and perhaps the national team, someday soon.
• Tesche and Rincon, their contracts expired and weren't extended. Perhaps both will do better at other clubs. Tesche has no new club yet and Rincon has joined FC Genova in Serie A, having considered Stuttgart in the meantime. I think Tomas could have done well at Stuttgart and wish him all the best in Genova.
• Calhanoglu: I won't even get into this, but the price is right. Contrary to my initial post, HSV sold him for EUR 14.5 million. So long and good luck. Fun fact: This makes him the most expensive Turkish national team player ever, ahead of Arda Turan and Nuri Sahin (http://www.transfermarkt.de/statist...usrichtung=&spielerposition_id=&altersklasse=).
• Lam: Zhi Gin Lam left for Fürth for EUR 200,000. He never really looked like he could cut it with the first team, but I'm still sad to see a home-grown player depart as mostly a give-away, I would have liked to see him leave on loan to a 2. Liga club. I hope he does well for Fürth.
  
• Potential departures: Of course, apart from the newcomers, any player is up for sale for the right price, but it looks like there will be no further departures, apart from Skjelbred:
  • Van der Vaart is still in the news, with a reported interest by his old Tottenham coach Harry Redknapp, who is now coaching Queens Park Rangers, will likely stay. He's also fairly fit again. Only yesterday Slomka said that Raphael appears to have a new engine.
    
  • The only guy who is still fairly certain to leave is Per Ciljan Skjelbred, who was on loan to Hertha last season and has left a good impression. He said he wants to stay in Berlin and his family still leaves there. He's shown a very good attitude and said he will stay in Hamburg if no decision is made and be happy to play here. Didi is asking for EUR 2.5 million, which he is well worth. Preetz is unwilling to pay more than EUR 1 million. If you ask me, they will meet at somewhere between EUR 1.6 and 1.8 million right before the end of the transfer window. Otherwise, Skjelbred will stay, unfortunately getting no playing time unless there are injuries and he'll leave for Hertha in the winter for less or on a Bosman transfer next summer. Good guy, good attitude, I think it would be best for both clubs and the player, if an agreement could be reached now.

Arrivals:

• Djourou: Was acquired from Arsenal for EUR 2 after his loan spell last year. I think he's ok, for now he seems to be one of the starting two central defenders. Seems to be in pretty good form right now.
• Kacar: He's back from his loan spell to Japan. He's seems to have recovered his form and he's fit. In what may be the biggest surprise of the transfer season, it looks like for now he will partner with Djourou in the central defense for the starting eleven. And he's looked really solid, too in the test games. Of course we're always happy to see players improve or find their old form. I'll write more on the questions that this set-up leads to below.
• Rudnevs: He's back from his loan spell to Hannover. Still not terribly gifted when it comes to ball handling but he still knows where the goal is. He scored several times in the test games, but I'm afraid he'll see little playing time as long as Lassogga is fit. That in turn may mean that he'll get to play quite a bit.
  
• Lassogga: He's here. Purchased for EUR 8.5 million, from Preetz's initial asking price of EUR 12 million. A decent deal, let's hope he can repeat last season's form, if he can stay fit, he also has good chances of making a spot on the national team, since his position is basically vacant on the national team right now. Right now, however, he's out with muscular problems until next week.
• Stieber: This left forward came from Fürth, after a good showing against HSV in the relegation games. There were rumors that this transfer was completed by Kreuzer and the old management against the wishes of the new management, when they were still in control. He came for EUR 1.3 million and it's questionable how much playing time he will get against competition like Ilicevic, Jiracek and possibly Beister, but he'll definitely be a good back-up.
  
• Behrami: Didi's first killer signing. Behrami had a decent last season at Napoli and a good showing during the world cup. He's 29 years old, so there'll be no great resale value, but Transfermarkt.de still lists him at EUR 12 million. He had a falling out with Napoli trainer Rafa Benitez and so he was sure to leave. Inter offered EUR 7 million and Athletico made an offer, too. Napoli didn't want to sell him to Inter, but he could have easily gone to Athletico Madrid. He came to HSV for a reported EUR 3.4 million, marking quite the achievement by Beiersdorfer. Apparently he's also good buds with Djourou with whom he plays together for the Swiss national team.
• Müller: Nicolai Müller was one of the surprise scorers in the Bundesliga last season. He had a really good season in the first half and then some injury problems later. Most people believed that he would be out of HSV reach or at least cost a fortune, but Beiersdorfer pried him out of Heidel's hands for a reported EUR 4.5 million, when most first expected the deal to go through for EUR 6 - 8 million. Another excellent deal, he is extremely fast and will be important for the quick turnaround game that Slomka wants to play. Him and Diekmeier will probably make for the fastest right side in the Bundesliga. This leaves one to wonder how Mainz will fare after losing both Tuchel and one of its key players, especially when it comes to playing internationally next season.
• Second team: Last season the second team avoided relegation from Regionalliga Nord by a hair's width. Regionalliga play is extremely important in order to sign young talent, because it will be much harder to attract promising players if you only play Oberliga. Reportedly, all but six players for the second team were exchanged. Now, after the first two games of the new season, the HSV team head the table with two wins and a 7:0 scoring record. With Ashton Götz and Matti Steimann, two players from the former second team were pulled up to the first team. They will train with both team apparently, but mostly continue to play for the second team. The same is true for goalie Alexander Brunst-Zöllner who comes from the HSV U19 team. Two other very promising players have been signed who will also officially be part of the first team, but train with both and mostly play for the second:
  
  • Phillip Müller, a right-forward who comes from Wolfsburg's U19 team and
  • Gideon Jung, a 19-year old defensive midfielder who has already earned his Regionalliga-Spurs with the first team of Rot-Weiss Oberhausen. These are two really good signings.
  • I will get to the "Transfers in the Works" in my next posting, but let me finish off the second team here, two other very promising players that may yet join HSV and then oscillate between the first and second team are: Lukas Klostermann, an 18-year old right fullback who has made a splash for Bochum last season (there are several other Bundesliga teams after him) and Max Christiansen, a 17-year old defensive midfielder, who apparently was the most noticeable player for Hansa Rostock last season. It would be wonderful to see this Flensburg native at HSV.

This concludes my first post. I will follow it up with another posting to discuss the potential signings, the reconvalescents and the winners and losers of the training camps as well as the potential first team for next season. Thanks for reading and I look forward to any discussion that may follow.

 

I guess yesterday's post got a little long. I'll keep it shorter today:

In the works:

I already addressed the second team yesterday. I should add that Phillip Müller has also been pulled up from the U19 team and the signing of Max Christiansen appears to be very unlikely. It still looks like at least two more players will join HSV over the next two weeks, when the season begins.

• Fullback: Kreuzer started talking about Matthias Ostrzolek back in March. Ostrzolek has played the left fullback for some time at Augsburg and is considered one of the key players of the successful Augsburg team of the past two years. They've been haggling over the price ever since. Augsburg is asking for three million and HSV is unwilling to pay more than two. They'll likely meet somewhere in the middle in the next few days. As far as I can tell he's a solid player, but until Jansen takes his next injury leave, he probably won't see much playing time, unless Slomka decides to move Jansen up again.
• Central Defense: Ever since the start of the transfer season, there's been talk of signing another defender. The most notable candidates included Niklas Moisander of Ajax, Felipe Santana from Schalke and Shkodran Mustafi from Genova and now Phillip Wollscheid from Leverkusen. Santana will definitely stay at Schalke and Mustafi will definitely go to Valencia (would have been nice to retrieve a home-grown talent). Nothing has been said of Moisander for weeks and it's starting to look very much like they will agree on a loan deal for Wollscheid in the coming days. I say this makes little sense, no sense if they don't agree on a buy-out option. He hasn't had a good last season and I simply don't see him being really any better than our guys. Don't forget, even after the departure of Mancienne and Sobiech, we still have Westermann, Tah, Djourou, Rajkovic and now Kacar for those two positions. Other teams play with three to four nominal central defenders.

The reconvelescents:

• Kerem Demirbay: Remember this guy, he was bought as a youngster more than a year ago from Dortmund and he's been out on injuries just about the entire time. Well he's back to fitness and has left quite an impression during the test games. Last summer, several people at HSV said that Demirbay actually looked like a much more promising talent than Calhanoglu. He's back now and we'll see what he can do. He's normally more of a box-to-box player, but in the defensive midfield, there won't be much room. I imagine Badelj and Behrami will start for the time being and Arslan and Jiracek will be looking for playing time as well. I can imagine Demirbay coming on for van der Vaart when he starts to run out of steam after seventy minutes or so.
• Beister: Just yesterday he announced that he would be back in six weeks, not specifying however, if that means back in training with the team or match-fit. Remember that for the first half of the season he was really impressive. I see him having difficulties getting past Müller (Nicolai that is, remember the speed and Slomka's fast turnaround game). But Beister has played on the left before as well. I could see Müller and Beister on the wings, especially if Ilicevic picks up another injury.
• Rajkovic: He'll be back sometime int he fall, he left a very good impression after his last games. He'll be wanting to play, we'll see how it goes.

Winners of the transfer season:

• Kacar, definitely, for years he looked like the most unwanted player at HSV, now it looks like he will start.
• Demirbay: Finally on form and ready to play, but where? He left a really good impression after the test games.
• Ilicevic: He's fit for once. He never seemed fully fit when he played in the spring, but the training camps have helped him and it looks like he may start on the left wing for the time being.
• Adler: He's back to form, free from injury and left a good impression in the test games. He was rightly criticized for his blunders and left home for the world cup, but it was still a bit much. He's still an excellent goalie.
• van der Vaart: seems to have found his fitness again, along with his form and love of the game. Let's hope it pans out that way.

Losers of the transfer season:

• Westermann: There was a mopo article on this yesterday. Like him or not, he's always played, always fought, always tried his best. Now it looks like he won't start for a while and if you look at the roster of central defenders, he may not get much playing time at all.
• Arslan: Criticized much over the last season for being inconsistent and for his lack of focus during the games. Lots of small simple mistakes. If you want a chuckle and something to think about, read this (http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2142707-should-arsenal-sign-sami-khedira-or-tolgay-arslan). They're actually making a case for signing Arslan rather than Khedira and not just because of the money. They probably don't know that most HSV fans would willingly bring the kid over on a wheelbarrow if any club wanted to pay EUR 3 million or more for him. His main problem is that his position was the one where we had the greatest deficit last season. We lacked a defensively strong defensive midfielder to help the defenders. Arslan was always more forward-minded, it's not really his fault he was "played out of position". To me this article is a reminder of his great talent and potential. Let's hope he can call it off this season. I think he will still get his chances, just mostly not as a starter.
• Jiracek: He's been oscillating between both positions on the left and the central midfield, never really leaving a strong impression. Out of all the midfielders I see him getting the least playing time.
• Zoua, it didn't get any better with him over the summer season, perhaps even worse, as he did get a fair amount of playing time in the test games. With Rudnevs back and also Beister and Müller in the mix, I don't see him getting any playing time. For the time being this is rightly so.

Not so sure:

• Diekmeier: He wasn't really mentioned in the news, blogs or forums all summer long. Hope he can improve. He will need competition for his position. Perhaps this is where Westermann will fit in or who knows, perhaps even Klostermann if they can manage to sign him.
• Jansen: It's been quiet around him as well. He seems to have done decently well in the training camps and test games, it will be interesting to see the competition between him and Ostrzolek.
• Tah: He was basically taken out completely in the late winter and hasn't really played since. Not playing him and looking for another central defender is probably one of the biggest topics on the blogs and forums around HSV these days. There are three reasons for taking him out: (i) they wanted him to be able to focus on his graduation (Abitur), (ii) they wanted to unburden him from the relegation battle and the dire prospect of relegation to 2. Bundesliga, because it was clear that in any case much blame would be cast on the central defense, (iii) he was in the public limelight, because his father basically published his entire contract in the news, being unhappy about the new deal Jonathan's adviser had struck with HSV, they also wanted to protect him here and take him out of the spotlight. As I said, Tah is the object of fiery discussions right now, but I think the move was wise and he will get his time this season, likely as the first option sub for the central defense. Tah is the most valuable player at HSV these days, not just because of his great talent, but because he's a real homegrown guy, a Hamburg boy a likeable guy and hopes and dreams for the future rest on his shoulder more than anyone else's. Like I said, I don't really see what we need Wollscheid for. I don't see him being really better than Djourou, Tah, or even Kacar and Rajkovic. And even if he does end up doing very well, he'll be gone in a year, I would bet money that Leverkusen will not go for a buy-out option. But it sounds like it's mostly a done deal. I believe, for the time being, the starters will be Djourou/Kacar/Wollscheid, whateve works out best, with Tah as first sub and Westermann and Rajkovic having to fight for any playing time.

That's pretty much it. I think our starting eleven for the first games could be something like this: Adler/Jansen-Kacar-Djourou-Diekmeier/Behrami-Badelj/Ilicevic-van der Vaart - Lassogga with Tah, Demirbay, Arslan and Rudnevs as most likely subs. Things will get tossed up a bit when any part of the team doesn't seem to work, when Beister comes back and when the first injuries come (let's hope there's not as many as last season). Personally, I think we have a well balanced team for the first time in a long time. I hope we will have nothing to do with spots 16 - 18 and our players all do well, no one gets injured and Mirko, if you're reading this (Hahahha), give Tah and Demirbay plenty of playing time. Nur der HSV!

 

Blehh, lost 0:2 to Lazio in Lübeck last night. Only a Test Game and no Lassogga or Müller, but a Lot of the old mistakes and no teeth up front. Both Ilicevic and Rudnevs with shameful wasting and worst of all a huge mistake by Kacar, After all the praise he received over the last week. Lot's of work to do.

 

Kacar out on injury for two months. Looks like Westermann will be be back in the saddle against Cologne.

BTW, the Ostrzolek and Wollscheid transfers are still up in the air. Apparently Wollscheid would like to come to HSV, but not on a loan, only on a full transfer. I'm liking the guy better and better.

Van der Vaart was elected team captain again, I'm glad for it, this means he will stay almost certainly and that's a good thing, he's not done with this club.

 

The fun just doesn't stop with Kreuzer. Had he fulfilled his contract, he would have earned another EUR 1.4 million. They offered him a settlement of EUR 800,000, but he refused. Now he's suing for the full amount.

It still amazes me that these guys bear no responsibility whatsoever and I'm not talking about transfers that don't pan out, but obvious mistakes that go against any common sense and business judgment.

 

Mopo just reported that Ostrzolek is inbound for his medical today. It looks like they finally agreed on a sum of a little over EUR 2.5 million, which would mean that Didi had his way again (largely). The other interesting thing is that with all of the transfers that happened at HSV over the summer, no news ever came from HSV sources, apart from the news that the transfer was complete and perhaps the confirmation of a certain interest after it was all over the news. The rest was other sources and the media regurgitating the information. Of course this gives you less to talk about, but it sure makes the club look a lot more serious.