Wow, this is kinda huge. Doesn't this make Berhalter the first American to coach a (fairly large) European club side?
But it is a "pretty big" club in Sweden. Of course the other options under consideration were Curt Onalfo, Dave Sarachen, and Cobi Jones. AEG owns a large stake in Hammarby, and it looked for a long time like they were going to go in this American direction. If I was a Hammarby fan, I'd wonder what in the world is going on......... Surely there were Swedish candidates with better resumes than Berhalter.
No, which is why I said *fairly* large. They spent 12 seasons in the Allsvenskan between 1998 and 2009, were Swedish champions in 2001, runners up in 2003, and got to the Swedish Cup final in 2010. They're not a small team by European standards.
Unless you're a Hammarby fan wondering why you hired Greg Berhalter as your head coach. It'll be interesting to see if Greg decides to bring in American staff and players. I mean, you could see him maybe grabbing a free agent like Robbie Rogers right away. [although Robbie's probably not looking at the Swedish 2nd division]
I know we're treading dangerously on yanks abroad ground..........but it's still cool having an MLS player go straight to being the head coach at club like Hammarby. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFXpiKav2GI"]HTV: Gregg Berhalter om att ta sig an tränarposten i Hammarby - YouTube[/ame] [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU6EQci_d40"]This is Hammarby! - YouTube[/ame]
I could be wrong, but I don't think he was ever the manager. He was, though, the Technical Director, and currently the Director of Football at AZ.
Ah, yes, I forgot about him. Although, according to Wiki, he was NAC's "technical director", not head coach, and now he's "Director of Football" at AZ Alkmaar. Besides, for all intents and purposes, Stewart was a Dutchman, born there, grew up there, and spent most of his playing career there - he just happened to be eligible for the US because of his father. Berhalter is a born-and-bred Yank, which I suppose is the point I was trying to make.
This will be a baptism of fire, Hammarby is a club in disarray and they went dangerously close to relegation to the third division this season. The supporters hate AEG and several coaches have been forced out in recent years. They will have to fly out of the gates, otherwise this could turn ugly for Berhalter.
No, but we are one of the biggest clubs in Sweden, and we are know in Sweden for our Loyalty and our fans. This years first game. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPHGIw7mvT0&list=UUSC_dg365kqdqgrHnb3wU9Q&feature=plcp"]Hemmapremiär 2011 - Bättre än julafton! - YouTube[/ame] and last years cup final. THIS IS SÖDERSTADION! - YouTube And we usually have a large numbers of fans on our away matches too. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LtAzhW4pZ0&feature=related"]Västerås - Hammarby 2011 Full HD - YouTube[/ame]
Someone mentioned Eddie Johnson earlier...this would be a great place for him to go. Get the rumor mill spinning!
I actually think Berhalter is in a position to succeed. His hiring correlates to a time when many MLSers are looking for a job and Americans have been known to frequent and adjust well to the Swedish league. I don't want to underestimate the competition, but there should be plenty of players, from Eddie Johnson to Pat Phelen to Jacob Peterson, who could do a decent job for him and Hammarby.
There are plenty of failed MLSers who have done well in the Swedish lower divisions, so if Hammarby were to sign any MLS player with any pedigree, it would be a huge coup.
Was the favorite this season, and will be the favorite next season too. Biggest budget, names, support, legacy etc in the second division. Promotion or failure.
Why do the supporters hate AEG? (not that fans have to have logical reasons for things). Didn't AEG save them from bankruptcy or dissolution or something? Or did some disgruntled Quakes fans migrate to Sweden when I wasn't looking?
The club is really cleaning house and has gotten rid of eight players so far this off-season with a possible five more to follow. It's all going to come down to how good of a job they do in bringing in their replacements this winter, they have started off well with two good signings. Like DontJustStareAtIt wrote they have the biggest budget by far. The graph below shows what an outlier Hammarby are when you look at resources vs. performance in the swedish second division. Y-axis is personnel costs and X-axis is finishing position in the table, so the further a club is above the drawn line the more they are underperforming and vice versa. The conclusion you can draw from this is that Berhalter would just need to get the team to the level where they are only underperforming slightly instead of majorly and it would still be enough to get them promoted. So like I wrote earlier in another thread I think this is good timing to come in as manager and become the big hero, it just requires them to bring in the right players. Of course since I'm making that prediction he will end up being fired in late August
Some of it is a simple correlation/causality thing. AEG bought into the club in 2001 when Hammarby won the league and now ten years later they just barely avoided playing in a relegation playoff to the third division. Alot of it also comes from the fact that the local AEG representatives over here haven't really been of the highest quality neither proffessionally or pr-wise. But I know there's alot more to the subject that I don't know about. There's been like long, long in-depth articles written about it in magazines.