Yes, Hamburger SV are a storied side, with a long-established presence in German football. But the events of recent years have left much of Hamburg’s domestic success consigned to the history books and deep recesses of people’s minds.
How low is rock bottom for Hamburg?
The firing of Mirko Slomka is another sign that Hamburg have nowhere to go but down.
Friedemann Vogel
Hamburg have spent the longest time in the Bundesliga, lifting the trophy three times, although the last time they won the title was over 30 years ago. More recently, the club won the Intertoto Cup in 2005 and 2007 and the DFB-Ligapokal in 2003, two pointless summer competitions that do not exist anymore.
There may be little honors to Hamburg's name, but they've long been a respectable Bundesliga side. That's what makes their transition to the whipping boys of Germany's top flight painful to watch. There are always losers in every league, for without them there cannot be winners, but the narrative surrounding HSV involves more than the laws of football. Their performance has sunk so low that, after Hamburg's recent 0-3 loss to Hertha Berlin, supporters threw whatever they could get their hands on at the players.
Over the past five years, Hamburg have fielded an older squad than many sides in the Bundesliga, attracting older, experienced players whose expertise assisted the team more than their athleticism. Their defense was stout, with young players like Jérôme Boateng and Marcell Jansen guarding the edge of the penalty area with youthful gusto. However, as their talented players were wooed to other sides, the Rothosen found it harder to sustain a consistent spot in the table. They jockeyed between the upper mid-table and the relegation threshold before finally finding themselves in the relegation zone last season.
The club’s solution to the speedy decline is to cycle through managers like pens in a pencil case. Nine different managers have roamed Hamburg’s touchline over the past five years. The latest victim of the manager carousel is Mirko Slomka, sacked on Monday after Hamburg failed to score in their third consecutive Bundesliga match. The 47-year-old leaves with the second-worst point-per-match ratio (0.75) in Hamburg’s history.
Slomka, a relatively successful manager at Hannover 96, fell into the black hole that is growing at Imtech Arena. Several professional careers have taken a downward turn in Lower Saxony, and Hamburg have been forced to sell many players for significantly less than their purchase price. Rafael van der Vaart returned from Tottenham only to see his career decay away, while René Adler has turned from a promising Germany goalkeeper to one of the worst in the Bundesliga.
A change in manager, therefore, is not likely to reverse HSV's fortunes. Hamburg invested €26 million in their squad this summer, but nearly half their business occurred at the end of the transfer window. No manager will be able to quickly fix the cohesion issues currently in Hamburg's setup, making the job not very desirable for anyone who might actually be able to keep them in the top flight.
Hamburg’s biggest claim to fame is that they are the only original member of the inaugural Bundesliga never to be relegated. It is a legacy that they hold on to so tightly that they have a running clock in Imtech Arena that reflects the 51+ years that they have spent in the Bundesliga. That legacy brought little comfort to the fans as they watched their side struggling to avoid relegation last season, barely squeaking through the relegation play out.
This gloomy narrative can only have one end: Hamburger SV has to hit rock bottom in order to progress once more. The only question is what is defined as rock bottom. For a club that prides itself on top-flight longevity, relegation would be devastating. However, there are several examples of clubs able to retain key players and pop back up into the Bundesliga, including Eintracht Frankfurt and Hertha BSC.
Relegation could be exactly what Hamburg needs, ending the poorly executed charade that maintaining a lower-league place in the Bundesliga is a legitimate goal. Clubs would inevitably poach talent away from Hamburg like flies on a turd, but it gives Hamburg an opportunity to revamp the squad and rebuild their foundation.
If Hamburg wish to avoid relegation yet still build a successful side, the manager to undertake such an endeavor will be hard to find. Hamburg's top choice is Thomas Tuchel, who stepped down from Mainz on his own terms, but the odds are slim that he will come out of his break from managing to move to a side in such a crisis.
However, the season is still young, so a manager could easily come in and successfully implement a reinvigoration project. At this point, though, all roads to reclamation have disappointing destinations.
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