Hamburger SV: History Repeating

By: Jan | August 17th, 2007

van der Vaart In late 2004 Thomas Doll took over as new Hamburg coach. The club had a disastrous start into the new season and was sitting at the very bottom of the table. Doll lead the team out of the relegation zone and into the Intertoto Cup, through which the team eventually made it to the UEFA Cup. The next season would turn out to be a very successful one. Hamburg even challenged Bayern Munich for the title for a long time before they choked and dropped down to the third place.

In early 2007 Huub Stevens took over as new Hamburg coach. The club had a disastrous start into the new season and was sitting at the very bottom of the table. Stevens lead the team out of the relegation zone and into the Intertoto Cup, through which the team eventually made it to the UEFA Cup. The next season would turn out to be ~~a very successful one. Hamburg even challenged Bayern Munich for the title for a long time before they chocked and dropped down to the third place.~~

Up until a few days ago I was convinced that history could positively repeat itself for Hamburg. The preseason went smooth and was free of any particular drama - excluding a slight skirmish with Werder Bremen about Carlos Alberto. And their very convincing season opener against Hannover promoted the team to veritable Munich challengers in the eyes of many experts. Then a fax by Valencia, offering €14m for Rafael van der Vaart, arrived and now history could negatively repeat itself for Hamburg.

One year ago Khalid Boulahrouz was determined to leave Hamburg to join Chelsea (or as it turned out Chelsea’s bench) and faked an injury, so he couldn’t play for Hamburg in the Champions League. A few days later Boulahrouz had joined Chelsea and incidentally was still allowed to play for them in the Champions League. Now there is Rafael van der Vaart who is determined to leave Hamburg to join Valencia. And he too now had a mysterious back injury that prevented him from playing for Hamburg in the UEFA Cup. Incidentally that also means he would still be allowed to play in the Champions League for Valencia.

It’s a well publicised fact that it would be a dream come true for van der Vaart to play for one of the big clubs in Spain. His mother is Spanish and his grand parents live there too. A clause in his contract would allow him to leave Hamburg in 2009 for just €1,5m, which means that Hamburg will most likely sell him in 2008 to make a bit of a profit. But selling him now would definitely be too early. There is no chance to find a suitable replacement for him two weeks prior to the end of the transfer period. And the players you could get will be completely overpriced. Though, these concerns usually don’t matter to a player willing to leave a club.

His departure could also trigger a domino effect. In a worst case scenario, Hamburg would no longer be a serious candidate for the top spots in the league. Other players could be frustrated by another midtable season leading to a possible wave of departures. So ideally the management sits out those two weeks until the transfer period ends, kisses and makes up with van der Vaart and invites his mother and grand parents over to Hamburg for a short holiday.