No chaos, a lot of calm: Remaining in the league early is more than just a sporting success for HSV. It could be the key to a successful future.
No shaking, no fear, just a little bit of tension over the past few weeks. He has no drama HSV Relegation in the 1st Bundesliga was secured on matchday 32. For the first time in 13 years, the club can now plan early for the coming season. Just a few months ago, hardly anyone would have expected this.
Because HSV looked like a certain relegation at the start of the season. After three games, the “Rothosen” were still without a goal of their own and the team stumbled almost helplessly through the significant defeats against St. Pauli and FC Bayern. In previous years, weeks like this would have quickly caused panic at HSV – including coaching discussions and public unrest. But this time the club consciously decided against it. Those responsible stuck with promotion coach Merlin Polzin and relied on calm, cohesion and patience. Looking back, that was exactly the most important decision of the season.
Last summer, HSV consciously decided to almost reinvent itself in terms of sport. Top performers such as Dennis Hadzikadunic, Davie Selke, Ludovit Reis and Sebastian Schonlau left the club. At the same time, the hierarchy within the squad changed: several promotion heroes lost their regular place or their importance. In addition, important newcomers such as Fabio Vieira, Albert Sambi Lokonga and Luka Vuskovic moved to Hamburg late. It was foreseeable that a team, especially as a promoted team, would need time under these conditions.
What is even more remarkable is how stably the club reacted to smaller and larger crises. Since the third match day, HSV has not slipped into a relegation zone; at times the gap to the bottom was even greater than the gap to the European Cup places. Even when there was a threat of unrest again in April after six games without a win, the club did not fall back into old patterns and instead trusted the coaching team.
The same was true off the pitch: both Jean-Luc Dompé’s drunk driving and the surprising separation from sports director Stefan Kuntz would have opened up weeks of sideshows in previous years. Instead, HSV appeared remarkably united. The former chaos club appears much more mature today – also because of the public appearance of Polzin and CFO Eric Huwer.
