HSV has separated from coach Tim Walter. The management of the second division soccer team no longer trusted the 48-year-old to successfully implement the promotion project. During the guest appearance in Rostock, Merlin Polzin is looking after the team as head coach.
“We have great coaching talent with us,” explained HSV sports director Jonas Boldt on Monday and confirmed that Polzin would definitely sit on the bench in the away game on Saturday (1 p.m., NDR Livecenter) at FC Hansa Rostock. Boldt said that firing Walter three days after the spectacular 3-4 defeat against Hannover 96 was “definitely not easy” for him. Walter had “built up a lot” here and “ignited euphoria in the city. But we didn’t want to let this situation collapse.”
The season’s goal of returning to the Bundesliga stands above all else: “Our performance fluctuations in the last few games have been too great and we lack the complete conviction that we will achieve the necessary balance and stability in our game in this constellation over the next few weeks.”
Tim Walter would have liked to stay
Walter himself thanked “HSV, the office and the extraordinary fans for more than two and a half years of great cooperation” and added: “I would have liked to have contributed further to achieving our season goal together.”
Before Christmas, the coach had already been on the rocks. Then he received another clear order from sports director Boldt and sports director Claus Costa to stabilize his team. However, eight goals conceded in the first two home games of the new year against Karlsruher SC (3:4) and Hannover 96 showed that the coach couldn’t manage it. Mistakes in his Sturm und Drang style of football were repeatedly punished by conceding too many goals and there was a lack of consistency.
Boldt: “We have to bring the potential back onto the road”
For the 48-year-old, whose contract runs until the end of the season, his term at Hamburger SV ends after more than two and a half years. He came to HSV in the summer of 2021 and finished third twice in the second division. However, he was unable to lead the team to the promotion he had hoped for. In 2022, HSV failed in relegation to Hertha BSC (1:0, 0:2), and last year against VfB Stuttgart (0:3, 1:3).
“We are not going to make a 180-degree change.”
— HSV sports director Jonas Boldt
In addition to Walter, his assistants Julian Hübner and Filip Tapalovic were released with immediate effect. Boldt initially left it open how the successor to the HSV coaching bench would be regulated. “We won’t make a 180-degree change,” said Boldt, it’s just a matter of “making a few adjustments to get the potential back on the road.” That’s why the decision was made “with full conviction” in favor of Polzin and young boss Loïc Favé, who will be at his side as an assistant. Polzin, who is currently getting his trainer’s license, “definitely has a chance” of being recommended for more: “No matter what the situation: Merlin Polzin will definitely play a role.”
Possible candidates: Baumgart and Wicky
However, other candidates are also being considered. According to media reports, one is Steffen Baumgart. The 52-year-old, who coached 1. FC Köln until the end of 2023, is an avowed HSV fan and is reportedly ready for a commitment in Hamburg. Ex-HSV professional Raphael Wicky, currently under contract with Young Boys Bern, is also being traded. Whoever it is: 13 games remain for the new guy to get the once irrelegable ones up again.
At the same time, the change in coaching also brings Boldt himself into focus: in office since 2019, he has been responsible for four unsuccessful attempts towards the Bundesliga. No matter whether Baumgart, Wicky, Polzin or “Mister X” – the next shot has to be right, because Boldt will hardly be able to convey a fifth failure to the powerful HSV supervisory board.
Most successful HSV second division coach
In the past 40 years, there have only been three coaches in Hamburg with a longer tenure than Walter: Ernst Happel (1981-1987), Benno Möhlmann (1992-1995) and Frank Pagelsdorf (1997-2001). Walter scored an average of 1.82 points per game in 103 games, which is the best value in Hamburg’s second division history.
That’s why there were words of praise from Boldt at the farewell: “Tim and his boys lived our HSV, fully identified with the task and the club and played a key role in shaping the path we took. Tim also has much more with his energy and conviction Tasks taken on than usual for a head coach.”
This topic in the program:
Sports club | 02/11/2024 | 10:50 p.m
