Die Wölfe have made a €9 million offer for Petric, he of 20 goals in 41 matches this season.  This is all necessitated by Milan’s flirtations with Edin Džeko.  Naturally, Petric, his agent, and HSV management all replied “Fuhgeddaboudit.” So far.

But what happens when Wolfsburg comes back with an offer of €14 or  €16 million, or more? They have that kind of cash to splash around now that they are in the Champions League next fall.  Didi Beiersdorf was a bit more coy when that question was posed to him. His response? Let’s see the offer on paper before we decide what we are going to do.  Wolfsburg, for their part, have a second option lined up:  Luca Toni.

Petric was a key acquisition for HSV last summer, and with the departure of Olic, I would find it very difficult to believe that HSV would let one of two remaining strikers on the roster be sold. But I thought that about Vincent Kompany and Nigel de Jong, too.

As football fans, I think that Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch should be mandatory reading (in fact, I will make it mandatory reading for all of the Hamburg Offside’s readers [both of you]–I feel like a university professor now or something). I like love the book so much, that more than once, as soon as I get to the end, I start reading it again. One of the primary theme’s of the book is that non-supporters cannot possibly understand the emotional connection that a supporter has with their side and how much that connection dominates true supporter’s daily lives.  Because in the end, this connection we make with “our” sides is an obsession.  I know what you’re thinking:  In the immortal words of Herb Tarlek, How does this affect me?  Well, if you are anything like me, you have been walking around in a depressive funk since Saturday’s 0:1 home defeat to Köln/Cologne. Nobody, but nobody, understands why I am so damn, well, blue. No one in my family knows I write this blog (OK–occasionally write this blog)–they just think I’m a depressive sort who has his moods. I don’t think they’d understand that a German football (Ne: soccer) team recently blew their last gasp chance to play yet another year in a crummy, second-rate European competition, and in doing so, eliminated *any* chance they had of signing quality players in this summer’s transfer market. 

My mental state has been on a slippery slope since the Pokal loss to freaking Bremen on penalties, and the later admission by BMJ that he doesn’t practice penalties. Now you’ll forgive me, I am not a big time football manager. In fact, the highest level of football I have ever coached is my twin daughters’ U10 team this past year (and I am not very good–we are 0-0-9 heading into our next and final match; I won’t even think about telling you what our goal differential is. Oy. To my credit though, none of the girls on my squad have ever played organized soccer before this year, and last week, they held the opposition to a scoreless draw in the first half before finally succumbing 1:2.) The point here is that even though I coach girls U10, my team practices penalties EVERY WEEK. We end our last practice each week by splitting the team up and having the two groups compete against each other. SO WHY DIDN’T HSV CONVERT ANY OF THOSE F’ING PENALTIES? Sure, Tim Wiese stood on his head for a couple of saves, but shouldn’t it have been a bit closer than 2-4? And why did Jerome Boateng take the second penalty and not Pitroipa or Trochowski?

I was a bit more upbeat following the first leg of the UEFA Cup semi-final that saw HSV victorious 0:1, with that all important away goal. I remember saying to myself, “Self, this is the year. Yeah, stinking Bremen knocked us out of the Cup, but we’ll get even here,” only to have the Hanseaten break my heart by giving up 3 away goals to Werder in the return leg. By the time we played them again in the Bundesliga, I was shell shocked and burried my head in the sand. I couldn’t bear to watch them lose again.

The victory over Bochum was little consolation and as previously mentioned, the defeat to Köln/Cologne sent me over the edge. There’s no more Intertoto Cup as a means of qualifying for the Europa League this year (as we did in 2007/08), so unless Dortmund drops points to ‘Gladbach (unlikely, but Marko Marin says he will help Hamburg out–and in case you haven’t heard it or read it, Marin’s nearly assured summer transfer to HSV has been hijacked, by, you guessed it–FREAKING BREMEN!), we are out of European competition next season.

As I wrote to a friend earlier, this match had everything–quality shots, up-and-down action, crappy officiating, the works. Hamburg forced the play most of the evening on the Bavarians. I am not going to go into the details of the match–there’s a fairly good recap here. Let’s get right to the news then.

News and Notes:

Bastian Reinhardt left the match at the 64′ mark with a foot injury, further depleating an already thin HSV back line. The diagnosis is a broken metatarsal, and Basti will be out of action for a minimum of 3 months (surgery to repair the fracture was successful this morning). Jerome Boateng came off the bench to replace Reinhardt, but apparently will not keep that spot (see below) for very long.

HSV were very busy at the close of the transfer period, signing 5 new players (in addition to the loan of Marcel Ndjengs, which was completed last week). The new guys are as follows:

•Venezuelan giant Tomas Rincon, on loan from Deportivo Tachira.  

•Mickael Tavares, defensive midfielder, purchased from Slavia Prague (through 2012). I am pretty sure that Tavares is cup tied for the UEFA Cup, but will be invaluable in the DFB-Pokal and the Bundesliga campaigns–a nice pickup for HSV.

•Michael Gravgaard, central defender, on loan from FC Nantes of Ligue 1. He will likely be taking Reinhardt’s spot in the long term. His contract is up this summer and he has stated that he would like to sign a permanent deal with HSV. I don’t know what BMJ has against Jerome Boateng, but he either needs to play him or loan him out. With as little depth as HSV has right now on defense, it would seem natural for Boateng to be called upon. Boateng will likely start at right back versus Karlsruhe with Guy Demel moving inside to replace Reinhardt until Gravgaard is ready.

•Khalid Sinouh, goalkeeper, free agent (last club-AZ Alkmaar).

•Albert Streit, midfielder, on loan from Schalke.  Streit was banished from the dressing room last autumn shortly after joining Schalke from Frankfurt. He comes to Hamburg to fulfill the #10 role that was vacated both by VDV and Thiago Neves. It sounds like Streit got a bad rap as a troublemaker early on at Schalke and never had the opportunity to redeem himself.  REALLY looking forward to seeing this cat ‘ball.

•Speaking of Neves . . . The sale of Neves to Saudi side Al-Hilal was completed at the transfer deadline. The major stumbling block for HSV was the proposed loan from Al-Hilal back to Fluminense. HSV felt that playing in Brazil again would only increase Neves’ value on the transfer market this summer and that they did not want to lose out on any additional revenue that would be generated by him displaying his talents in Brazil for another season. In the end, HSV caved and sold Neves to Al-Hilal for the previously agreed sum of €7 million. So long Neves–truly, we harldy knew ya . . .

Anis Ben-Hatira was loaned to MSV Duisburg of the 2. Bundesliga.

HSV have drawn SV Wehen-Wiesebaden for the quarter finals of the DFB-Pokal. This is another great draw for Hamburg as Wiesbaden are the only 2. Bundesliga side left in the competition. The match will be played at the ‘Bank either 3 or 4 March.

Good news from the training room: Alex Silva (you know, the Brazilian who didn’t suck), resumed training on 3 February following surgery to repair a hernia. He is nowhere near ready to resume playing, though.

•Mladen Petric is still nursing a tender calf and missed training again. BMJ expects that he’ll be ready for the DFB-Pokal match with 1860 Munich (I don’t). If he’s not good-to-go for the match, HSV are going to have to go with Jonathon Pitroipa (always a fave at The Hamburg Offside) or Paolo Guerrero (probably Guerrero).

•Alex Silva is due to return to Hamburg from Brazil today following hernia repair surgery. He is in the first week of a projected 4-week recovery period.

•A sad anniversary in the training room–It’s been a year now since Romeo Castelen injured his knee in training. Good news:  He’s finally healthy enough to train on the ball again.

•Finally, some good news from the trainers:  über stud Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting is also back to training on the ball this week. Choupo-Moting, as you may recall,  suffered a knee injury (torn cartilage), had the knee surgically repaired, started rehab-ing the knee, suffered a similar injury to the same knee during the rehab process, and had that injury repaired as well. The Hamburg Offside *loves* Choupo-Moting–he’s a local kid who came up through the youth ranks and is the future face of the club.

•No news from the training room on the status of Thiago Neves. Neves suffered a thigh strain in training camp in Spain. My prepsumption, then, is that he is healthy.

•Nigel de Jong’s departure only means good things to Bastian Reinhardt’s contract negotiations. Reinhardt’s camp have been seeking a 2 year extension to his current deal. There was speculation in the Hamburg media that HSV were dragging their feet on the extension because Reinhardt is getting a little long in the tooth (he’ll be 34 in November). Due to the lack of depth on defense and in the defensive midfield presently, Reinhardt’s bargaining position is a whole lot stronger now that De Jong’s flown off to City.

De Jong did not return with the team to Hamburg following the conclusion of the training camp in La Manga, Spain (he travelled to Manchester for a physical) and did not play in yesterday’s 3:0 victory over Hansa Rostock. And as a complete aside, has there been a more precipitous fall in recent memory than Rostock? Two years ago they were in the 1. Bundesliga, then were relegated after last season, and now are in danger of being relegated from the 2. Bundesliga. Yikes.

So our attention now can turn to three topics: 1) New transfers; 2) the DFB-Pokal match versus 1860 Munich on Tuesday; 3) the Bayern match on 30 January.

For new transfers, there have been a number of rumors reported in the comments of the last post regarding players from Belgium, notably Steven Defour of Standard Liege and Lucas Biglia of Anderlecht.  In today’s online edition of Kicker.de, the name of Stade Rennes defensive midfielder Stephane Mbia was bandied about and HSV are reportedly negotiating a transfer. From what I found on the Rennes club website, I like this Cameroon international. Mbia is 22 years old and is under contract with Rennes until 2012. Mbia has been capped 12 times scoring 3 goals, and his national coach says he is the real deal/next big thing/all that and a bag of chips/etc. He is also being scouted by Newcastle (who isn’t?). Christian Paulson and Demy de Zeeuw are still rumored to be in the mix.

As for the Cup tie with 1860, Ivica Olic still does not know his status following the red card in the Hoffenheim “friendly” last week. A suspension looks likely, but since the match was a friendly (and not a DFB sponsored contest), there is some speculation that only a fine to be donated to charity is in the offing. Mladen Petric sat out the Rostock match with a sore calf, but is expected to train and play versus 1860 Munich.

That’s all well and good, but what should HSV do with the dough? I’d love to hear your comments on:

•Replacement for De Jong. The name we continue to hear is Mark van Bommel of Bayern, but lately we also are hearing Christian Paulsen of Juve, *and* newly trialed Marcel Ndjengs (formerly of ‘Gladbach). The old Demy de Zeeuw rumor from the fall doesn’t appear to have any legs, so I don’t know what to make of it. Personally, I’d love to see Van Bommel.

•Replacement for Olic. My good friends at the Abendblatt say that Serb striker Milan Jovanovic of Standard Liege would be a good fit and is available for around €7M. I have *no* idea on this one.

•Any other moves before the 30 January match at the ‘Bank with Bayern. I think we need some additional depth on defense. When Alex Silva comes back, he may take De Jong’s spot (he was outstanding there while De Jong was rehabbing his knee) and we may be looking for more defense. There is another rumor swirling around that Rafael van der Vaart may be coming back to the fold, but it wouldn’t be until this summer.

Bear in mind that Alex Silva is out until approximately the first week of February and that Atouba is done for the year.

 Frankfurt come into the match 11th in the table on 19 points. Die Adler are sporting a 5-1-4 record over their last 10 league matches, while posting a 2-0-2 record on the road in the same 10-match span. Frankfurt’s leading scorer is Greek international Nikos Liberopoulis (a personal favorite of mine for 2 reasons: One, I just *love* saying the guy’s name–say it with me, Liberopoulis, see?; and two, the dude just has some mad skillz–this cat can ‘ball), who has tallied a healthy 7 gates in 12 Bundesliga matches this season.

Last time out, Frankfurt cruised to a comfortable 4-0 victory over 10 man Bochum. Bochum’s keeper Daniel Fernandes took down Martin Fenin in the area five minutes in, right after Fernandes threw him the ball. Long story short, Fernandes was tossed and my boy Liberopoulis converted from the spot. Liberopoulis added another goal before the break, with Markus Steinhofer and Marco Russ piling it on for the hosts.

This week, Frankfurt will likely be without (in no particular order): Oka Nikolov (foot), Christoph Preuss, Christoph Spycher, Ioannis Amanatidis (all knee surgery), Zlatan Bajramovic (toe), Umit Korkmaz (broken foot), Alexander Meier (unfit) and Chris ([another personal favorite-like his name, too ] shoulder surgery). Wow.

HSV return home following their just their third road victory of the season over Köln. Die Rothosen are sporting a 3 game unbeaten streak in the Bundesliga, and sport a lovely 6-1-0 record at the ‘Bank so far. Interesting bit to note:  Of the 24 goals Hamburg have conceded to date, 17(!) have come in the first half–a whopping 8 have come in the first 15 minutes. Not good, people, not good.

Some good news from the hospital ward–Bastian Reinhardt and Alex Silva both feel well enough to play Saturday. Whether or not they get the green light from the medical staff is another story . . . BMJ says in the story that he (Alex Silva) has never had an injury and he wants to play, BUT he only did 20 minutes on a treadmill yesterday. Reinhardt, for his part, says he can take painkillers and go. That’s the spirit! If they can’t go, HSV are going to be a bit shorthanded Saturday, as the Guy Demel is suspended.

Assuming Alex Silva and Reinhardt can’t go, here’s one man’s starting XI:

Rost

Boateng  Odjidja-Ofoe  Mathijsen  Aogo

Benjamin

Jarolim                                Jansen

Trochowski

Petric             Olic

Two things: I know Odjidja-Ofoe is more of a holding midfielder, but there is nobody, I mean NOBODY else on the side to play defense; And, following the defeat to Hertha, BMJ has gone with a 4-4-2. In the matches (both UEFA Cup and league), HSV are 3-1-0, with 7 goals to 3 conceded.  A little more defensive, dare I say, Huub-esque, but effective nonetheless.

Swag Prediction:

In the last seven matches with Frankfurt in Hamburg, HSV are 5-1-1, scoring 13 and conceding 5 over that span. Add in our outstanding home record this season, and I’m thinking 3-2 HSV.

For a Frankfurt supporter’s take on things, head over to the Frankfurt Offside and see what Ollie has to say.

No first hand analysis from yours truly this week–the match was not on TV in the US and both of the feeds I was watching crapped out before Petric’s first goal. . .

More bad news from the training room: Alex Silva has ”ruptured” ligament in his ankle (a bad sprain, in layman’s terms) and has been shut-down for the remainder of 2008.  This is one of those times where the long winter break is beneficial to us. BUT, this leaves the defense woefully short of bodies, with Bastian Reinhardt and Thimothee Atouba also out. Colin Benjamin should see time in Alex Silva’s spot . . . he’s the only defender that’s fit.

I don’t know about y’all, but Alex Silva is really growing on me. I was ecstatic when we traded for Petric, pleasantly surprised when we bought Marcell Jansen (though his reputation at Bayern for being injured often was well earned), intrigued when we bought Thiago Neves (but now am having second thoughts), and relieved when we bought Alex Silva for the hijacked Luciano Monzon. Of the 4, Petric has been everything we could have wanted and more, scoring 7 goals in 10 starts for HSV so far. Alex Silva, after a brief learning period, has adjusted to the Bundesliga magnificently, and is being held out by BMJ as a model to Thiago Neves (who so far has to be considered a flop). Despite being on crutches for a while, Alex Silva has a bounce to his step–his former club, São Paolo, are Brazilian champions.

So we head into the final league match of 2008 against Eintracht Frankfurt at the ‘Bank, and at this point, I think we need to say that things are going pretty well, despite all the injuries HSV have suffered. I think that the results from the first few weeks of the season got our hopes up a little too high, and now the side know that nobody’s going to hand them the title. By the start of the 2nd half of the season, we can count on the return of Alex Silva, Reinhardt, and most importantly, Dutch international Nigel de Jong. We all saw how this side performs when all the players are fit; staying healthy is a bit of a cliché in sport, but for HSV it is paramount to any chance they have at the CL. And for me, that’s the real prize. If we won the title, I’m not sure what I’d do with myself, but making the Champions League (even through qualifying) is a reasonable expectation for this year’s team. It was a reasonable expectation of last year’s team, too, but VDV’s pending transfer, the manager search and a petulant Vincent Kompany pretty much derailed that team. Huub Stevens had lost the dressing room by the time the players returned from the winter break and Beiersdorfer and Hoffman didn’t do us any favors by stubornly prolonging the search (although in retrospect, it was fortunate that they picked BMJ and not Fred Rutten).

Preview of the Frankfurt match to follow shortly.