The Bayern boss reported that Ivica Olic had agreed to contract terms with his club on Saturday, ending months of speculation as to whether the Croatian international would re-sign with HSV or move on to greener pastures. What sealed the deal for Bayern? How about an extra €8M over the life of the contract (Bayern offered €4.5M per year with a €4M signing bonus compared to HSV’s offer of €3.0M per annum with no bonus), annual competition in the Champions League, and the near guarantee of a Bundesliga title on yearly basis. But mostly it was the money.

Olic will be with Hamburg through the end of the current season and moves to Bayern on a free transfer. There are more than a few HSV supporters (including yours truly) who were big fans of Olic and the energy he brought to each match he played in. BUT, I am a bit skeptical about his jump in performance, in that I think that Ivi’s performance is/was solely for the purpose of earning that last, fat contract. He was always a decent player, but nothing like the guy who has been on fire this season. I do think that the partnership with Petric and the change of philosophies from Huub to BMJ has contributed to his success, but it’s difficult to find a true cause-effect with his play this year. Will he be as effective coming off the bench with Bayern?

Bayern’s own Mark van Bommel (Angela’s favorite). Martin Jol thinks the world of Dutch players, especially Dutch internationals (after all, he already has 2–De Jong and Mathijsen–and needs to replace the one he lost-Van der Vaart) and thinks even more of Van Bommel’s leadership qualities.  But he’s not allowed to comment on players currently under contract to other sides. And BMJ is not the only Dutch gaffer interested. Seems that Fred Rutten and Schalke and our old buddy Huub and PSV have their sights set on Mark when he becomes available.

For his part, MVB is saying all the right things–how he’s meeting with Rummenigge and Hoeness in January to discuss his future with the club and that right now, he’s under contract with Bayern and devoted to the side. Privately, this article states, he wants out of Munich. Fast. This story also speculates that a move may come as soon as January.

Would he be a good fit at HSV? I think so. The guy is unquestionably talented. Where would he play? In the near term, probably in De Jong’s spot; long term, probably in Jarolim’s midfield spot. And he is a leader–firey, vocal, demonstrative–something HSV haven’t had since my beloved VDV hit the bricks. BUT, the guy is 31. So he’s good for–what–3 more years? This is an interesting developement that bears monitoring as we draw closer to the winter break.

For those of you who speak German, there is also a pretty cool quiz about HSV on the Welt site. If you don’t speak German, you can use a translation tool to translate the questions, but be forewarned–you can’t translate the whole page (at least I couldn’t using Google translations), so I copied the questions to the text translator and did it that way. I won’t tell you how I scored.

•I have been continually questioning Jerome Boateng’s absence from the starting XI, especially in light of the injuries to Thimothee Atouba and Marcell Jansen. Well, I guess we have our answer:  BMJ has “Big plans with him, which he knows well. . .” Jol says that because he has Trochowski on the right side in the midfield, he feels that he needs to play Guy Demel at right back.  OK, but what about left back? As many readers of this blog may or may not already know, despite all of my travel to Germany, I still speak very little German. So I didn’t catch the last bit in the linked article above about why Jol feels that Boateng can’t play left back, and the phrases used don’t translate well either. Can somebody help a brother out?

•As previously noted, Nigel de Jong and Glass Joe Marcell Jansen (OK-the Glass Joe reference comes from a video game for the original Nintendo Entertainment System, circa 1989. Glass Joe was the first opponent in a game called “Mike Tyson’s Punchout,” and as his name suggests, he was quite frail and easily knocked out. Kinda like Jansen. But I digress. . .) returned to training this week and Jansen is set to go for Saturday’s match at The ‘Bank versus Dortmund. De Jong and the team medical staff will make a decision on his status following Thursday’s training session. I have mentioned that matches versus Dortmund in Hamburg have a special place in my heart, and I am praying that HSV feel the same way. Their record at home in the Bundesliga–4 victories, 1 draw, zero defeats, 9 goals scored and 4 conceded–this year suggests that they should be able to pull it off . . .

•Seems that Frank Rost is tired of getting goals scored on him but that he was largely to blame for 2 of the goals (the first 2) versus Hannover. BUT, he also decries the fact that HSV suffers from a collective loss of focus in road games.

•It seems that Jol is starting to lose patience with Thiago Neves’ lack of progress adjusting to the Bundesliga. Neves has only come on at as late substitute in the matches versus Leverkusen and Köln back in September. Jol says that the Neves he sees right now is not the same Neves he saw in Brazil. Jol points to Alex Silva as an example of what it takes to get into the starting XI.

•Jol discusses the state of the nation in an interview with Bild. He states that he has considered changing his tactics by putting a more defensive player in the midfield, but that there is no one on the bench who could fulfill that role who is more talented than Piotr Trochowski, Mladen Petric or Paolo Guerrero.

He also states that Bastian Reinhardt and Joris Mathijsen had really bad games versus Hannover and Hoffenheim respectively. And he lastly declares that the defense must be more mobile and push forward more. I agree with the first point and COMPLETELY disagree with the second. Regardless, look for Alex Silva to start taking more starts in the central defense, probably for Mathijsen. I’m thinking that Mathijsen may have a case of dead legs, given that he played approximately 50 matches for HSV last season, plus Euro qualifiers for Holland, then Euro matches for Holland, then had a WHOLE month off before the start of the Bundesliga and the UEFA Cup runs.

•Former gaffer Huub Stevens weighs in saying the side is just as good as last season (less VDV) and that HSV has added more talent. He just doesn’t know what the problem is. In the same vein, Jol questions whether the tactic of sending four players forward negatively affects the pressure on the defense, particularly compared to last season when only VDV and Guerrero were going forward.

•And speaking of Van der Vaart, what the hell’s happened in Madrid? Since his hattrick versus Sporting Gijon, Rafa’s been on the bench for the most part. He’s really been getting it in the Spanish sporting papers, particularly following a crucial error in the last La Liga match versus Almeria. We’ll see if he gets in the match tonight versus Juventus.

Arsene Wenger’s been watching Da Man since Vince was 16. Wenger further reveals that while he adores Kompany, Kompany is not a transfer target this summer.

An interesting interview with VDV’s “second papa”–former Ajax star Sjaak Swart. He’s advising VDV to go to England–particularly, The Big Four.

You can guess where I spent my morning. Colin Benjamin has missed Namibia’s last two WC qualifiers (losses to Zimbabwe and Guinea) with a toe injury he suffered this past spring in Hamburg. He will be fit and ready to go when pre-season training commences in July.

Wow. I love the drama and backstabbing. Beat’s the hell out of VDV/Olic/Guerrero/Trochowski/Komapny/fill-in-the-players-name transfer rumors while we wait for the Euros.

It’s been a little more than week since HSV’s final match of the season, and sadly, of the Huub Stevens Era. Behind a hat-trick from Peruvian party-boy Paolo Guerrero, a brace from possible short-timer Ivica Olic, a penalty from VDV and a sweet long range shot from Piotr Trochowski, HSV took it to an underwhelming (and clearly uninterested/uninspired) Karlsruhe at the ‘Bank. Great match for HSV all in all, and begs the question–why haven’t HSV been able to play this way all year? A week and a half later I still can’t figure it out. All (uninjured) hands were available for the final match. A couple of noticeable absences: Atouba (Huzzah!-maybe somebody will take him off our hands!) and Vincent Kompany, who was REAAAALLLY in Huub’s doghouse. A change of managers at HSV is probably the best thing for his career right now.

With the victory, HSV secured 4th place in the B’liga table on 54 points, and with it, automatic UEFA Cup qualification. To me it’s little consolation when Hamburg were in a Champions League spot as recently as late March.

A postmortem on the season is in the works and can be summed up in 7 words: what-could-have-been, and EFF’ing-January-break. I have felt for a long time (well, since January) that the long layoff this winter really affected HSV negatively. I also think that the length of the UEFA Cup for HSV (through the Intertoto Cup qualifying, group and knockout stages) was just a whole lot of football and took its toll.

TEAM NEWS
*Paolo Guerrero is being targetted by Wigan for a transfer. I had seen Olic’s and (of course) VDV’s names bandied about, but this was the first time I’d heard Guerrero’s.

*Jerome Boateng and Eric Choupo-Moting both suffered knee injuries while on international duty for Germany. Boateng’s is less serious. He will be sidelined with rest and rehab for 4 weeks. Choupo-Moting’s torn cartilage injury required surgery; he’s out for at least 3 months and will miss most of the pre-season training this summer.

*Ivica Olic may not transfer to Portsmouth, but Newcastle. Olic finished the season as HSV’s leading scorer.

*Mohammed Zidan may be moving on after a less-than-stellar first season at HSV. Now that Jurgen Klopp is manager at Dortmund, speculation is that he will bring in Zidan. Klopp was like a father to Zidan while at Mainz. HSV paid a €7M transfer fee for Zidan last summer.

*First Arsenal, now Fiorentina.

*HSV are negotiating the transfer of Freiburg midfielder Dennis Aogo. Aogo is currently on duty with Germany’s U21 in Denmark, and will travel to Hamburg for a physical following the match. Aogo made his B’liga debut with Freiburg at the ripe old age of 17.

*A large contingent of HSV players are competing in the upcoming Euro 2008, and surprisingly, Piotr Trochowski is one of them. Since he had not garnered a lot of PT lately at HSV, it was speculated that he would be among the final cuts for Germany. Offside Bundesliga boss Jan is following Germany at the Euro blog.

Last week in this space, I speculated that the club’s directors hadn’t talked to Ex-Spurs boss Martin Jol about the post in a while. Turns out I am pretty prescient. Jol has been contacted about the job and he is the club’s second choice after Gerrard Houllier. Houllier, whose contract as Technical Director of the French Football Federation expired 30 April,  continues to be the leading candidate for the post and contract negotiations are reportedly on-going. Here’s the rub:  Should contract talks with Houllier fall through, HSV are screwed. Why? Because Martin Jol is negotiating with Twente (Enschede) of the Eredivisie about their open position and is reportedly quite close to a deal. Twente, you know, the job that Fred Rutten just left. . . B-T-W, Rutten recently revealed he was set to take the HSV job, but an ongoing disagreement between Dietmar Beiersdorfer (sporting director–wanted Rutten) and Bernd Hoffman (managing director–wanted would-be-Dortmund/current-Mainz trainer Jurgen Klopp) and the subsequent confusion and delay prompted him to accept the Scalke job. 

I find it pretty remarkable that of the 3 clubs in the Bundesliga set to hire new trainers (Bayern, Schalke, Hamburg), 2 had the deal done-and-dusted within a matter of days, and in Schalke’s case, in 5 days. So now we sit and wait to see if Houllier can convince his wife that Paris isn’t all that grand and that life really is better in Hamburg.  Let me know how that works out. . . Why worry, right? This guy and this guy are available . . .

Oh, and HSV travel to Rostock to take on Hansa. Hamburg downed Hansa 2:0 in November.  Vincent Kompany is out with a thigh injury. Paolo Guerrero is nursing a calf-injury but looks to play. David Jarolim returns from suspension and will be in the midfield. This will allow Guy Dimmel to return to his right back position and let Jerome Boateng replace the ever-worthless Timothee Atouba. I can’t WAIT until they get rid of his sorry ass.

I am not going to give a prediction here, as lately when I do so, HSV do the exact opposite. Let’s say this in closing:  If we can’t go out and pound a helpless patsy like Hansa, we don’t deserve to be in European competition. Period.

Most of the team are available tomorrow, with the notable exceptions of David Jarolim (suspended) and Juan Pablo Sorin (injured, AGAIN), but that doesn’t mean that things are on the upswing. This is Team Turmoil. Huub’s on his way out and doesn’t care–he’s managing a CL side next season anyway. VDV is right behind and chances are he’ll be playing in the CL too. So what’s left to play for? Nuthin’. Yeah, we’ll be in European competition next autumn. But still. . .

Schalke come into the match having had a busy week. After sacking Mirko Slomka, who will not be HSV’s new manager (see below), Schalke went out and destroyed B’liga-dregs Cottbus 5-0 at home. Kevin Kuranyi had a nice Frank Lampard-esque afternoon with 4 gates.  And now we know why Fred Rutten kept putting off HSV’s overtures.

My S.W.A.G. prediction: HSV come out and take the full three and draw even with Schalke in the table. 1-0 to the Rotthosen. Skol!

Speaking of clubs with openings for a manager, it looks more and more like Gerrard Houllier will be HSV’s next manager.  His contract with the FFF (French Football Federation) is up in May (as The Church Lady might say, “How convenient. . .”), and now his buddy Alain Cayzac has resigned as president of PSG (They’re bound to be relegated? You don’t say.) so he can politely decline Mssr. Cayzac’s earlier job offer. Negotiations are proceeding quietly and Houllier has some small professional and personal matters to attend to. HSV are reported going to throw something like a €2.5 Million contract his way, so maybe he can keep dual residences in Hamburg and Paris. Let’s hope so. I am tired of this crap.

And that wraps the short but sweet preview for HSV and Schalke. The KLM departure lounge at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport is nice and quiet and pretty deserted this evening. My flight to Amsterdam doesn’t leave for an hour or so and the champagne here is exquisite, and, of course, free. My employer is gracious enough to book us in business class when we travel overseas, and sadly, KLM doesn’t have business class on 747’s–only first class. Sigh. Oh, and Amsterdam is always a crummy place to have to visit, especially in the spring. If you’re near the Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal, look me up. I usually hang at the Five Bells to watch football and I am often the only eff’ing American in the place. We do get a fair number of Englishmen, though. Skip the London Bridge–it’s too smokey.

So who’s missing for the Hertha match? It would probably take less time for me to write who’s going to make the trip. Huub Stevens is out. He is in Eindhoven with his wife, who is undergoing cancer surgery. I am sure that I speak for all HSV supporters when I say that our hopes and prayers are with the Stevens family right now. Assistant Markus Schupp will be managing the side tonight. Raphael van Der Vaart and Timothee Atouba (no big loss–did you see him against Duisburg? He was less than worthless. But I digress.) are serving 1 game suspensions for picking up their fifth yellow cards against Duisburg. David Jarolim is sitting out due to the red card he earned versus Bielefeld. Romeo Castelen is still recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery. And lastly, Vincent Kompany has been left off the roster so that he can get his shit together (I am paraphrasing).  Pretty eff’ing bleak, huh? If you are looking for a little silver lining, Juan Pablo Sorin looks to start tonight and Joris Mathijsen is back from suspension.

 The Hamburg Morgenpost (Mopo) speculates that the now very public controversy surrounding the managerial search is taking its toll in the dressing room. No shit? Hmm. Some writers I know postulated that way back in January. The search is now complicated by the fact that Fred Rutten of Enschede, who at one time was a front runner for the job, is now considered likely to take over at Schalke after Mirko Slomka was sacked. The two leading candidates now appear to be Louis van Gaal of AZ Alkmaar and Gerard Houllier ex. of Liverpool/Lyon/PSG/Lens. A story here  hints that Houllier has already been contacted about the job and is on the verge of accepting the position.

But nevermind the manager search. We have a match today in Berlin. Hertha aren’t exactly setting the Bundesliga on fire this season, and will be without star striker Marko Pantelic (calf injury), Steve von Bergen and Raffael (both out with thigh injuries), and Lucio (knee surgery). So who gets the nod? Let’s go with a 0-0 draw pray we don’t have to talk about another defeat.

Most reports had the field of candidates down to two:  Fred Rutten (currently managing Eredivisie-side Twente Enschede) and Jurgen Klopp (currently managing 2.Bundesliga side Mainz), with Rutten having eventually been unofficially selected. A story out yesterday (big shout-out to reader Diana for the tip) says that the search is not complete, and that Croatian national manager Slavan Bilic is now a candidate. Bilic is an extremely hot commodity in the coaching world right now, having guided Croatia into Euro 2008, and seeing off a desparate England side at Wembley in November. He reportedly has offers from a number of English clubs (West Ham?) and CSKA Moscow (translated).  Apparently (according to Bild, so take it for what it’s worth), the search committee isn’t exactly in love with any of the men that had already interviewed (Rutten, Klopp, Bruno Labadia of 2. Bundesliga Greuther Fürth).

So what to make of all this? Bilic has a reputation as a smart tactician and has worked with top players before, so HSV would be getting a top manager, and I would be very happy with him taking over. Bilic taking over may be one more reason for Croatian national Ivica Olic to stay in Hamburg, rather than transfer to Pompey, as was reported yesterday. BUT, after seeing Fred Rutten’s name come up again and again and again, I still think he is still the main target. Rutten had recently signed an extension with Twente through 2009, and may be holding out for more money from HSV. My take on the situation is that HSV are playing hardball with Rutten and approaching a hot candidate in an effort to get Rutten to come around. And if Bilic agrees to become manager, it still works out pretty well.

 [Editor's note: This is my third entry in 2 days, which is very much a record for Hamburg Offside. Huzzah!]