Opinion: Hamburg Continue Path Of Instability By Dismissing Slomka

Mirko Slomka has been fired as Hamburg boss only three games into the new season. DW's Jonathan Harding suggests the decision was more than rash.

It's hard to know what to say about Hamburger SV these days. Three coaches last season, and now, after only three Bundesliga matchdays, they've dismissed another one. While no goals and only one point so far hardly spoke in Mirko Slomka's favor, to take such a drastic decision in September is yet another example of the baffling lack of patience this Hamburg board has.



Having scraped their way to Bundesliga survival last season, Mirko Slomka seemed destined to be judged on the new campaign after a summer of intensive preparation and recruitment. Club president Carl-Edgar Jarchow spoke of setting up a contract with the intention of spending years with Slomka at the helm, and as with every new season came new players and new hope.



That was quickly abandoned as the club's performances in the opening stages of this season showed little sign of recovery from the previous campaign's trauma - a 3-0 defeat to newly-promoted Paderborn perhaps the most painful.



Is this really Slomka's fault, though? While his tactics were debatable at times, there were slow signs of something developing. Exactly how much time a coach requires is impossible to say in football, but three games of a new season are nowhere near enough.



Statistics over stability



In most case studies, samples of 19 matches in total (16 last season, three this year) wouldn't be enough to form a concrete argument. Football, particularly at HSV, has proved quite the opposite. Given Slomka's 26 million euro ($34 million) summer spend, it looked as though his slate had been wiped clean for the start of the 2014/15 campaign. If that really was the case, and of course assumptions are dangerous to make at HSV at the moment, then that aforementioned sample number is even smaller.



Some HSV fans will argue that Slomka's statistics mean he was right to be dismissed. Twelve points from 16 Bundesliga games last season is hardly inspiring reading, but in his first 16 games at Hannover he only accumulated four more points. What followed, with a modest squad, was a fourth-placed finish in the 2010/11 season and two Europa League campaigns. While he may not be the most intimidating Bundesliga coach, he is certainly a proven one and Hamburg's premature dismissal of him is whimsical.



Freiburg have also started the season with no wins and one draw, and last season they too endured poor spells. Coach Christian Streich remains in a job because the club believes in stability. Hamburg have seemingly long been distracted from this premise.



Issues beyond the coach



The reason behind Slomka's dismissal remains murky, but it's clear that the issues at HSV extend well beyond the lines of the coach's dugout. Upstairs has adopted a streaky, short-term perspective, and combined with the arrival of sporting director Dietmar Beiersdorfer - brought in to manage the new finances after the club became a corporation over the summer - HSV have undergone a new system far too regularly.



The knock-on effect is that Hamburg are now a side shackled by an epidemic crisis of confidence and a confusion of identity. No wonder that Slomka, and Bert van Marwijk and Torsten Fink before him, struggled to motivate this team. Yes, the players have underperformed on too many occasions and yes, the manager hasn't always got his tactics right, but in this context a more forgivable approach would be more beneficial.



What the Hamburg are becoming is so far from what they once were. Thomas Tuchel, Markus Babbel and of course Felix Magath have all been mentioned in light of the empty seat now left in the Imtech Arena. After his 100 percent record eight games into the season, even Joe Zinnbauer, HSV's U18 coach, has been mentioned.



It's clear that Hamburg want to win and move off the bottom of the Bundesliga table as quickly as possible. However, the club - one in crisis and enforcing constant change - continue to appear short of a plan, and that adds even more pressure.