Hamburg close to top-flight redemption after 7 years in the wilderness

Fallen German giants Hamburg are on the cusp of a return to the Bundesliga, seven years after a first-ever relegation shook the club's foundations. 

Under the leadership of 34-year-old Hamburg-born manager Merlin Polzin, originally appointed as a caretaker in November before getting the top job a month later, the club are closing in on a top-flight return.

Sitting first, four points clear of the relegation playoff spot, Hamburger Sport-Verein, known in Germany as HSV or simply Hamburg, need three points in two games to guarantee promotion. 

They can seal the deal with a win at home over second-last Ulm on Saturday. 

The bigger question though is whether HSV have made the necessary changes not just to stay in the top flight, but to return to the summit of the German game, where a club of their stature belongs.

Bad decisions, poor management

The proud club's relegation may have shocked some, but weighed down by bad decisions and poor management the team had been circling the drain for some time. 

HSV finished in the bottom five four times until finally slipping down in 2018. 

A six-time league champion and one of only three German teams to win the Champions League, the club have all the ingredients to be a consistent football powerhouse. 

In Germany's second-biggest city and on one of the richest ports in Europe, HSV's average attendance of just under 56,000 this season is better than all but five top-flight clubs.

In another universe, Hamburg could be readily duking it out for German football supremacy with Bayern Munich, just like the early '80s, when the duo won five Bundesliga titles on the trot.

But from recruitment to junior development and commercial decisions, Hamburg have gotten in their own way too often to capitalise on their sizeable potential. 

Champions League final-bound Hakan Calhanoglu, Spurs forward Son Heung-min and Germany centre-back Jonathan Tah are just some of the current stars the club let slip.

In 2008, HSV needed a coach and was considering an up-and-coming manager of second-division club Mainz named Jurgen Klopp. 

Klopp, a smoker with holes in his jeans and a five o'clock shadow, let his players call him the casual moniker 'Kloppo'. HSV turned down the future Champions League winner for being too unserious, too informal.

The coach instead moved to Borussia Dortmund, where he won two league titles, a German Cup and made a Champions League final. He later told German tabloid Bild he was furious when he found out why HSV turned him down. 

"When I started as a coach at Mainz, the players were my teammates. The next day, I was their coach: are they supposed to call me Mr Klopp now?," the future Liverpool manager recalled. 

Relegation stops the clock

HSV were sent down in 2018, ending their stint as the last remaining founding member of the Bundesliga never to have tasted relegation. 

Famously, the club had installed a giant clock at their Volksparkstadion home, counting the years, days, hours, minutes and seconds spent in the top flight. 

A year later, the clock was taken down and quietly disassembled.

Since then, Hamburg have constantly flirted with promotion -- having never finished lower than fourth and twice losing the relegation playoff -- without taking the final step. 

The closest Hamburg came was at the end of the 2022-23 season. After a 1-0 win at relegated Sandhausen, the stadium announcer told Hamburg fans their second-division purgatory was over. 

HSV supporters stormed the pitch in celebration, only to learn that minnows Heidenheim had scored twice in stoppage time -- and would be headed up instead.

In 2024, city rivals St. Pauli -- the cult club from the Reeperbahn known for political activism rather than silverware -- won the second division and took a spot in the top flight, while HSV could only watch on.

Now, with the first division slipping into view, Hamburg are bullish. Speaking Thursday, Polzin said the club was "absolutely not afraid of anything and we have no doubts either. 

"The city and all HSV fans are eager for this game. It's not about putting on a spectacle. It's about being ready, in our heads, our legs, but above all in our hearts. 

"And the boys are. Our motto is clear: what do we need to do to win the game? And that's where our full focus is."