Felix Magath pulled a variation of the Soup-Nazi: “NO MAGATH FOR YOU!” (Sorry, a poor American cultural reference) as he denied that he would be taking over Hamburger SV. He basically criticized the board and said they had completely different ideas. And all this during a lecture about chess in the schools. (Among other things, the German-Puertoriqueno is good chess player). And of course he then made good on that statement by taking over FULHAM in the EPL today…more on that below.

First, a little background. After the disastrous 0-3 home loss to Hertha and the fans assaulting players, HSV held an emergency board meeting. Packed with members and the press, it was the major event in the city. It was widely assumed that certain members of the board would resign, coach Bert Van Maarwijk would get axed, and Felix Magth would be brought in to save the sinking ship. However after more than 8 hours of acrimonious debate, no decision was reached and the board agreed to keep Van Maarwijk (who seems a decent enough chap, but certainly hasn’t had success, with an even worse record than his predecessor Torsten Fink, who was sacked not long ago). Many of the members in attendance were outraged and have announced that they will try and recall the board. Meanwhile, Magath was pretty silent at this stage, merely stating that everybody wanted what was best for HSV.

Of course, Magath is a HSV legend. One of the greatest players in HSV history, he also scored the goal that gave them the European Cup (which pretty much assures that he’ll never have to pay for a beer in Hamburg, except maybe in St.Pauli…) and was a key player in the club’s best years ever. Of course on the coaching side, he’s also quite the story. He’s won titles, but what makes him a legend is that he won a Bundesliga title… with Wolfsburg!! His methods are somewhat difficult, and he’s not always a good fit. (Recently Schalke and a second stint at Wolfsburg were disastrous). He is a disciplinarian and likes to shake up the club roster, which often gets him into trouble, as he likes to go on a spending spree and buy all sorts of players that he subsequently discards. But in the right situation, he is golden.

Whether he would have been able to rescue HSV is open for debate. Although he initially sounded positive about “everybody doing everything for the beloved club”, I think he basically realized that *he* probably couldn’t save them from relegation, as his methods would take a bit of time, which HSV doesn’t have. Now maybe someone else can straighten the ship to prevent it from going down, but it won’t be Magath.
(Maybe they can find Udo Lattek, who saved Dortmund in a similar situation, hehehe).

Now back to Fulham. They suck, they’re probably going down. So you have to wonder why Magath would even bother. Perhaps he was having lunch with the clueless owner, who offered a boatload of cash that Magath couldn’t turn down. This makes him the first German to coach an EPL side (Ex-GDR international Uwe Rosler played a long time in England, and was a popular player for ManCity before the money spigot got opened, and has coached a couple of lower division sides). Now in general, the English media seems to think that the only reason the Germans have a left hand is to hold down spontaneous eruptions of the Hitlergruss and yelling Sieg Heil!. However, by and large, the few German players that have shown up in England have been pretty good and popular. Not sure that Magath’s methods will play over in the EPL, and Fulham’s situation isn’t really any better than HSV, maybe even slightly worse from the table. Player morale seems better, but Magath will certainly change that My guess is that money aside, if Fulham goes down, nobody cares, whereas HSV going down is a catastrophe, and Magath doesn’t want to be associated with that.

Actually, the HSV crisis is shaping up to be one of the “feel good” stories this year in the Bundesliga. (Just kidding, I prefer St.Pauli.) However it certainly is the biggest story, having exploded in recent weeks, which is good, since Bayern ruined everythig by already wrapping up the title.