Hamburger SV has parted ways with coach Tim Walter after two and a half years. “After the disappointing home defeat against Hannover 96, we carried out a situation analysis and came to the decision that we had to make a change in order not to jeopardize our goals for the season,” said HSV board member Jonas Boldt. “Our fluctuations in performance in recent games have been too great and we lack full conviction that we will achieve the necessary balance and stability in our game in this constellation over the next few weeks,” he added.
The six-time German champions have already failed five times in their attempt to get promoted back to the first Bundesliga. Before Christmas, Walter was on the verge of being fired and was particularly criticized on the HSV supervisory board. Then he received another clear order from sports director Jonas Boldt and sports director Claus Costa to stabilize his team. However, eight goals conceded in the first two home games of the new year against Karlsruher SC (3:4) and Hannover 96 (3:4) showed no development.
After 21 match days, the team is in third place in the table with 37 points and would therefore fail to gain direct promotion again as things stand. The gap to the second-placed team from Kiel is two points, and HSV is five points behind league leaders and local rivals St. Pauli.
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Walter moved to HSV in the summer of 2021. In the past 40 years, there have only been three coaches with a longer tenure at HSV: Ernst Happel (1981-1987), Benno Möhlmann (1992-1995) and Frank Pagelsdorf (1997-2001).
Walter ensured continuity at HSV
Walter’s work and his self-confident demeanor in Hamburg were viewed ambivalently from day one. On the one hand, he failed in relegation twice with HSV: in 2022 against Hertha BSC, in 2023 against VfB Stuttgart. On the other hand, Walter and sports director Jonas Boldt created a sense of togetherness and continuity at HSV that this club had not experienced for years.
“Tim and his boys lived our HSV, fully identified with the task and the club and played a key role in shaping the path we took,” said Boldt. A majority of the players supported Walter’s offensive game idea until the end. Even after the second relegation loss, it only took a few minutes for Boldt to publicly confirm the coach.
This trust has now been used up. Although the squad was strengthened again in the sixth year of the second division and is nominally significantly better than that of all promotion competitors, HSV lost all sovereignty.
“I would have liked to continue to contribute to achieving our season goal together,” said Walter. “I would like to thank HSV, the office and the extraordinary fans for more than two and a half years of great cooperation.”
Hamburger SV has parted ways with coach Tim Walter after two and a half years. “After the disappointing home defeat against Hannover 96, we carried out a situation analysis and came to the decision that we had to make a change in order not to jeopardize our goals for the season,” said HSV board member Jonas Boldt. “Our fluctuations in performance in recent games have been too great and we lack full conviction that we will achieve the necessary balance and stability in our game in this constellation over the next few weeks,” he added.
