Not so fond farewell

Hamburg's board of directors announced Labbadia would be leaving the club involuntarily on Monday, one day after the team suffered a disastrous 5-1 loss to Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga and three days before a crucial away tie to Fulham in the Europa League semi-finals.

"We cannot and did not want to continue in this formation," Hamburg chairman Bernd Hoffmann told reporters after meeting with Labbadia. "We found we couldn't expect to win against Fulham. It was the last point at which we could act so as not to endanger our season goal of qualifying for Europe."

But Hamburg's chances are already in grave danger. In seventh place in the table, and five points behind sixth-placed Stuttgart, Hamburg's prospects of qualifying via the league are slim-to-none.

Hamburg's best bet is to win the Europa Cup outright. But their desultory nil-nil draw in their home tie against Fulham last week hardly put them in an ideal position to do that.

"Labbadia is a dead issue," a representative of the Hamburg board declared tersely to reporters earlier on Monday.

And it all started so well

This was supposed to be Hamburg's year. After a few seasons of relative austerity, Hofmann loosened the purse strings this summer, bringing in highly coveted young talents Eljero Elia and Marcus Berg, veteran midfielder Ze Roberto and Labbadia, whose move from Leverkusen is reported to have cost 1.3 million euros ($1.8 million).

Many Hamburg fans were skeptical about his appointment, given his relative lack of first-division experience and the fact that Leverkusen faded badly last season under his command.

But Labbadia surprised his critics, getting the revamped squad off to a hot start.

Hamburg were fourth over the winter break, and when Hofmann brought in veteran star Ruud van Nistelrooy in January to bolster an injury-prone attack, many people considered the northern Germans a dark-horse candidate for the title.

Can't we all just get along?

But little, if anything, has gone right in 2010 for Hamburg. Since the break, the team has managed only four wins in 15 matches, forgetting how to score goals in the process.

Part of that was due to injuries. Ze Roberto, and Hamburg's most reliable striker Mladen Petric, missed significant action this year, and Elia, who looked like a winner, is out for the rest of the season.

But disciplinary problems and internal rancor have been equally, if not more, significant in Hamburg's tumble.

Peruvian striker Paolo Guerrero went AWOL for weeks, claiming he was too afraid of flying to return from his home country, where he was recovering from a knee injury. And when he did finally arrive in Hamburg, he promptly got himself suspended for the rest of the season for throwing a water bottle at a fan - critics said it was the best aim he'd displayed in months.

Moreover, both van Nistelrooy and team captain and goalkeeper Frank Rost publicly criticized Labbadia, with the Dutch striker questioning the coach's ability to communicate tactics.

Technique coach Ricardo Moniz now takes over on an interim basis, as Hamburg attempt to put the pieces back together. His first assignment is in Fulham on Thursday.

Author: Jefferson Chase

Editor: Susan Houlton