Hamburg’s desperate fight to avoid relegation has only seen them drop down a further place in recent weeks and they’re now cemented to the bottom of the Bundesliga table.
Having only scored 19 goals in the entire league season there’s been several claims this year that Hamburg sending Pierre-Michel Lasogga on loan to Leeds United perhaps wasn’t the best of moves with the benefit of hindsight.
HSV are now planning for the second division, and Bild say they need investor Klaus-Michael Kuhne to be a big part of that.
Just after Lasogga had left for Leeds United, Kuhne was quoted as saying: “HSV is a phenomenon because the losers are always hanging out here. A good example is Lasogga.
“I don’t know if I was part of it: After half a good season, given a five year contract and an annual salary of over three million euros. That was Harakiri, the flop of the century.”
The player’s mother Kerstin Lasogga answered back: “I am a bit surprised at these statements, but he doesn’t have any idea about football. The investor constantly criticises the coach, manager and individual players – and without any knowledge of the situation.”
Lasogga himself has also made it clear he was unhappy with Kuhne, calling the public criticism a lack of respect.
Hamburg’s new chief Bernd Hoffmann this weekend made it clear that for the club to have any chance of returning to the top division they need to rebuild the Kuhne relationship: “It is important to have him on board. That’s why I maintain a constant and very good exchange with Mr. Kuhne. I have always said that Mr Kuhne is a very important partner of HSV, and he will continue to be so in the years to come.”
This all makes it pretty clear that Lasogga staying at Hamburg next season is very unlikely, even if they could come to an agreement over wages.
That gives Leeds United a chance to make the move permanent, should they so wish, or another English club to come in and sign the striker, with claims in Germany recently that there’s interest from the Championship and the lower half of the Premier League.
