Claus Costa: “A very busy period with a lot of transfer activity”

HSV sporting director Claus Costa has had a busy few days and weeks. The winter transfer window is regarded every year as a particularly demanding and intensive period for those responsible across the globe. That makes the scale of HSV’s activity all the more striking. In total, Costa and his team oversaw 13 ins and outs. Alongside four new signings in Damion Downs, Sander Tangvik, Albert Grönbaek and Philip Otele, the arrivals also included the return of attacking player and academy graduate Otto Stange, whose loan spell at SV Elversberg was ended early. At the same time, the squad was reduced as planned, with eight departures. Daniel Peretz (Southampton), Jonas Meffert (Holstein Kiel), Guilherme Ramos (Beijing Guoan), Anssi Suhonen (Odense BK) and Silvan Hefti (D.C. United) left the club permanently, while Aboubaka Soumahoro (AS Saint-Étienne), Emir Sahiti (Maccabi Tel Aviv) and Immanuel Pherai (SV Elversberg) were loaned out. Ahead of the start of training for the week leading into Saturday’s Bundesliga away match at 1. FC Heidenheim (7th February), the 41-year-old reflected on what he described as “a very busy period with a lot of transfer activity”.

Claus Costa spoke in more detail about…

…the attacking signings: We’re very satisfied with the signings we’ve made. With Damion Downs, we brought in a striker early on who has the attributes we wanted. More recently, we added Albert Grönbaek and Philip Otele, two players who will definitely strengthen us going forward and give us more flexibility.

Philip has taken an interesting path in his career that has now led him to the Bundesliga. He was immediately excited about joining HSV. Over recent years, he’s shown his goal threat through both direct and indirect contributions. He’s loves driving towards goal on the left wing and we hope he can give our attack an extra push.

Albert is a versatile attacking player who feels comfortable between the lines and brings fine technical quality. In Norway, he learned how important hard work without the ball is. We hope that, in our environment, we can help him rediscover his enjoyment of football. He was raring to go as soon as he heard that HSV were interested.

…working with the coaching staff on transfers: The coaching staff are closely involved in our transfer planning. Trust and communication are the most important factors. It makes no sense for me to sign a player the coaches only really get to know once the deal is done. We place a lot of emphasis on the group and its energy. The coaches have high standards when it comes to the atmosphere in the dressing room, and that’s why they should and must have a say. We involve them in our planning because they also work in a team-oriented way and are keen to contribute. One of our biggest strengths at the moment is that we can have lengthy discussions, don’t always agree, and still make decisions together in the end.

…the team’s overall direction: The key to staying in the league is, above all, a solid defence. Defensively, we’ve taken big steps forward since the summer and shown that we can defend very compactly as a team. At the same time, we knew we needed to become more clinical going forward. In that respect, we’re hoping not only through the transfers, but also through the continued development of our style of play, that we’ll make further progress over the coming weeks.

…the sanctions against Jean-Luc Dompe: It was important for us to be clear on this issue and to take a firm stance. This behaviour was not acceptable. What affects him most is being taken out of playing football, which is why he remains suspended from match action. We sat down with Jean-Luc and had a very clear conversation with him, in which he explicitly apologised for his behaviour and explained himself. He knows that he acted irresponsibly and caused significant harm to himself and to HSV. He’s now back with the squad, will be gradually reintegrated into training over the course of the week, and then we’ll see what the future holds.