Djourou hopes historic Hamburg survive

Hamburg's proud record as the only club to have never suffered Bundesliga relegation is in doubt, but Johan Djourou says they can survive.

Johan Djourou believes former club Hamburg are on the right track despite being in danger of suffering relegation from the Bundesliga.

Hamburg are the only club to have never dropped out of Germany's top division, but they head into the final weekend of the season in 17th place.

Christian Titz's side boosted their survival hopes with a run of three wins in four league games, though defeat at Eintracht Frankfurt last time out left them two points adrift of Wolfsburg and the relegation play-off place.

Djourou was in the Hamburg line-up that won the play-off against Karlsruhe to stay up three years ago and they must beat Borussia Monchengladbach on Saturday to have a shot at salvation, while also hoping Wolfsburg lose – or draw with a significant swing in goal difference – at home to already-relegated Cologne.

Titz's appointment as the replacement for Bernd Hollerbach in March has given HSV hope and the Switzerland international believes his old club can turn around their dire situation under the 47-year-old.

Djourou, who now plays for Super Lig side Antalyaspor, told Omnisport: "It's a massive club with a lot of history. I think that Hamburg has a lot of potential and I think that to be honest I'm very happy to see that now there is a coach there that has a great football philosophy.

"Maybe he comes too late, maybe he comes at just a good time that they can stay in the league, but this coach Christian Titz has a great philosophy and we can see with the results that they're getting, even though people were saying they are going down from weeks out, they are still closing the gap so hopefully they can come up.

"But the biggest problem we had when I was there was that the club had no stability. I was there for four years and I had eight coaches and three different sporting directors.

"Of course, you're not going to blame someone and say it's their fault or whatever, no, I'm not like that, but I want to say that in sports, in football, you need stability, you need a project, you need something, and I think that's what was missing at the time and hopefully they've found it with Titz now."