The 2010–11 season of Hamburger SV began on 28 June with their first training session. Hamburg played its matches at Imtech Arena. Hamburg hired Armin Veh as their new head coach after sacking Bruno Labbadia near the end of last season and appointed Bastian Reinhardt as their new sports director. Hamburg were interested in a number of big name players, including Rafinha of Schalke 04, Michael Ballack, who Chelsea deemed surplus, Serdar Tasci of VFB Stuttgart and Jaroslav Drobný. Out of all of those, only Drobný decided to sign with Hamburg. Jérôme Boateng was the only major player sold, leaving for Manchester City.