Handball: THW Kiel: Dance on the powder keg

The THW Kiel has had a bad start to the season and is facing its third consecutive year.The theatre around goalkeeper Andreas Wolff does not end, coach Alfred Gislason is criticized, there are no real leaders – and the youth work receives a miserable testimony.

After the first untitled season in 13 years and an equally tasteless 2016/2017 season, which was just a little nicer garnished with the cup victory, everything was to improve at THW Kiel this year.

But after the defeat in the Super Cup against the Rhine-Neckar Lions, the duel in the Champions League against Paris was lost on Sunday.Worse still: In the HBL, it set up two bankruptcies from five games – in its own hall against Hannover-Burgdorf and in Melsungen.

“We imagined it quite differently,”said THW Managing Director Thorsten Storm.The way is the spirit of departure, the dream of the 21st century.In view of finishing seventh in the German championship, it was a matter of weeks before the German championship was even moved into the distance.The Kieler Förde is rumbling about it.

Andreas Wolff is symbolic of the lousy mood.The goalkeeper is doubly dissatisfied.On the one hand, he already complained publicly last season about short lead times in the all-decisive royal class games.

On the other hand, he feels underpaid.The 26-year-old had already signed his contract in Kiel by 2019, when he became a hero at the European Championship in 2016, played a major role in the DHB team’s title win and has since then become probably the best-known handball player in Germany.

Finally, negotiations on an early extension of the contract to improve remuneration were also postponed.Wolff has been openly flirting with a premature departure from Kiel ever since, and lucrative offers from Veszprem (Hungary) and Kielce (Poland) are supposed to be available to him.The industry rumours that the Rhineland-born could collect more than twice as much of the 20,000 euros gross that he is supposed to earn at the THW on a monthly basis.

“I don’t understand the criticism,” said Wolff, who often has to make way for the Danish national goalkeeper Niklas Landin between the posts, recently at Kretzschmar – the handball talk:”I just said that I’m sad that I played a total of only ten minutes in the decisive games, the four knockout matches in the Champions League.

And that he could imagine a change of club, even if that would be the case in the future.After all, these are the games in which one can become a great personality, in which the difference between the big players and the good players crystallizes.

“And then,”Wolff went on to say:”That I changed the consultant who judged my financial position differently from the previous one,” the goalkeeper’s new agent is Sasa Bratic.A man who is washed with all the waters and sometimes even compared to Mino Raiola, who is known from the football business.Wolff himself calls Bratic the “best consultant in the world”.

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“We did not reach a common denominator in the talks on a contract extension.There was an offer and a performance,”said Storm a week later in the same place, adding:” This may be the best thing for consultants in the world.

Nevertheless, it would be too cheap and unfair to present the keeper who switched from Wetzlar to Kiel in 2016 as greedy for money.Storm also emphasized this.Wolff behaves well in the team, is “super ambitious” and trains like a madman.

Nor can we argue away what dance on the powder keg the situation is.When Alfred Gislason, for example, took Wolff from the field against Melsungen after a weak performance, he didn’t appreciate the coach at all.The fact that the THW Wolff will allow Wolff to leave before the end of his contract is considered probable in the case of a high six-digit replacement.Johannes Bitter from Stuttgart has long been a successor to Johannes Bitter.

In the far north, the Wolff issue is only one of the issues under discussion.Critical voices against the coach have been growing louder since last season at the latest.The audience in the Sparkassen-Arena is already whispering.

The Icelandic coach is accused of being a successful coach, above all because of his team’s static and often unimaginative style of playing.In addition, the 58-year-old is said to be a man of power and exceptionally stubborn.

“Alfred is an absolute team player.He asks the leaders for their opinion.It is not that Alfred stubbornly walks his head through the wall because he is a strong personality.If he wasn’t a strong personality, he wouldn’t have been with the THW for so long,”Storm defended his coach.

Gislason himself has no illusions.The man from Akureyri knows how little the titles won under him (six German championships, five cup victories and two Champions League wins) are worth today.

“I know the business, I know how it works,”said the “hissing geyser.””It doesn’t leave me cold when we lose and when people talk about my job.” He’s in his 21st century.Since 2008 he has held the reins of the zebras in his hands.

One notices Gislason’s ambition with which he continues to pursue his work.However, in recent years he has also repeatedly acknowledged the wear and tear of the business.

Whether the father of three remains in Kiel until his contract ends in 2019 must at least be doubted.Anyway, the question arises as to whether he is the right man to take the urgently needed new paths with the club.

The situation is very different from five years ago.Kiel is no longer the only European handball’s ultimate.World-class players are spoilt for choice: Barcelona, Veszprem, Kielce, Paris or Skopje – you can earn more in some clubs than in Germany.

Competition in the Bundesliga has also intensified.Although Kiel still has the highest budget, Flensburg and the lions are not so far away.And with Berlin, Melsungen and Magdeburg – currently even Hanover – other clubs are boiling steam.

The THW needs to rethink.It’s just a shame that the youth work has been neglected in the Fjord so far.In the ranking published a few weeks ago on the effectiveness of the promotion of young talent, Kiel was ranked 31st in Germany – an embarrassing result for the industry leader.

“In the past, the THW had only focused on the first team, and the whole budget went in,”Storm admitted:”We’re just starting to build a reasonable infrastructure.Now a training centre is being built.We’re working on it.You’ll hear a lot about THW in this area in the coming years.”

Maybe one day this will be the source of a real leading player.This is something that is currently lacking in Kiel.The times when great personalities such as Magnus Wislander, Marcus Ahlm, Stefan Lövgren or Filip Jicha set the tone are sorely missed.

Especially as Domagoj Duvnjak is still injured and nobody can say exactly when and how the Croatian will return.Storm sees Patrick Wiencek or Niklas Landin on the right track, but he also explained:”Such a THW jersey weighs quite a lot.You’ll get wet hands when you walk into the hall.”

After all, the THW has undergone a small change.With Lukas Nilsson, Nikola Bilyk and Rune Dahmke, young, very promising players are in the line-up.The Miha Zarabec, which is committed in the summer, provides a fresh breeze.Apparently, the Danish supertalent Magnus Landin will also be joining the THW in 2018, and Hendrik Pekeler’s commitment is already fixed.

“The future of this team is very good,”Gislason said.”But what matters is now.”