DHB Vice President Bob Hanning sees the public criticism of national coach Christian Prokop as “agitation”. He has the feeling that Prokop is being “hunted”, and it is only after he has been killed that he is calm “, the 49-year-old told the magazine Handballwoche after the disappointing main round out of the European Championship in Croatia.
Hanning, who played a key role in Prokops’ commitment as successor to Dagur Sigurdsson, once again emphasized that he wanted a “solution with this coach and team” to understand his words as a clear commitment to Prokop.
“But it is also a fact that the trainer belongs to the team and he is part of the problem, you can’t take Christian Prokop out of the analysis,”said Hanning:”He has to work on himself. But we all have to.”
Among other things, managing director Axel Geerken from the top club MT Melsungen Prokop had counted on him for ninth place in the European Championship,”I really don’t want to do anything bad for him, but as the national coach he seems to be overwhelmed,”said Geerken.
He is the first Bundesliga manager to indirectly demand a replacement of Prokops. We have to “think very carefully” about whether we are going to go to next year’s home World Cup with Prokop as national coach,”Geerken said.