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Urs Lindt / freshfocus
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1.7
Under fire: SCB sports director Alex Chatelain.
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Keystone
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2.7
The 42-year-old has been in office since autumn 2015.
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Keystone
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3.7
Under Chatelain, the SCB celebrated three championship titles.
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Urs Lindt / freshfocus
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7.7
Almquist’s successor Miika Koivisto left the SCB after 15 games.
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Anyone who is head of sports in Bern needs thick skin. Nowhere are transfers assessed more critically. A newspaper once wrote: “It would be easier for Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf to justify her return to the SVP than for Marc Lüthi to sell the latest lottery transfer from his sports manager as sensible.” We were talking about Thomas Rüfenacht, hero of three master teams.
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Sven Leuenberger got him. But Alex Chatelain has been responsible for four and a half years. Under him, the SCB became champion three times. But Graubünden was also always criticized. He gets fellow travelers and his foreigners are zero numbers, according to the accusation. After the miserable season, even CEO Marc Lüthi did not want to comment on the head of sports in the VIEW, avoiding the question of whether Chatelain should fear for his job, spoke of an analysis.
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«I had trouble making moods»
Chatelain himself says: «I am not one who runs away when it becomes difficult. Others have to decide whether the failure has consequences for me. »
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He has no problems with criticism. «Criticism takes you further because you are concerned. I face criticism and, as in previous years, I am also responsible. I have problems with falsehoods. I was having trouble making the mood. » In the meantime, however, he had learned to deal with it. «You can rub yourself up. It takes your energy. »
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The 42-year-old says about the accusation that you missed making changes to the team in good time: “In an ideal world, you could have made adjustments after the last championship title. But that’s not how the market works. This team, which is now in the placement round, was largely in December 2018 and became champion in April 2019. »
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«Should have extended with Almquist»
One was aware that a change with younger players must take place. “We didn’t want to squeeze our squad in the form of a lemon, and thought that it was more promising to make the change in the stable structures that coach Kari Jalonen gave us. Kari thought our plan was smart, wanted to be part of it. But then the results did not turn out as we had imagined and the change did not take place. »
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Chatelain says: “We did a lot of things wrong.” The sports director is self-critical: «In retrospect, you should have extended with Adam Almquist. He delivered a great performance, impressed young people. Perhaps we let ourselves be influenced too much and, under pressure from outside, felt that our foreign defender had to be a Blueliner. The hope that Miika Koivisto would be equally solid defensively, but could provide more impulses aggressively, was not fulfilled. »
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“One good phase”
There would have been other unfortunate decisions. “We got Andrew MacDonald because our defenses were vulnerable, but then we had to change the goalie and, because of offensive impotence, had no choice but to stop using MacDonald.” Chatelain, however, resists the accusation that his foreigners are zero numbers. «This is mood-making. Arcobello has worn the team for a long time. Karhunen plays excellently. And with Ebbett and Mursak we became masters. »
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Where does Chatelain see the reasons for the debacle? «The start of the season went wrong. The team couldn’t help the goalies. They in turn could not help the team. We got into a whirlpool, had to react with Karhunen. This made us defensively more stable, but nothing went offensive. The Powerplay has long been a construction site. We were too inconsistent, had only one good phase in December, fell into a hole again in January. »
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Whether the 42-year-old can keep his job will be shown at the end of the season. It would not be the first time that Lüthi has reacted due to ongoing criticism. He only released jalons in January. Two weeks after Lüthi said the Finn wasn’t the problem. Wasn’t he …
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