If you like, the handball players of HC Linz AG have been greeted by the marmot every year: absorbed in the relegation battle, the squad planning could only be done at the end of the season. At a time when the most attractive players have long since left the market, which in turn made it difficult to break away from below in the following season – a vicious circle.
Now they are breaking out of it: Yesterday, the league’s top scorer Lucijan Fizuleto and backcourt player Tobias Cvetko extended their contracts with the seven-time champions until the summer of 2023 Alex Hermann returns to Linz from the German second division club Gummersbach in the summer, the HC already has a powerful team together for the coming season before the championship finishes. As early as it hasn’t been in years.
The one-two of the ex-players
“As sixth in the table, who has already qualified for the play-off quarter-finals, the situation now cannot be compared to the past few years,” says Klemens Kainmüller. The Linz veteran took over the agenda of the sporting director at the beginning of the season. His record is impressive given the squad planning. “We’re still having some talks,” adds the 42-year-old cryptically.
As an active player, he played with Uwe Schneider for eight years, and now Kainmüller is playing a one-two with him at official level. Hired as a full-time manager by the club in 2020, after being reinforced by Kainmüller, Schneider is concentrating on economic and marketing agendas. The fact that you come from the same generation in Linz and have the “same smugness” helps with your day-to-day work. “We have the same goal,” says Kainmüller. Namely? To lead the club step by step back to the top of Austria. “But you can’t do that all at once if you’re not growing financially. Anything that grows too quickly can quickly collapse again,” says Kainmüller. After establishing themselves in midfield, they want to reduce the gap to the top next season.
This project will continue tomorrow, when the winning streak against Meister Hard (7 p.m.), which has been going on for seven home games, will be subjected to a tough test. After the recent easing, there are no corona requirements for fans.
Source: Nachrichten
