The Geneva Lions are lowering their ambitions
With a reduced budget, the Pommier club has cleaned up its contingent for a season that promises to be less prolific than in recent years. Update with its president Imad Fattal.
Posted today at 09:02
Jérémy Jaunin and Tim Derksen, lifting the last Lions trophy, will no longer be in Geneva this season. Like many heroes of the Swiss Cup final last May.
Pierre Maillard
There are love at first sight that can hurt a lot. The thunder that hit the Apple tree at the end of May finally caused plus de damage than one could imagine. He shook an entire club that was on their way to a third trophy. The arrow that has reached full cœur the Geneva Lions in the first round of the play-offs against the Basel Starwings left traces in his contingent, at the time of the renewal of contracts for this season.
“It is certain that if we had achieved the treble, there would necessarily have been more than three players who would have wanted to stay!”
«It is certain that if we had achieved the treble, there would necessarily have been more than three players who would have wanted to stay, recognizes President Imad Fattal. But with that bitter taste in their mouths, the guys seemed less inclined to want to prolong.»
The Geneva team, which resumesgo out training this Thursday, is unrecognizable from the one who won the Swiss Cup final three months ago or the SBL Cup in February. There remains only’Eric Adams, Brandon Kuba and Thomas Jurkovitz, a third of the pro workforce. All the others, about ten players, have left.
«This is often the case in Swiss basketball, smiles the president, returning from vacation. TO my great regret, we are starting again from zero, with in-depth work to redo where it comes to creating a game system and an alchemy to find.»
“To my great regret, we start again from zero, with a fundamental work to be redone where it is a question of creating a game system and an alchemy to find”
While last year, at the same time, there was only one player left (Mikael Maruotto) from the previous edition, this did not prevent the men of Grand-Saconnex from finishing firsts of the preliminary round and win two trophies before the Basel disillusionment. «This unfortunately tarnished a magnificent exercise a little and consequently launched this recruitment campaign, still regrets the Geneva lawyer. Now, with the new arrivals, I still don’t know exactly in which direction we are going. I feel like we’ve hired some good strangers, but as regards the Swiss players, they are not encore exvery well-known.» Roberto Kovac, Jérémy Jaunin, Michel-Ofik Nzege, Mikael Maruotto or Natan Jurkovitz, experienced internationals, have not necessarily been replaced.
President Imad Fattal was forced to let go, “unfortunately”, Tim Derksen and Jérémy Jaunin (from behind).
PIERRE MAILLARD
If the coaches (Andrej Stimac and Ivan Stanisak) are still the same, the ambitions will not be as high as they were twelve months ago. “TO because of the Covid, sponsors had no choice but to let go of us. Du blow, we had to cut our budget and the payroll quite significantly, explains Imad Fattal. Now, we will try to figure as best as possible in the standings by training our players who are there, but the subsidies do not allow us to have the same ambitions as in other years.»
TO less than a new thunderclap …
Posted today at 09:02
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