Stefan Frauenholz (1st Chairman TTC RhönSprudel Fulda-Maberzell): "We always won the right games in time".
For TTC RhönSprudel Fulda-Maberzell, a season with some adversities in the table tennis Bundesliga is coming to an end. In an interview, 1st Chairman Stefan Frauenholz talks about temporary fears of relegation from the TTBL, reasons for the moderate overall result and plans for the coming season.
Stefan Frauenholz, before the last three match days in the table tennis Bundesliga, the TTC RhönSprudel Fulda-Maberzell is on the second last place in the table, but your club does not have to worry about the class preservation in the TTBL because of the promotion renunciations of all second league teams and the license renunciation of Neu-Ulm. But that certainly wasn't the plan after last season's play-off participation, was it?
No, definitely not. However, due to the reinforcements of all the other teams, it was already clear to us that the league would be very balanced and that anyone from fourth to twelfth place could beat anyone. In this constellation, other factors such as form on the day or bad luck with injuries play a bigger role. But with our 14 points, we could be eighth or seventh at the moment with two points more and not just eleventh. But such a balance of teams is also good for the league.
Hand on heart: Did you feel any fear of relegation at any point during the season?
Yes, I certainly did. But we always won the right games in time.
But surely it wasn't just the balance of the league that was the reason why your team didn't perform as well as it did during the season. What other reasons do you think there are?
First of all, with a little more luck, we could have been within reach of the play-off places again. But you have to realize that, with the exception of Werder Bremen and us, all the teams have strengthened. That's also an important reason. But we also had to deal with the absences of Ruwen Filus and, more recently, Alexandre Cassin, although that can always happen. That has been almost tragic, especially with Ruwen.
How much of an impact did the unexpected departure of Quadri Aruna have in the winter?
When we were able to sign Wong Chun Ting as a replacement, we already thought that we could agree to Aruna's request for a release in the winter without a substantial loss of quality.
But Wong's record so far has been much more negative than Aruna's in the first part of the season. It seems like Wong hasn't really arrived in the TTBL yet, right?
He is on his way, we hope he will arrive soon. But his six lost matches, Wong also lost all of them only in the fifth set. He won his other two matches clearly, so he should try to avoid deciding sets.
Fanbo Meng made the German team's World Cup squad in the first part of the season and also won the silver medal with the team. In the league, however, he is highly negative. Has the World Cup gone from a dream to a curse for him?
You could almost say that. But he is working incredibly hard to get out of this long-lasting slump.
In view of the decisions that have been made at the bottom of the table, the time may already have come to take stock. What conclusions do you draw from the fading season?
It's best to avoid as many injuries as possible and to be in top shape for every game, because due to the many rotations with the other teams, you often don't really know which players will be on the other side.
The developments of the past few weeks have given Fulda planning security in terms of league membership. What's the situation like in terms of squad planning?
Fanbo still has a contract, and we are currently discussing contract extensions with Ruwen and Wong.
In what time frame do you expect decisions to be made?
Pretty quickly - I think in ten to 14 days.
What about Alexandre Cassin?
As things stand, he will be leaving us.
Can you already formulate a goal for the new season?
We want to position ourselves in such a way that we definitely have a chance of getting close to the play-off places.