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Christian Wohlwend sensed that HCD was planning without him.
Marcel AllemanReporter ice hockey
Blick: How are you feeling a few hours after your release?
Christian Wohlwend: You write about a bang. But for me it definitely wasn’t a bang as long as the contract talks with me were delayed. As a human being you can feel something like that, you don’t even have to be particularly sensitive to it. So it was to be expected that this would happen.
When did you first feel that things weren’t going to end well for you?
When I was put off in October until November and then further, I had question marks even then. But I can live with this separation. In every form of partnership it’s like that – if someone doesn’t want to anymore, then they don’t want it anymore and then it doesn’t make sense to keep it up any longer.
During the Spengler Cup you said that the situation was difficult for you. How if you saw it coming?
It was stressful when it came to working with the players, because they realized that the board wasn’t 100 percent behind the coach anymore.
Despite this, the team continued to deliver and caught up again and again.
She even delivered sensationally right up to the end and when I now read that there was something between me and the team, I can only say that this is simply not true. I do not think such claims are correct. I received a lot of text messages from the players today, including those who are no longer there and also from other coaches. That made me very happy.
Do you have an example. Which other coach has contacted you?
For example Bob Hartley, via Facetime. He said to me: “If you’re going to be released, then it should be the case that no player says you were too nice.”
How was your relationship with the team?
Of course, not everything was always peace, joy and pancakes. I read a statement from ZSC captain Patrick Geering in Blick after the dismissal of coach Rikard Grönborg. He said that they were never criticized and there was never any consequence when they didn’t perform well.
Yes, we read that. And?
That didn’t happen to me. I’ve always had straight forward honest feedback when a player wasn’t performing. Does a player always find that casual? No! Is that why he’s ugly sometimes? Yes! Am I annoying him? Yes! But that doesn’t mean that there were interpersonal problems. If this had existed, it would not have been possible to constantly catch up to the end. I had a great time with the team and I’m grateful for the way they’ve always responded to me.
But the HCD media release aims to say that the team now needs a new approach.
If you say that you need new impetus after four years, then I can live with that. That’s why it’s okay for me if the club communicates it that way.
If you didn’t fail because of the team, did you fail because of team manager Jan Alston?
No comment.
Christian Wohlwend
Christian Wohlwend (46), who was born in Montréal, grew up in the Engadin and made it into the U20 national team as a striker for EHC St. Moritz. He later played for Rappi and Kloten, among others, but he didn’t make his big breakthrough as a player. As a trainer, he found his way into the Lugano youth team via Wallisellen and Bülach. In 2016 he became head coach of the U20 national team before being recruited by HC Davos in 2019, where Wohlwend worked until his dismissal on January 11, 2023.
Christian Wohlwend (46), who was born in Montréal, grew up in the Engadin and made it into the U20 national team as a striker for EHC St. Moritz. He later played for Rappi and Kloten, among others, but he didn’t make his big breakthrough as a player. As a trainer, he found his way into the Lugano youth team via Wallisellen and Bülach. In 2016 he became head coach of the U20 national team before being recruited by HC Davos in 2019, where Wohlwend worked until his dismissal on January 11, 2023.
Don’t you feel that the HCD is taking something away from you? In terms of sport, the team is not doing so badly and you might even have been able to play for the championship title.
No, I don’t have the feeling that something is being taken away from me. Some media representatives believed that I would not be able to stay with HCD for three months. But in the end I was allowed to be here for almost four years. This is a huge honor for me and I am very grateful for that.
Do you think you were under surveillance in Davos after the famous bottle toss that caused a stir in the last playoffs?
That was certainly not conducive to my role as a role model and image bearer for the club. And therefore certainly not a good campaign for me in general.
HCD coach rages: Wohlwend throws bottles around(00:21)
Is it true that you had a dentist appointment right after the discharge interview?
Yes that is correct.
How can you inflict so much suffering on yourself at once?
(laughs) One was self-determined and the other externally determined.
What’s next for Christian Wohlwend?
Only the hockey gods know that.
But you want to work as a coach again?
Man often plans, but fate laughs at it. Whatever the universe feels I want my next task to be, I will do it. I have a lot of faith that the right thing will come.
Kicking coach Wohlwend: “Communication at HCD is no more than 2nd league”(02:11)
National League 22/23
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