Now the "lilies" have also gotten into the great coaching castling in professional football in this country. Markus Anfang, bought by Werder Bremen under the current contract, has left the club. A new head coach is needed, and many central positions in the squad need to be filled. Once again, SV Darmstadt 98 is facing a new start in terms of personnel on a large scale. And time is of the essence, at least when it comes to filling the coaching position. Because already on June 16, the SVD class 2021/22 meets for the first corona tests, three days later the ball work in preparation for the new season is to begin.

Carsten Wehlmann, the sporting director of the "Lilien", has known Markus Anfang for a long time, once both of them worked together at Holstein Kiel.

The fact that the 46-year-old is an ambitious guy, a coach who demands and encourages his players and a club, was well known and at the same time one of the reasons for his commitment.

The poaching of their head coach after only one year despite a current contract until mid-2022 surprised the Darmstadt-based company, the circumstances annoyed them.

“From the point in time,” says Wehlmann, “I would not have expected it to happen that way.

And the communication could certainly have taken place in a different framework. ”After all, they still received considerable compensation from the Bremen team.

According to media reports, the total package has a volume of almost one million euros.

"Always a powerful force"

In future, Markus Anfang will no longer drive home from southern Hesse on the A 67 and A 3 to his Cologne-based family, but rather on the A 1 from northern Germany.

It is currently not even vaguely visible which track the SVD will be betting on in the new season.

You need a new head coach and, if you consider the quality of the departures, a good knack for signing.

President Rüdiger Fritsch recently announced that the transfer proceeds from the changes in the players Seung-ho Paik and Victor Pálsson, as well as the beginning of coach, mean there are definitely funds that could be invested in the squad. “We have had to replace top performers again and again in recent years. We have succeeded very well so far, which is not least underpinned by our fifth and seventh positions in the past two seasons. We always had a powerful team on the pitch, ”says Wehlmann, who is particularly challenged these days.

Especially since the transfer business is likely to be on hold as long as the potential newcomers do not know who they will be dealing with as head coach at the Böllenfalltor. With top scorer Serdar Dursun (27 goals) the "Lilien" lose the guarantor of their record second half of the season (33 points); with Victor Pálsson (Schalke) and Nicolai Rapp (initially back to Union Berlin after loan), the SVD loses the line-up of the "double six", which in this composition has played an important role in the defensive stabilization since March; with Immanuel Höhn (destination unknown) and Lars Lukas Mai (end of the loan deal with FC Bayern) the "Lilien" lose their regular central defender duo.

Beginning, who did not experience a single home game at Böllenfalltor with spectators during his tenure, had indicated several times that he was worried about the squad situation with a view to a challenging round in a well-known second division.

Now the beginning has changed from a middle class team with vague prospects to a top team with a clear goal for promotion.

At the beginning, the sting is still deep that he was dismissed as the front runner at 1. FC Köln in 2019 shortly before the end of the round, thus robbing him of the Bundesliga experience.

Now the 46-year-old has worked his way up again.

Offensive ball possession football

You may well remember him in Darmstadt as the coach who managed the transformation from a team that primarily embodied battle-tested outsider football to a formation that played offensive possession football. Sports director Wehlmann has announced that successors would initially be selected in such a way that this approach should persist. Under this premise, the previous newcomers were also committed. Until Tuesday they expected to be instructed by Markus Anfang in Darmstadt in the new season.