Players such as Nikola Karabatic and Vid Kavtivnik (left for Montpellier) and Stefan Lövgren (retired) left the team. Even the former coach, Noka Serdarusic, found a new job: he will be national coach of Slovenia.

A Serbian international, Momir Illic, arrived from Gummersbach to replace Karabatic. The German international Christian Sprenger will replace Vid Kavticnik on the right wing position and the young Icelandic talent, Aron Palmarsson, will have to fill the shoes of Lövgren in the centre back position.

However, THW is still looking for a top player after extending the contract of Filip Jicha until 2014. The resources are available for a transfer as the Karabatic/Kavticnik deal (over a million Euro) were financially successful.

Derad and coach Gislasson are trying so sign a French Olympics champion, Daniel Narcisse from Chambery, after they finished bidding for Domagoj Duvnjak from Zagreb. If Narcisse would join THW, he would be the third new player playing earlier for Gislasson’s squads – Illic and Narcisse in Gummersbach, Sprenger in Magdeburg.

After the long injury break of the young Swedish goalkeeper Andreas Palicka, THW signed “the old Swede” Peter Gentzel from Nordhorn for the next season. The new THW team captain will be Marcus Ahlm.

There were already problems in the initial weeks of the preparations: Lundström and Anic were injured, while Dominik Klein suffered from new flu.

Meanwhile, Palmarsson led the Icelandic team to a silver medal at the Youth World Championship in Tunisia.

Despite all changes, coach Gislasson remains confident:

“We signed good players after stars left the club,” the Icelandic said. “But it will take some time for them to integrate. Our German opponents – Hamburg or Löwen – have signed world class players, so it’ll be tough for us. But I’m confident that we have a chance in our mission to defend the title. We have a lot of changes, but Kiel make changes before and the team remained top national and international level. We’re still candidates for all titles, but we’ll have to see how the team can endure the pressure.”