Servette's sports director Gautschi is not making excuses

Servette's 2024-25 season came to a painful end on Saturday with a 5-1 defeat in Bern. For Geneva, Swiss champions for the first time in the club's history two years ago and winners of the Champions Hockey League a year ago, it was a failure with an announcement after a botched season. Despite having a lot of quality in the squad, the Grenats were unable to build on the successes of the last two years. Even the dismissal of young, successful coach Jan Cadieux at the end of December did not have the desired effect.

Unsurprisingly, Servette's sporting director Marc Gautschi drew an inevitably negative balance for his club. The 42-year-old in no way glossed over the fact that Servette missed out on the play-offs again - last year they were beaten by Biel in the first play-in round.

As reported by "Le Matin", he didn't mince his words in front of the journalists in the belly of the SCB Arena. "The balance of our season is very bad. There is no excuse. Everything we've built up since reaching the final five years ago, namely our culture and the respect we've earned in this league, we've ended up throwing in the bin with a season like this."

Failure "is the fault of the players"

Servette were often rated as a top four team in the season forecasts. The fact that it was only enough for 12th place in the end was not only due to the defeat in Bern on Saturday. "January, with all the injuries and 17 games to go, probably cost us the whole season," says Gautschi. "Overall, however, we almost never played at our true level. Except at the end, when we had the knife to our throat and won seven of the last nine games. That was the true face of Geneva-Servette."

And who is to blame for the failure? The sporting director has a clear opinion: "It's too easy to always point the finger at the coach, the sporting director or the managers. In the end, the players are to blame." He had noticed that they had neither the necessary culture nor the head to play a good season.

Gautschi also held himself accountable. "My biggest mistake was that I didn't make the necessary changes after finishing 10th last season. I should have replaced two, three or even more players. You should have shown that you're not satisfied, even if you've won the Champions Hockey League title."

Biel's difficult new start

The failure of Servette and Biel shows how close things are in the National League. Just two years ago, the two clubs were dueling in the playoff final. For Biel, the early exit from the season does not come as a complete surprise.

The Seeland club is currently in a rebuilding phase. To make matters worse for the new Swedish coach Martin Filander, he had to do without numerous injured regulars for many weeks. Captain Gaëtan Haas missed almost the entire season due to a concussion. This meant that many young players, such as 15-year-old Jonah Neuenschwander, were able to gain valuable experience.

The final spurt with two wins at the start of the final week was ultimately not rewarded. Biel disappointed across the board in a 4-2 defeat in Lugano on Saturday, missing out on the playoffs for only the third time since moving into the new arena in the summer of 2015.