Nevertheless, a pre-season sell-out of their best players and continuous quarrels between coach Max Merkel and his players proved to be costly, and although Merkel was sacked in late March 1969, it was too late to reverse tides.
尽管如此，在赛季前出售他们最好的球员，以及主教练马克斯·默克尔和球员之间持续不断的矛盾，都被证明付出了沉重的代价，虽然默克尔在1969年3月下旬被解职，但都已来不及逆转潮流。