Austria barely managed to qualify for Europe last season and their hopes going into this season were to do better than that and finish second.
Christian Ilzer came with a stellar reputation and was trusted to deliver the sort of thrilling football played by his former clubs, but it quickly became apparent that it would take some time for the Violets to adapt to his ideas. While showing signs of promise at times, Austria were often underwhelming and even failed to finish the regular season inside the top half of the table.
What was left to them was European qualification via the play-offs. They won the Relegation Group and beat Altach in the semi-finals, but ultimately failed, having been defeated by Hartberg over two legs.
They endured a campaign even worse than their previous one, but the club opted to stick with Ilzer despite that. However, Ilzer had other ideas and asked for his contract to be terminated days after the season end in order to take over at Sturm.
Club officials openly admitted that Ilzer's departure has taken them by surprise. They now have to quickly find another manager and whoever takes over will have to deal with high expectations, given how disappointing this campaign has been.
