Football Season Guide

Despite making life extremely hard for themselves, they managed to avoid relegation last season. They also played a substantial role in the eventual relegation of bitter rivals Austria Lustenau, which pleased the fans, but that kind of distraction may not be enough if they have another disappointing campaign like last season. A few players of note departed the club pre-season. Midfielder Prietl hung up his boots after injuries got the best of him, and defensive regular Reiner's loan deal expired. Other than that though, it was bit-part players like Jurcec, Kaiba, and Diawara that moved on, the latter of which never really settled in Austria. They've been surprisingly adventurous in the transfer market pre-season, clearly hoping to avoid the relegation battle altogether this time around. Have shamelessly raided bitter rivals Austria Lustenau for their star striker Fridrikas, which was a great piece of business. Backup GK Helac also arrived from the same club. Goal-scoring was a huge problem for them last season but with Lincoln, Strunz, and Fridrikas now on their books, that problem should belong to the past. Milojevic joined to strengthen their defence, Dermaku's loan move was made permanent, and Kronberger from Sturm Graz was arguably the pick of the bunch - he's a very capable midfielder. Again, they want to avoid the relegation battle of last season but a group like this shouldn't even be thinking of it. It's now a strong enough group to push for a place in Europe next season, whether via sneaking into the Championship Group in 6th place or by topping the Relegation Group after that. They've improved enormously on last season, and should start strongly enough as most of their newbies know Austrian football well enough by now.