Football Season Guide

Finished 4th in the Championship Group last season. A good outcome for a club that never spends much money. They were especially delighted to finish above bitter rivals Rapid Vienna, who always do spend a lot of money. They've adopted their typically cautious approach to the season ahead, once again not wanting to spend too much money due to their ever-present financial concerns. Most players that arrived were to replace those that departed. Feddersen replaces Plavotic, for example. After a convincing campaign at WSG Tirol, midfielder Wels should take the place of Barry, who left for Red Bull Salzburg. The great success of this club has been their youth academy in recent times Ndukwe moved to Liverpool recently, and Aleksa moved to Hoffenheim, both of which barely featured in the first-team. They will almost certainly continue giving academy players a chance. The only thing they were truly missing last season was a natural flair player in the final third. They believe they've solved this problem by acquiring Hettwer - time will tell. With Wels and Saljic also there though, creativity is becoming less and less of a problem for this team. The main problem that confronts them this season is their lack of striker options. Botic and Sarkaria have been battling injuries for a while now, Kante isn't really ready, and Boateng isn't good enough to play regularly. Eggestein is their only solid choice, and he looked weary from over-use toward the end of last season. The rest of the team looks really solid. They're supposedly ready to give Schablas, Nnodim, Deshiskhu, Osterreicher, and Markovic more game time but time will tell. Markovic is very likely, though - an extremely good player. May start slowly, though. A combination of European football + injuries in defence (Wiesinger, Handl, and Dragovic only just back), as well as Maybach in midfield. With their new-found stability, a system that works, and a manager that knows how to get the best out of them, they should have a good campaign. A title push is unlikely, but Europe should be on the agenda.