Football Season Guide

Salzburg have established themselves as the rulers supreme of Austrian football over the last decade. Their grip on the domestic championship has strengthened over the last four years, having completed four consecutive back-to-back domestic doubles. Despite some wobbles in the first half of last season, they managed to win the league with a huge 18-point gap between themselves and second-placed, Austria Vienna. The only bitter pill from the season was their failure to finally qualify for the Champions League as a last-minute goal by Croatian champions, Dinamo Zagreb, forced the tie into extra-time during which the Red Bulls were defeated. Oscar Garcia decided against staying with the club and has left to join French side Saint Etienne. To replace him, Salzburg promoted from within when they named the former manager of their Under-16 side, Marco Rose, as their new manager. Unfortunately for Salzburg, they are no longer the main project of the Red Bull corporation, with several players that starred for them over the recent years being shipped out to Lepzig. This was been the case with Konrad Laimer this summer and other notable players such as Wanderson and Christian Schwegler, although injuries have prevented the latter two from having more of an impact. However, the Red Bulls are never short of cash for new signings and have brought in several new players. Meanwhile, a lot will also be expected of Munas Dabbur who is back to the club after a successful four-month spell in Switzerland with Grasshopper - the Israeli international struggled in his first season with the club but is a quality player and Rose will be hoping for him to start to bang in goals this time around. Despite once again losing their star performer to Leipzig, Salzburg are still head and shoulders above all other Austrian sides so it would take some gross mismanagement for them to not win their fifth consecutive title.