Football Season Guide

After yet another underwhelming campaign (finished 3rd in the Championship Group) blighted by inconsistency, they felt compelled to change manager again. Daniel Beichler has now been demoted, and his replacement is Danny Rohl from Rangers. In the transfer market, they've shown they mean business. It makes sense, too - now is the time to seize Austrian football whilst nobody else is doing so, and Salzburg are obviously equipped to do so, at least when it comes to spending money. They lost some big names, which certainly contributed to their big summer. Star midfielder Bidstrup, star creator Alajbegovic, first-choice GK Schlager, and their two CB mainstays Gadou and Schuster all left. They've actively recruited more quality in the FB areas, bringing in Veratschnig and Schmid, although the former can play further forward too. Gladbach's star striker Tabakovic has joined, affording them an actual point of reference up front for the first time in ages. Diakite returns from a successful loan spell at Lausanne-Sport too. They've also replaced Bidstrup with Barry, who has done well at this level for the past couple of years. It's unclear if they intend on counting upon returning loanees or not but Daghim and Jano can do a job in the final third, and Gourna-Douath adds quality to CM if so. They've also taken a punt on a couple of flair players in Sulbaran and Matijasevic, which was necessary - Alajbegovic's presence last season showed that. With both him and Yeo leaving, there wasn't enough left so they've brought these two capable creative threats in, as well as talented midfielder Mazurek from Jagiellonia. Gelling this team, especially for a new manager, is going to be tricky as they lost the spine of their team in the summer. Getting them to play as a team will be even harder, something that all of Rohl's recent predecessors have not come close to achieving. On paper, it's a top team, capable of going for the title. In reality, there are still question marks.