Football Season Guide

Altach are coming from a season that was successful if taking only their pre-season expectations into account but that has left their fans with a sense of disappointment and dread, given how poor their side were in the first half of the campaign. The Altach outfit even led the league at times around midway through the campaign, but were unable to maintain their impressive level from the autumn following the departure of their boss Damir Canadi to Rapid. Martin Scherb, who took over from Canadi, was fired with two games of the season to go, and Canadi seemed set to return to his old stomping ground only months after leaving, as he did not last the season at Rapid. However, it was not to be, as he has taken the Atromitos job in Greece, leaving Altach with no choice but to look elsewhere. Their new boss is Klaus Schmidt, who has been in management for seven years, with the first four being spent in assistant manager jobs at different clubs. He has no previous Bundesliga managerial experience. When it comes to the transfer news, the Altachers have lost two very important players in Nikola Dovedan and Lukas Jager, while bringing in some proven Bundesliga quality in Kristijan Dobras, Simon Piesinger and Stefan Nutz. As is usually the case, they have taken punts on some less known players such as Christian Gebauer and Adrian Grbic, who sign from Wattens and FAC, respectively. In terms of playing quality, Altach do not seem to be weaker than they were last season but they are well devoid of momentum following the second half of the previous campaign and, of course, there is a big question mark hanging over the credentials of their current boss.