Football Season Guide

Mattersburg have all the momentum going into the new season given that they beat the drop with three games to spare last time around despite finishing the first half of the season at the bottom of the table. The board's decision to replace Ivica Vastic with Gerald Baumgartner has definitely been vindicated as the former Austria Vienna manager has transformed his side's fortunes, turning Mattersburg into a formidable side, especially at home, thus allowing them to easily secure their safety. Unfortunately for the Burgerlanders, their amazing spring season form has attracted interest for some of their best players from other Bundesliga clubs. Patrick Farkas and Thorsten Rocher have therefore left whilst David Atanga is also no longer being at the club having gone back to his parent club, Salzburg, following the end of his loan. The other players to leave such as Alex Ibser, Sven Sprangler and Vitalijs Maksimenko were not really in Baumgratner's plans in the spring season and the club's decision to part ways with them is unsurprising. The list of arrivals contains three well-known Bundesliga names in Florian Hart, Andreas Gruber and Smail Prevljak, while the other three players to arrive are pretty much stabs in the dark. Given that they have lost three regular starters, there is a huge question mark over whether Mattersburg have the same kind of quality in their squad as they had last season, but they will nonetheless enter the new campaign with optimism, as they have momentum going their way and have worked hard to replace those that have departed. Of course, it will be very interesting to see now, with Baumgartner set for his first full season in charge, whether Mattersburg's spring season form was heavily fueled by the relegation threat or it was indeed an indicator of their true ability.