Football Season Guide

St.Polten are set for the first-ever Bundesliga season of their 16-year history, but the wide Austrian football public is already well acquainted with them, due to their cup heroics from the recent years. Their most recent cup run saw them show that they are more than capable of cutting it against the top tier teams, but were unable to beat Admira in the semi-finals despite arguably having the better of things. They led the Erste Liga during the majority of the previous season and ultimately won it with a clear margin of eight points, so they will definitely fancy their chances of staying up, especially as not many second division champions have gone straight back down after winning promotion over the recent years. Their squad is desperately short of Bundesliga experience, with Florian Mader and summer signings Christopher Drazan and Thomas Vollnhofer being among the rare men proven at the highest Austrian level, but they have a rather experienced manager in Karl Daxbachler, who knows the top division inside out and will be expected to guide the newcomers to safety. They have kept the majority of their squad together, with their only summer departure that is likely to represent any sort of a blow being the departure of Cheikou Dieng, who has gone to Turkey. Of course, St.Polten are a big unknown going into the new campaign, due to the lack of Bundesliga experience both of them as a club and their players. However, what they have shown us in the cup and in the second tier over the last year or two suggests that they should have it in them to stay up.