Football Season Guide

Those who not followed the Bundesliga news over the course of the summer will be puzzled with Tirol still being in the top flight, having finished the previous season as bottom after losing a tight survival battle to Admira. What saved them from the drop was Mattersburg's bankruptcy, which resulted in the Burgerlanders being thrown out of the division. Thomas Silberberger remains in charge for what will be his side's second chance, but there have been huge changes to their playing squad, with as many as nine players leaving. In fairness, this was mostly a case of shedding dead wood, with the departure of Lukas Grgic, who joins LASK, being the sole genuine blow they suffered during the summer in terms of players departing. However, there is still the fact that their squad proved to simply not be at top flight level and they have done nothing over the summer that suggests that they could massively improve, with most of their signings being stabs in the dark. Tirol are simply a small club that did not even dream of top flight football until a few years ago and are simply not able of bringing in the type of players that they need to be certain of staying up. However, they finished bottom by the tightest of margins last time around and the wave of optimism that they will be riding after being granted a second chance might be enough to steer them towards safety this time around.