Football Season Guide

Admira Wacker have been punching above their weight over the last few campaigns and it seemed in the first half of the 2016/17 season that the Mödling outfit were running out of magic, as they struggled and looked set to spend the autumn battling against the drop. However, they went on to appoint Damir Buric during the winter break, with the Croatian manager going on to guide his side to an excellent spring and to also enjoy an impressive cup run. If only the points accumulated in the second half of the previous season counted, Admira would have finished 4th and this will obviously give them plenty of optimism going into the new campaign, with Buric set for his first full season in charge and looking to build on his spring heroics. On the other hand, Admira have never been a powerhouse financially which is pretty much obvious from their list of summer ins and outs as the only player that has been signed so far is Marcel Holzmann. He signs as a free agent following the expiry of his contract at St.Polten. Meanwhile, the list of the players that departed includes several useful squad members as well as Christoph Monschein, who had a breakout campaign last time around and finished the season as the third-best Bundesliga player in an official fan poll. Admira do not have a striker prolific enough to be able to consistently score up to 10 goals per season following Monschein's departure and a lot will be expected of Dzon Delarge, who signed for the club back in the winter but spent the second half of the previous season on loan with Turkish side Osmanlispor. He is now back with Admira and will be hoping to replace at least some of the goal output lost due to Monschein's departure. All things considered, it is more of the usual for Admira, who have definitely not improved on paper and will need to rely on organization and workrate rather than pure talent in the upcoming campaign.