Home
What potential for change does the violet A-team have looking towards the new season?
CEO Markus Kraetschmer: Every crisis is always an opportunity. During the summer we have the opportunity to make a lot of changes in the squad, because some contracts expire, some other players were only borrowed. What I will pay attention to in my role as CEO is that we get the right mentality in the squad, to ensure that we will see a different and successful Austria Wien in the coming season.
What is the status quo of squad planning for the upcoming season?
Kraetschmer: We are very busy scouting. We have a network of people in various player markets we are in constant contact with. Secondly, Sports Director Franz Wohlfahrt and chief scout Gerhard Hitzel are on the road a lot to watch players themselves. We have also invested a lot in the areas of analysis software and internal video analysis, in recent years. Here it is always critical to analyze whether we use these funds efficiently enough and which areas we can optimize if necessary. These measures must happen very purposefully. Of course, the decisions for the squad have been made to the best of our knowledge and belief, but we must admit that some decisions did not lead to the desired results. Therefore, we have to question whether we can change and optimize these processes. It is important to me that we are always open-minded, that we want to develop further and implement the most sustainable measures possible.
How far have the considerations for the new coach gone?
Kraetschmer: That's a very important decision for the club. We have started a very clear process - we are having many discussions with candidates, which we will conclude by the end of April, to prepare the decision for the Supervisory Board during the first half of May. On one hand, we are currently having very interesting talks with candidates from Austria and abroad. On the other hand, I would also like to emphasize that the work of Thomas Letsch has been positive overall so far, despite the last two defeats. We analyze and talk a lot with each other. Thomas Letsch is also heavily involved in the plans for the future. His opinion is very important to me, because he works with the team and the coaching team every day. He is a very important reference person for us.
A positive aspect of the last two months is that a large number of players from the violet junior teams were able to play with the A-team - most recently against LASK as well as in the 2-0 victory against Sturm Graz six to seven rookie players were in the starting line-up.
Kraetschmer: It is important to give our young players a credible chance. We recently saw how much potential there is with our three 18-year-olds: Borkovic, Demaku and Fitz. Vesel Demaku came to us a year ago as a 17-year-old, unfortunately injured himself, now he already played for the A-team and is fighting for his place. Dominik Fitz recently renewed his contract with us - and Alexandar Borkovic has already been in the A-team for some time.
The fact that we are very much focused on our own rookie players has also been shown with recent long-term contract extensions of some very good players from our academy - such as the junior team players Niels Hahn and Pascal Macher. It is clear that we have to try to get a substantial part of the squad from our own academy. This will leave us with more resources to bring individual external players of the appropriate quality to us. That's the challenge.
How important will the use of violet rookie players be in the future of the club?
Kraetschmer: Traditionally, the young talents have always been a very important part of Austria Wien during the past few decades, which is why we are investing a lot of money in this area. Of course, we always try to evolve here as well, we want to become even better and more efficient. We will therefore make some changes in the structure of the junior and training department, which we will present before the start of the new season. With our academy leader Ralf Muhr, who has been doing excellent work here for many years, we always try to develop further.
What role does the second team play in this context?
Kraetschmer: In my opinion, it would be extremely important to move up to the second Bundesliga with the second team, then we would have an even better training platform to introduce our players from the academy to the professional field with the second team. That's what history has shown with players like Lindner, Dragovic, Suttner or Alaba.
|
Sonderausgabe - Powered by ADMIRAL |
Erstellt am 18.05.2018 |
aufgrund der mit 1. Mai 2018 in Kraft getretenen, neuen EU-Datenschutz-Grundverordnung (DSGVO) wollen wir sichergehen, dass du auch zukünftig mit unserem Austria-Newsletter topinformiert über deinen Klub sein willst. Damit erhältst du exklusive News rund um Ticket-Infos, Fanshop-Angebote, Spielfixierungen und Gewinnspiele sowie alle wichtigen, aktuellen Informationen rund um Austria Wien.
Wenn du den offiziellen Newsletter deiner Austria ab sofort nicht mehr erhalten willst, klicke auf diesen Button. In diesem Fall müssen wir dich leider von unserer Verteilerliste streichen und du bekommst unseren Klub-Newsletter nicht mehr zugeschickt.
Gleichzeitig weisen wir darauf hin, dass unabhängig davon die Zustimmung zum Erhalt jederzeit kostenfrei widerrufen und der Newsletter abbestellt werden kann!
Auf diesem Weg senden wir dir gleich den Link zu unserer Datenschutzerklärung zu.