Salzburg in crisis

Struber’s end at the champions is sealed

Departure after 35 games: Gerhard Struber.(Bild: ANDREAS TROESTER)

The 3:1 defeat at LASK was the straw that broke the camel's back: Austria's soccer subscription champion FC Red Bull Salzburg parted ways with head coach Gerhard Struber because the club bosses no longer believed that the 47-year-old could bring about a sporting turnaround.

Out! Over! Gone! The era of Gerhard Struber as head coach of FC Red Bull Salzburg is coming to an early end after 258 days!

As the "Krone" has learned, the Austrian serial champions are parting ways with the coach with immediate effect. The news will become official today at a press conference to be held at short notice. Managing director Stephan Reiter and sporting director Bernhard Seonbuchner are thus drawing the consequences of the sporting crisis, which began with the Cup semi-final defeat to Sturm Graz (3:4), continued with the 1:1 draw against Rapid in the league and reached its lowest point for the time being with the 1:3 defeat at LASK.

Managing director Stephan Reiter (left) and Bernhard Seonbuchner (right) pull the ripcord.(Bild: FC Red Bull Salzburg)

First "Stierwoscha" in the head coach position
"I think it's about recognizing the seriousness of the situation," Seonbuchner told Sky after the game in Linz, without getting involved in a coaching debate. "I wouldn't talk about one coach alone, but about a whole group that was far from its maximum performance. (...) The coach is razor-sharp. Accordingly, the next step is to analyze why it happened." The analysis followed at the weekend with the result that Struber had to go.

The first "Stierwoscha" on the bench of the red-white-red subscription champions was responsible for 35 games as head coach of the Mozartstädter and recorded an average of 1.91 points per game.

As the club bosses had serious doubts that Struber would be able to turn things around and the championship title was in jeopardy, they were forced to take action.