WAC changes coaches

Atalan fired! This is likely his successor

As always: When nothing works anymore, the coach goes! Farewell, Ismail.(Bild: Florian Pessentheiner)

After the eighth loss in the eighth away game and nine consecutive competitive matches without a win, the hapless WAC coach Ismail Atalan could no longer be kept on. An experienced man is now on the horizon...

It has been clear in Wolfsberg since at least Saturday’s 1-3 loss to WSG Tirol: Things cannot go on like this. The fourth-place Bundesliga team and last season’s cup winner is now the only remaining rival of bottom-of-the-table Blau-Weiß Linz in the relegation battle—with seven rounds to go, the “Wolves” are just four points ahead of the Upper Austrians.

And right where he bid farewell to the Bundesliga on May 18 after eleven (!) years with WSG Tirol with a 1-3 loss to WAC—right there in the Lavanttal Arena—Tyrolean Thomas Silberberger (52) will make his top-flight comeback on Saturday against Ried, according to “Krone” reports.

Confirmation still pending
Official confirmation that “Silbi”—two weeks after parting ways with Admira—will become the fourth WAC coach this season is now just a formality.

A picture from days gone by—and now likely to be relevant again soon: Silberberger & WAC’s veteran assistant coach Jochum.(Bild: Florian Pessentheiner)

Major crisis...
It was obvious that the utterly hapless Ismail Atalan, blessed with very little first-division experience, would simply be impossible to keep on after the 1-3 loss to WSG Tirol. As intense and sincere as the German-Kurdish coach’s efforts may have been, and as much as he always exuded immense self-confidence and tried to rally the team behind a “cuddly approach”—for months on end, he never even came close to getting a handle on the Wolves’ biggest crisis in 14 years of Bundesliga play. The disastrous numbers prove it:

• In 12 league games under Atalan, WAC posted a disastrous points average of 0.5, picking up a mere six out of a possible 36 points. Only under interim coach Bobby Grubor in 2013 was it worse (two points in seven games, an average of 0.28);

• Eight away losses in eight away games set a new, sad club record! And this after having gone unbeaten in ten away games across two seasons!

• Since November 2 (0-0 at home against WSG Tirol), the Wolves have failed to keep a clean sheet in 13 (!) consecutive matches and have long been the only (!) Bundesliga team without a win in 2026.

Atalan is right to point out that Nwaiwu, who was sold in the winter, is sorely missed in every aspect of the game—but even with that exceptional talent, the team didn’t exactly set the world on fire in the fall finish...

Scheiblehner’s Rejection
And now Silberberger. Down-to-earth, open, someone who, as a longtime Bundesliga player, speaks the players’ language—and addresses issues with crystal clarity. President Dietmar Riegler (who had already been turned down by former Grasshoppers coach Gerald Scheiblehner in the days prior) is likely bringing in a man who fits the WAC...