After a Poor Start to the Season
A bombshell! Austria parts ways with coach Helm
A bombshell at Wiener Austria! After four league games without a win and their seventh loss of the season, the Violets have pulled the plug and parted ways with coach Stephan Helm. This marks the end of the 43-year-old’s tenure as head coach after 845 days.
Kronen Zeitung als bevorzugte Google-Quelle hinzufügen Remarkably, this is the ninth-longest tenure in the club’s history. In 94 competitive matches, Helm averaged 1.63 points per game. Friday’s 1-2 loss at Altach was his final match; after this latest setback, a change on the coaching bench was inevitable.
With a meager seven points, Austria sits in second-to-last place after ten games. Following the setback in Vorarlberg, even sporting director Tomas Zorn—who had long stood by Helm—was forced to take action. Never before had Austria suffered seven losses in the first ten league rounds. Late Saturday evening, the decision was finally made to relieve Helm and his assistant coach, Christian Wegleitner, of their duties effective immediately. The phones in Austria’s executive offices had been ringing off the hook all day.
Uhlig takes over on an interim basis
Yet Helm had led Austria to impressive third- and fourth-place finishes in his first two seasons. In his first season, his team even fought for the title right down to the last second. In European competition, however, the team was eliminated from the Conference League by Ilves Tampere in the second qualifying round, then by Banik Ostrava in the third qualifying round, and finally in the playoff against Portugal’s big-money squad from Braga.
Who will now take the helm at Austria? Maximilian Uhlig will take over on an interim basis until the end of the year. The 33-year-old knows the club inside and out, having previously worked with Austria’s youth teams and at the Veilchen Academy, and currently leads the Young Violets to a strong third-place finish in the 2nd League.
Uhlig will lead his first training session on Sunday and faces a monumental task right off the bat in his first coaching role in the Bundesliga.
But Uhlig doesn’t have much time to settle in. The Cup round of 16 against Hartberg awaits at the Generali Arena as early as Tuesday, and on November 1 (also at the Verteilerkreis), the derby is on the schedule—Uhlig will make his league debut against Rapid, of all teams. Not bad at all.
It remains to be seen whether the hoped-for turnaround will actually materialize under Uhlig. One thing is certain, though: Things at Austria will definitely not be boring.
This article has been automatically translated,
read the original article here.
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