Welcome back again to Vienna where, having successfully nudged First Vienna to top flight survival last term, Frank Athlete is now looking to solidify their place in the division and start building a foundation for future success. This season he’ll look to avoid another relegation scrap and try to get more points on the board early on. Let’s see how it went…
Season Summary
Season: 2025/26
Division: Austrian Bundesliga
Expectations: Attempt to avoid relegation
Squad Changes
Transfers in: Mattia Novella (WBR), Gubbio (€0); Teun Wilke Braams (ST), SPAL (€0); Jannis Heuer (DC), VfL Osnabruck (€0); Lohann Doucet (DMC), Unattached (€0)
Youth promotions: None
Added to loan list: Antonio Paric (AMC); Tobias Quiroga (AMC)
Transfers out: Sebastien Da Silva (ST), JA Drancy (€0)
Preseason
Our narrow survival last season sees us pitched as heavy favourites to face the drop again this year and so Frank is looking to inject some quality into the side having stayed up largely thanks to the same team that won promotion from the second division. Sebastien Da Silva’s high wages and poor performances meant he was moved on and replaced by Wilke Braams, a quality Pressing Forward with some impressive stats to his name from the previous season. Novella comes in to strengthen our right wing back position and Jannis Heuer will play in the centre of our defence as a Libero. The final piece of the puzzle was an athletic midfielder to sit alongside Zuelli and help get us up the pitch. Lohann Doucet is an absolute steal, coming in on a free transfer.
League Performance
The team were keen to avoid a repeat of last season and so getting points on the board early on would be crucial to ensuring survival. A 94th minute penalty in our opening game was slotted home by Zaza to bag us full points against Lustenau and this was followed by a bore draw against Klagenfurt in the next fixture to take our tally to 4 points, almost half of what we’d managed across the whole of last season!
Defeats to Sturm Graz and Rapid Vienna were interspersed with two more wins against Altach and Hartberg so that come the end of August we were comfortably in mid-table with 10 points from our opening six games. Frank and his men maintained this form through to December with as many wins coming as we got defeats, and an impressive 2-2 draw in the home tie against Rapid.
As we entered the winter break, there was absolutely no doubt that we had improved dramatically and that our new recruits were playing a significant role in our ascension up the table. In one transfer window we had managed to transform the side from relegation strugglers to an established mid table side and while anything could still go wrong when the league resumed in February, there was every reason for Frank to feel optimistic.
Our central defence were lacking in depth and quality with both Bartley and Kreuzhuber starting to show their age. Frank brought in Madi Monamay on loan from Bayer Leverkusen and had intended that this would be the only bit of business done. Unfortunately, a bid came in from Kisvarda for goalkeeper Tobias Schutzenhauer and with the fee at €525K and the club really struggling financially, it became essential that the bid be accepted.
With only two days remaining until the Transfer Window slammed shut, the recruitment team scrambled to find a replacement but struggled to find a long term solution. Filip Ulrich was the short-term answer, signing on loan from Sparta Prague until the end of the season. He was no match for Schutzenhauer but was still an upgrade on the backup option.
The season resumed at the start of February but a combination of a new goal keeper still bedding in, and some tough opponents in quick succession, meant that our good form was left firmly in 2025. A win and a draw from five games was only enough to see us finish in 8th place, very comfortable in the end and only four points shy of reaching the Championship Group for the final stage of the season.
As it was, we qualified for the Relegation Group instead, but with ourselves and Ried finishing 11 and 12 points respectively above 9th placed Altach, we had a distinct advantage as we headed into the final stage of the season.
A defeat at home to Hartberg in the first game meant we got off to the wrong start, but back to back wins against Klagenfurt and then Ried saw us recover somewhat and return to 8th place. Unfortunately consecutive defeats in our next two games ensured we were in for a topsy-turvy ride, but what happened next was a real surprise and quite incredible considering where we were at the start of the season.
Four straight wins saw us climb to seventh in the league, and in pole position to qualify for a European Place Playoff. A point was required in the final game against Lustenau who had themselves climbed from 12th up to 8th, and a point is what we got! The reward was another game against Lustenau, three days after the last one where victory would see First land a place in the Playoff Final against FK Austria Wien. Remarkably, this was achieved with a 2-0 away win, while the final would be played over two legs in a few days time.
We’d not managed a win against FK Austria Wien all season and so despite landing a spot in the final, we were already resigned to the fact that we’d likely be well beaten. With the pressure off, and the first leg at home we did however manage to press our advantage and secured a 2-0 win with Wilke Braams coming through in the 89th minute to grab the second goal. The second leg would be a testy affair, and FK certainly showed their superiority, taking the lead in the first half and creating more opportunities than we could muster for oursleves.
Somehow, despite being outclassed, we kept the score at 1-0 and so across the two legs we managed to win and qualify for the Europa Conference League! Our on-field success also saw Frank recognised for his leadership as he bagged the Manager of the Year Award as well.
Cup Performance
Another poor showing in the ÖFB Cup saw us exit in the Second Round for the third year in a row, this time at the hands of LASK. I really hope that at some point we can string a decent cup run together but this year it wasn’t to be.
Conclusion
Yet another incredible end to a season, this time with the team qualifying for Europe! We’ve gone from relegation strugglers to European qualifiers in one year which is genuinely amazing. Looking ahead, next season will be hard to build on this campaign’s successes, and budgets are likely to be tight again as we try to steady the ship at the moment. The club are really struggling financially right now and so hopefully the prospect of extra income from European games will help us build a solid foundation for future growth.
Competition Overview
Austrian Bundesliga
Expectation: 12th
Actual: 8th & UECL qualification
Summary: A mid-table finish and qualification for Europe are both amazing achievements considering we only just survived in the division last season.
Best moment: Securing our safety with games to spare was the real success story this year, UECL qualification is a bonus.
Low moment: The premature departure of our goalkeeper, Schutzenhauer, was a bitter blow in January, but all worked out well in the end.
ÖFB Cup
Expectation: Second Round
Actual: Second Round
Summary: Another disappointing campaign, with a third consecutive Second Round exit. Very annoying not to be able to get a good cup run together.
Best moment: As the Second Round draw was made and LASK were announced as our opponents, it felt like this might be our year to progress.
Low moment: Our First Round performance was quite poor, and it took a 90th minute penalty to secure the win for us.
Finances
We ended last season with an overall balance of -€2.1M and as you’ll see from this graph, we’re now in credit with €2.2M which is quite a jump considering where the club are at the moment.
A Board takeover has helped inject some funds into the club, and our continued progress in the top division has definitely helped with sponsorship and other income streams.
As I mentioned above, we will look to get ourselves as many wins in the UECL as we can to help bring in some extra cash, although it has become clear in post-season that our qualification will include some playoff matches before we reach the competition-proper. Hopefully we have enough about us to continue this trajectory we’re on at the moment.
One major thing that the cash injection has helped with is our ability to renew player contracts earlier in the season. This means they’ll maintain their value rather than running their contracts down, and so we can potetnitally make some money from sales as well.
End Credits
Thanks for reading this update, I really hope you enjoyed it. You’ll find more updates from me, as well as blogs from some other fantastic writers at CoffeehouseFM so make sure you check them out. Feel free to leave a comment below, or you can message me @fm_athlete if you feel like getting in touch. Special thanks to FM Rensie for the use of his Rensie skin, and to FM Stag for his essential guide to statistics in FM23.
Thanks for coming. I've been FM Athlete. You've been ‘tearing off the wrapping paper’. See you next time.