The GAK struggles with fate and bad luck after missing the title. Sports director Didi Elsneg spoke to the “Steirerkrone” about the bitter end of the season, the question of the coach, which players are leaving, who is staying and also about the “red jackets'” budget for the coming season.
At least another year in the second division – that’s the bitter truth for GAK since Sunday. To the great disappointment of everyone in the club. And there is a lot of work waiting for Didi Elsneg in the coming days and weeks. The head of sports spoke to the “Steirerkrone” about: the bitter end of the season: If you look at the whole day of the game, then it wasn’t supposed to be. We don’t get the penalty, hit aluminum twice and Linz wins 2-1 – thanks to a goal where the ball probably wasn’t behind the line. And shortly before, the storm hits the bar. Normally I’m not the type to say things like that, but we just didn’t have that little bit of luck. The coaching question: We’ll get together on Wednesday and work through the whole season. In the last few weeks we have deliberately put the focus on our games. But we had already come a long way in the talks beforehand – there are many indications that Gernot Messner will be extended. Expiring contracts: Captain Marco Perchtold is heading in the direction of another year as a manager. He’s also a hugely important player in the dressing room. The future of Lukas Gabbichler, Daniel Kalajdzic and Philipp Seidl is still open. However, Michael Huber and Elias Jandrisevits will leave the club. As is well known, playmaker Michi Liendl (seven goals, 18 assists) is retiring. Loan players: Bogdan Viunnyk is currently with the U21 team in Ukraine. But it is very unlikely that he will stay with the GAK. We would like to keep Lenn Jastremski. But he needs to make a fundamental decision as to whether he wants to continue on this path with us or not. In any case, it won’t be easy, but we are in talks with Bayern Munich. Also because of Liu Shaoziyang, who is still open. The budget: Of course, it will be a struggle to be able to keep the budget at a similar level as this year. We weren’t among the top 3 now. You also have to look at it differently – between the sports budget for the team and that for the entire environment in the club. The start of training: The exact date has not yet been set. But we certainly start in the week of June 19-23.
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