Two days after the bitter defeat in Cardiff, the team players had a training-free Saturday. They were given the day to clear their heads. For dinner we met again at the hotel on the Ringstrasse. Marko Arnautovic got oppressive news from Italy: Cancer came back to Bologna coach Sinisa Mihajlovic. He had to go back into inpatient therapy for leukemia.
When it comes to the team boss question, the guesswork continues as to who sports director Peter Schöttel will be having exploratory talks with in the next few weeks. Certainly with Peter Stöger or Andreas Herzog. Markus Schopp was a new topic of conversation. Although he could only be available if his contract with Barnsley is already terminated after the separation in October. Schöttel’s predecessor as head of sport has not yet been named. But one could certainly think about the 59-year-old Willi Ruttensteiner. A comeback at ÖFB after five years in a different role?
At that time, ex-ÖFB President Leo Windtner dropped Ruttensteiner like a hot potato under pressure from state association presidents. Many claim to get themselves out of the line of fire. The criticism of Ruttensteiner arose not so much from technical reasons, but more because of his behavior towards the “princes of the land” who he made feel that he did not think much of them, to put it politely. They still belong to the ÖFB presidium, which will deal with Schöttels’ proposals on the team boss question on April 29th.
If you disregard that, you have to say that Ruttensteiner did a good job as Israel’s team boss after Andreas Herzog left. Eight wins, four draws and seven defeats in 19 games, the last of which probably annoyed him the most, a 4-2 loss to Austria in Klagenfurt in November after a 2-1 lead. He missed the ticket for the EM 2021 against Scotland in Hampden Park because scorer Eran Zahavi missed the first penalty on penalties. There were victories against Austria (5:2) and Scotland (1:0), and Israel also won in Slovakia under Ruttensteiner, took third place in the World Cup qualifier ahead of Austria, and improved from 90th place in the world rankings to 77. These are facts that speak for talks between Schöttel and Ruttensteiner, who could not agree on a contract extension with Israel’s association. Even if you could definitely call them delicate.
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