Winter refit for wounded Violets

FK Austria Wien are spending big at the January sales as they look to recover from a humiliating first half of the season.

Winter wounds
Rooted to the foot of the Austrian Bundesliga table at the winter break for the first time in their history, success in the traditional midwinter indoor football tournament in Vienna has done little to heal the wounds left by a disastrous autumn campaign in which they also bowed out of the UEFA Cup group stage with no points.

Stronach decision
Coach Georg Zellhofer, who replaced Frenkie Schinkels in late October, is now determined to make changes. "We don't belong here and we will do all we can to get back up the table," he told uefa.com, while newly-appointed sporting director Thomas Parits added: "We need to respond and get some new players." Supporters have felt that reinforcements were overdue ever since the club sold seven key players at the start of the season in response to the decision by their main sponsor - Austro-Canadian billionaire Frank Stronach - to end his financial involvement with the club from June 2007.

Funds found
Stronach pulled out after increased criticism from fans coincided with the rejection of his plans to build the club a new stadium in the south of Vienna. However, given the team's plight, Parits has persuaded Stronach to fund some transfers, with the first new recruits arriving in recent days. As the squad headed for their training camp in Turkey, the Austrian international Joachim Standfest and Under-21 hopeful Ronald Gercaliu - both defenders - signed from SV Salzburg and Grazer AK respectively.

Reinforcements
Parits was also involved in an ambitious move to bring Sanel Kuljic, the Swiss league's top scorer, to Vienna. "Sanel told me, he wanted to return to Austria, so I got in touch with FC Sion," said Parits. "However, the club were not willing to let him go." Instead Czech striker Václav Svěrkoš arrived from VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach - on loan until the summer with the option of another year - although Parits failed in his bid to add SCR Altach's Brazilian striker Leonardo to Austria's attacking options.

Zellhofer warning
Austria are eyeing two other Czech players, in defender Petr Johana and midfielder Lukáš Zelenka, both currently at Turkish side Vestel Manisaspor. However, even with reinforcements, Zellhofer is not expecting an easy spring. Austria won just four of 21 league games before Christmas and the coach said: "We will be playing 15 cup finals before the end of the season."