"I always evaluate the club holistically. The flagship is naturally the senior team, everything else is subordinate to it. The most important thing for us now is to get everything on track. The situation simply made it necessary."
Experience and stability in the academy teams ultimately made Takacs the only option as Uhlig's replacement. "For us, it was not an option in this situation to make someone from the academy the Young Violets coach. The teams are doing well, and therefore it was not an option to change anything there."
Permanent Solution or Winter Deadline?
Indeed, Takacs is already well acquainted with the role of academy director and "firefighter." Between November 2021 and summer 2022, he filled this role with OÖ Juniors in the 2. Liga before being hired in Wien-Favoriten.
Is it conceivable that he will again serve in a dual role for eight months – or even longer? "Even if I really enjoy the coaching job again in the coming weeks: as academy director, I am actually in a management role. There will definitely be other solutions beyond winter. But as long as Max Uhlig is acting as interim coach for the first team, we will treat the Young Violets position the same way."
Coach Development as a Credo
The fact that the interim solution would become a permanent one would contradict the ingrained philosophy anyway. "The club and I always have plans for how we want to develop players, but also coaches. Something similar happened with Max, who learned his foundation here and developed further. We have similarly exciting coaches in the academy sector. I prefer to step back there."
Nevertheless, until the winter break, it will be Takacs who — parallel to his job as academy director — trains the surprisingly strong Violets. How does one maintain that balance?
Takacs refers to the collective: "Of course, a coaching job adds a very labor-intensive task. We have a really good coaching team. Thomas Salamon has stayed, Philipp Stein has a lot of experience in analysis. Daniel Gangl, as a sports scientist, also gained a lot of experience with the senior team. We are confident that we will do a good job."
