Marked for Peter Haring
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Altach training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benedikt Zech is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Tempers go at Altach
Valentino Massimiani was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Altach told Connor Krempicki something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad15 Nov 2027
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Altach would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
Thomas Mayer knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Altach, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad15 Nov 2027
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Altach will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Altach. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market15 Nov 2027
Altach have made Peter Haring available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Mar 2027
43 days out for Jaime Simões after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Altach will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market15 Mar 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ousmane Diawara will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Altach the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Altach
Alexander Røssing-Lelesiit and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad15 Mar 2027
26 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Sebastian Bauer falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Feb 2027
Jaime Simões breaks a bone — 75 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 75 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market15 Feb 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Altach is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Rassa Rahmani: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Altach have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad15 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Altach this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Benedikt Zech falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad15 Feb 2027
56 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Filip Milojević
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Ousmane Diawara asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Feb 2027
89 days out for Jaime Simões after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Altach will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market1 Feb 2027
The bid was some way short and Altach did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market1 Feb 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Altach, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Altach until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is saying, and nobody at Altach is enjoying the guessing.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Vesel Demaku has agreed terms with Sturm Graz for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at Altach
Mike-Steven Bähre and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad1 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Altach
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yann Massombo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match5 Dec 2026
The wait goes on for Altach
16 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 97 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market7 Dec 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad7 Dec 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match5 Dec 2026
4 matches without a goal for Altach
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Altach training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benedikt Zech is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A muscle injury and 14 days out for Guido Wimmer
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Altach will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Defensive actions: 17. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Altach's wait for a win
14 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Altach has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Altach will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market23 Nov 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad23 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Altach this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Benedikt Zech falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Piet Scobel gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match21 Nov 2026
0‑1 to Austria Wien, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.