The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at WSG Tirol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Gugganig 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.
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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Tobias Anselm has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at WSG Tirol, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Words at WSG Tirol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Gugganig 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at WSG Tirol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at WSG Tirol, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Vesel Demaku has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
The mood at WSG Tirol has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Position 10 and 19 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Gugganig was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at WSG Tirol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at WSG Tirol, another week without a signature from Benjamin Markuš.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Valentino Müller signs something — a contract at WSG Tirol or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at WSG Tirol, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Individual work, away from the group, aimed at one specific thing the coaches think is holding him back. It rarely makes the news and it is how most improvement actually happens.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason WSG Tirol will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at WSG Tirol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Gugganig 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Dominik Wimmer has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason WSG Tirol will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
David Jaunegg 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.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. David Gugganig is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. WSG Tirol will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at WSG Tirol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Gugganig 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Johannes Naschberger trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Thomas Sabitzer signs something — a contract at WSG Tirol or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Mainz 05 is saying, and nobody at WSG Tirol is enjoying the guessing.
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.
David Jaunegg 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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at WSG Tirol that is a harder question to answer.
“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 WSG Tirol will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at WSG Tirol 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Gugganig was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Vesel Demaku 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at WSG Tirol, another week without a signature from Bernhard Unger.
WSG Tirol have made the call to Mainz 05. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
WSG Tirol have made the call to Hajduk Split. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
WSG Tirol arrived with $1.1M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Bernhard Unger has gone, the accounts have $1.1M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
5 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.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Up for the corner, and Niklas Alozie delivers — 7.12
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Niklas Alozie scored, was marked 7.12, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Everything was agreed with LASK and then the doctor spoke. First Vienna have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
The deal with ETO Győr is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Adam Stejskal was one of the reasons people came, and $2.5M does not replace that by itself.
The chase for Bernhard Unger ended with $1.1M changing hands and First Vienna out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at River Plate is saying, and nobody at WSG Tirol is enjoying the guessing.
David Gugganig and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at WSG Tirol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benjamin Markuš 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.
WSG Tirol asked and Independiente said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 First Vienna, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.90 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The offer from Wolfsberger AC for Bernhard Unger was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
4 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Simon Pirkl 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.
Austria Lustenau pay $61.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
First Vienna asked and Boca Juniors said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lovre Rogić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
“I watch every First Vienna game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at WSG Tirol runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” First Vienna have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at First Vienna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lovre Rogić 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.
Benjamin Rosenberger 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Louis Birkhahn and First Vienna agree another 4 years.
“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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Austria Salzburg? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
In brief
The dugoutDavid Ungar has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Bernhard Unger
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Bernhard Unger: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.49 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Successful dribbles: 24. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Benjamin Rosenberger and First Vienna agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at First Vienna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.22 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
In brief
Player ratingsThe kick that got away from Louis Birkhahn
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.01 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Successful dribbles: 24. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lovre Rogić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bernhard Luxbacher 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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Michael Baumgartner kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
13 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Lovre Rogić 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at First Vienna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. First Vienna told Oliver Wähling something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Young Violets in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Haris Zahirović is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at First Vienna. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Marco Gantschnig 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Lovre Rogić 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 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
7 new faces, and First Vienna are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at First Vienna has been clear about where Bernhard Unger stands, which is more than many ever get.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 89th, and Hertha Wels spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luca Edelhofer provided it, and the 8.69 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.64 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
Supporters turn on the $260.0K sale of Markus Rusek
He is going to Amstetten, the club has $260.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
“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 First Vienna, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: River Plate keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Simon Pirkl is living that version at First Vienna, and it tends to show in the first month.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is saying, and nobody at First Vienna is enjoying the guessing.
Marco Gantschnig 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Lovre Rogić 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.