Marked for Tim Drexler
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match28 Aug 2027
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Match28 Aug 2027
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Red Bull Salzburg have 7 straight wins of it.
Market30 Aug 2027
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Tim Trummer had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Transfer targets30 Aug 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.
Market30 Aug 2027
Zaydou Youssouf wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Red Bull Salzburg hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Market30 Aug 2027
The bid was some way short and Red Bull Salzburg did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad30 Aug 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 Red Bull Salzburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces30 Aug 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Sota Kitano has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match28 Aug 2027
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
In brief
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Player ratings
Toral Bayramov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
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Player ratings
Ninety minutes of Sota Kitano at his very best
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Squad
Tim Drexler reaches 100 appearances
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market19 Jul 2027
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Hendry Blank had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market19 Jul 2027
The offer from Oțelul Galați for Phillip Verhounig 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.
Market19 Jul 2027
Hartberg paid $350.0K and Red Bull Salzburg took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Dominik Schmid 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Sota Kitano 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.
Loan watch19 Jul 2027
“I watch every Red Bull Salzburg game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hertha Wels runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
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.
Market19 Jul 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mateusz Kochalski signs something — a contract at Red Bull Salzburg or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Tim Drexler 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Toral Bayramov: 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.” Red Bull Salzburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Loan watch26 Apr 2027
25 appearances at Hertha Wels and the goals keep coming. Red Bull Salzburg are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Damir Redžić 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Salko Hamzić 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 Apr 2027
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.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Sampson Dweh 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marcel Moswitzer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market26 Apr 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mateusz Kochalski signs something — a contract at Red Bull Salzburg or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Tim Drexler wants to know why he earns less
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Red Bull Salzburg have no good answer.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Sep 2026
Frans Krätzig damages knee ligaments — 51 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 51 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Red Bull Salzburg can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Red Bull Salzburg close the window on a squad of their own making
14 in and 8 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Market7 Sep 2026
The offer from GKS Tychy for John Mellberg 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Red Bull Salzburg hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Market7 Sep 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Red Bull Salzburg will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Red Bull Salzburg asked and Blau-Weiß Linz said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Edmund Baidoo is the division's best young player this month
At 20 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Red Bull Salzburg will try very hard not to make too much of it.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Damir Redžić
“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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market17 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Hertha Wels waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Red Bull Salzburg is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The offer went to Al-Fateh this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Edmund Baidoo, 20, steals the show — 8.06
Marked 8.06 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Market17 Aug 2026
Business is business: Karim Konaté goes
Blau-Weiß Linz paid $6.3M and Red Bull Salzburg took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Market17 Aug 2026
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $2.8M has been paid because Mateusz Kochalski is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Frans Krätzig pops up at the right end — 7.98
7.98, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Match15 Aug 2026
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Red Bull Salzburg asked and WSG Tirol said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market3 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Red Bull Salzburg did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Sota Kitano, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.76
A mark of 7.76 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Red Bull Salzburg have gone to Qarabag with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Market3 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Red Bull Salzburg have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Haris Tabaković and Red Bull Salzburg agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Haris Tabaković and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.