Marked for Paul Piffer
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Jun 2029
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Kapfenberg waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market25 Jun 2029
“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.
Market25 Jun 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad25 Jun 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Eldin Džogović 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.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
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.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
A loan move for Florian Flick is in the works
Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz have made the call to Sturm Graz. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Market25 Jun 2029
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz has been clear about where Alexander Turkin stands, which is more than many ever get.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Apr 2029
Richard Strebinger 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.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Words at Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Art Smakaj 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.
Loan watch30 Apr 2029
“I did not go to Kapfenberg to sit and watch. I want to come back to Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz and fight for my place.” 11 appearances in 45 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Jan 2029
The knee: Art Smakaj out for 20 days
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom22 Jan 2029
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz is running low.
The terraces22 Jan 2029
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Market22 Jan 2029
“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.
Market22 Jan 2029
The offer from Vihren for Paul Piffer 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.
Transfer targets22 Jan 2029
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz have done the hard part with Red Bull Salzburg, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Market22 Jan 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Richard Strebinger and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match20 Jan 2029
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Jul 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz can pretend not to have heard.
Market24 Jul 2028
The offer from Stripfing for Vincent Gembalies 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.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Richard Strebinger 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.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Words at Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sota Kitano 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.
Market24 Jul 2028
The name of Vincent Zeidler has come up in conversations Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Loan watch24 Jul 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout24 Jul 2028
The manager makes an example of Paul Piffer
“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 dugout24 Jul 2028
Dragan Marčeta knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dragan Marčeta trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Paul Piffer: “I am not a substitute”
“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 Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Jun 2028
“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 Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad26 Jun 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz asked and First Vienna said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sebastian Feyrer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
Albert Vallci 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 Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
The manager makes an example of Paul Piffer
“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.
Market26 Jun 2028
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Paul Piffer: “I am not a substitute”
“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 Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Squad26 Jun 2028
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 Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout1 May 2028
“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.
Market1 May 2028
“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.
Squad1 May 2028
Steven van der Sloot 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.
Squad1 May 2028
Dejan Radonjić 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 dugout1 May 2028
Something was said to Jan Repas and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout1 May 2028
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Steven van der Sloot is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
The dugout1 May 2028
The manager makes an example of Paul Piffer
“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.
Squad1 May 2028
Jan Repas remains an outsider
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 Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Market1 May 2028
3 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz money.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market14 Feb 2028
Joel Jorquera hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Both of them Jan Repas's — 8.28
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.28, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Boardroom14 Feb 2028
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match12 Feb 2028
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz have 4 straight wins of it.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
“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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Richard Strebinger 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.
Market14 Feb 2028
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Felix Gschossmann is a Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Boardroom14 Feb 2028
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 Jan 2028
“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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
A move Vinko Šapina would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Vinko Šapina is living that version at Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz, and it tends to show in the first month.
Match15 Jan 2028
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz are no longer polite ones.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Richard Strebinger 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dejan Radonjić 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.
Transfer targets17 Jan 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sion have kept their man, and Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad17 Jan 2028
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Match15 Jan 2028
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Boardroom17 Jan 2028
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz now.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Sep 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 82 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.
Match11 Sep 2027
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz are no longer polite ones.
Match11 Sep 2027
8 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz can tell you which week it ends in.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Dejan Radonjić 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Paul Piffer gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Paul Piffer has just signed for Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz, and for once the answer mattered.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
“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.
Match11 Sep 2027
Young Violets left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad13 Sep 2027
66 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.