Marked for Branco Ripoll
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Nov 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Patrick Drewes
91 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hertha Wels lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad15 Nov 2032
Charles Pickel 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 Nov 2032
A move Matěj Fejfar 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. Matěj Fejfar is living that version at Hertha Wels, and it tends to show in the first month.
Boardroom15 Nov 2032
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Squad15 Nov 2032
Godwill Kukonki 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 Nov 2032
The manager makes an example of Charlie Stewart
“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.
Market15 Nov 2032
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market15 Nov 2032
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Maximilian Lienhart has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Hertha Wels.
Looking ahead15 Nov 2032
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against SV Ried in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Oct 2032
Patrick Drewes damages knee ligaments — 126 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 126 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.
Squad11 Oct 2032
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Hertha Wels can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad11 Oct 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hertha Wels this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom11 Oct 2032
207% of the income goes out in wages at Hertha Wels
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The dugout11 Oct 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Patrick Drewes, and the manager let it.
Squad11 Oct 2032
Miguel Atienza 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.
Market11 Oct 2032
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Hertha Wels, another week without a signature from Patrick Drewes.
The dugout11 Oct 2032
Vasilije Grbović 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.
Market11 Oct 2032
Devid Bouah runs his contract down
1 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Hertha Wels money.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Sep 2032
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market27 Sep 2032
“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.
Market27 Sep 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Hertha Wels is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom27 Sep 2032
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Petar Andrić has agreed terms with LASK for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad27 Sep 2032
Ross Sykes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces27 Sep 2032
At 23 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.
Player ratings27 Sep 2032
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.34, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings27 Sep 2032
Devid Bouah was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.02. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Match25 Sep 2032
Late, late show earns Hertha Wels a point
Minute 92, against Rapid Wien II, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom6 Sep 2032
Hertha Wels close the window on a squad of their own making
26 in and 29 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.
Squad6 Sep 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hertha Wels this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Sep 2032
Daan Huisman arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Daan Huisman has, at Hertha Wels, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Boardroom6 Sep 2032
The owner puts $1.8M into Hertha Wels
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Boardroom6 Sep 2032
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Market6 Sep 2032
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad6 Sep 2032
Yassin Oukili 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.
Squad6 Sep 2032
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Jannes Van Hecke has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Market6 Sep 2032
Still no signature from Devid Bouah
1 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Hertha Wels could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match28 Aug 2032
A 1‑0 win over Kapfenberg, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Market30 Aug 2032
“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.
Match28 Aug 2032
Nobody wants to play Hertha Wels right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad30 Aug 2032
Charles Pickel and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Aug 2032
Words at Hertha Wels training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Devid Bouah 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.
Squad30 Aug 2032
The medical room confirms 16 days on the sidelines for Philipp Schlager, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Player ratings30 Aug 2032
Marked 7.84. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2032
Rapid Wien have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2032
A loan enquiry to Austria Wien: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Jun 2031
Enea Mihaj and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Jun 2031
Petar Andrić 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 targets30 Jun 2031
Hertha Wels asked and Sturm Graz said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout30 Jun 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lukas Arnautovic, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets30 Jun 2031
Sturm Graz have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets30 Jun 2031
A loan move for Peter Kiedl is in the works
Hertha Wels have made the call to Rapid Wien. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad30 Jun 2031
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Hertha Wels will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Market30 Jun 2031
Still no signature from Enea Mihaj
4 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Hertha Wels could get for him.
The dugout30 Jun 2031
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 Warren Mountsangui is on it.