Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Konstantin Schopp 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.
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.
“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 Hartberg will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Hartberg. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
The dugoutHarald Postl knocks on the manager's door
Marco Schabauer 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.
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.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Hartberg would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Hartberg had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Viktoria Plzen, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The deal that would have taken Harald Postl to First Vienna has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Hartberg with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Independiente have kept their man, and Hartberg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hartberg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Hartberg will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
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 Hartberg would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Hartberg close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 4 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at River Plate is saying, and nobody at Hartberg is enjoying the guessing.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Jeremy Flor is living that version at Hartberg, and it tends to show in the first month.
Konstantin Schopp 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.
Independiente 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: First Vienna will make the call about Harald Postl this week. Hartberg have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Hartberg have done the hard part with Amstetten, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Hartberg asked and Red Bull Salzburg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Rapid Wien will make the call about Youba Diarra this week. Hartberg have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Nobody at Hartberg will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Maximilian Hennig 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Hartberg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Konstantin Schopp 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.
Tobias Kainz 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 afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Jed Drew reports back to Hartberg with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hartberg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Harald Postl has his answer from Hartberg; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Hartberg people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 Hartberg, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 17 signed and 10 gone
That is the business done at Hartberg 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.
Hartberg asked and LASK said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Hartberg will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Lukas Spendlhofer is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Ármin Pécsi
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Ármin Pécsi has come out of that comparison in the side, and Hartberg have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.