Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Austria Klagenfurt waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Austria Wien is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from SV Ried for Joshua Kitolano 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Austria Wien is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Austria Wien this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Cristo Lozada Echenique has just signed for Austria Wien, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tiago Poller was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Blau-Weiß Linz will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Marco Popescu has pre-agreed a move to Austria Wien, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
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 Simón Bodnar is on it.
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Austria Wien lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Austria Wien they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Simón Bodnar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Jun 2036
Tiago Poller 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 name of Alexander Murillo has come up in conversations Austria Wien were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
24 appearances and 12 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Lévy Néne 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.
Steven Gaote 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.
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 Nicolas Torres is on it.
The club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with SV Ried this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
42 points from position 6. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee SV Ried could ask drops and the wages Andy Lyons can ask rise.
74 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Austria Wien lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 3, 46 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Austria Wien they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Austria Wien know it.
Simón Bodnar 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.
Squad28 Apr 2036
Words at Austria Wien training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Cáceres 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 is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Agustín Arce wants continental football; whether Austria Wien can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Nobody at Austria Wien 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 easiest signature of my career.” Andrea Colpani and SV Ried agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad28 Apr 2036
David Ewemade 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.
Álvaro Ferrer 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at SV Ried, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Laurent Onana has written the date down.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SV Ried can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SV Ried this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at SV Ried has been clear about where Markus Arnautovic stands, which is more than many ever get.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Marc Weber trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The words a physio says slowly. 97 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Franko Kolić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Austria Wien the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Taylan Bulut 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.
Squad7 Apr 2036
Words at Austria Wien training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Cáceres 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.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
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 Simón Bodnar is on it.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Cody Hateboer has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Squad7 Apr 2036
Words at SV Ried training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Ewemade 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.
Raphael Trimmel 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.
“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.
Squad7 Apr 2036
A place in the month's best eleven for Steven Gaote
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Steven Gaote has come out of that comparison in the side, and SV Ried have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Emanuel Mađarić was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
104 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Austria Wien lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Austria Wien is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Austria Wien this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tiago Poller was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
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.
Steven Gaote and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Mar 2036
Words at SV Ried training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Ewemade 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.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
“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 SV Ried will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at SV Ried, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Position 6 on 42 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
David Ewemade 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.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout10 Mar 2036
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑4 Cody Hateboer left the room before anybody could ask which.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
Beaten 4 times, with 1 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Marc Weber trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
133 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Austria Wien lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Austria Wien is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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.
Simón Bodnar 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.
Squad3 Mar 2036
Words at Austria Wien training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tiago Poller 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.
12 goals in 23 games at SV Ried — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Austria Wien updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at SV Ried can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.11 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
Squad3 Mar 2036
David Ewemade 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SV Ried can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Ewemade was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings25 Feb 2036
Per van Loon was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.23. 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.
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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at SV Ried pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The words a physio says slowly. 149 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Austria Wien they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Taylan Bulut 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.
Squad18 Feb 2036
Tiago Poller 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.
“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 Austria Wien, and 0 appearances in 34 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Austria Wien 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.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.16 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
David Ewemade 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.
SV Ried asked and Austria Wien said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
8.01. 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.
86 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Austria Wien lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Austria Wien they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Austria Wien heard it as anything else.
Taylan Bulut 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tiago Poller was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Romeo Vučić has his answer from Austria Wien; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
10 goals in 20 games at SV Ried — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Austria Wien updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
In brief
The dugoutSimón Bodnar has become a man the manager trusts
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.03 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad11 Feb 2036
David Ewemade 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.
SV Ried asked and Rapid Wien said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Andy Lyons 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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and FAC Wien were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Marked 8.69 — 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at SV Ried can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Steven Gaote will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at SV Ried escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Player ratings4 Feb 2036
A brace, and Steven Gaote takes the afternoon — 8.51
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Steven Gaote provided it, and the 8.51 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Marked 7.16 on 21 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
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.
Boardroom4 Feb 2036
SV Ried close the window on a squad of their own making
6 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at SV Ried heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SV Ried this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at SV Ried training over how hard people work
The words a physio says slowly. 100 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Austria Wien have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Austria Wien is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Taylan Bulut and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Jan 2036
Tiago Poller 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Austria Wien has been clear about where Franko Kolić stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.69 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SV Ried can pretend not to have heard.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.16 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Everything was agreed with Red Bull Salzburg and then the doctor spoke. SV Ried have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between SV Ried and Wolfsberger AC, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
SV Ried 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.
Chances created: 14. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.86 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SV Ried can pretend not to have heard.
Squad31 Dec 2035
David Ewemade 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Raphael Trimmel 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.
It finished 2‑0, and it was Amir Abdijanović’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to SV Ried.
Player ratings31 Dec 2035
Steven Gaote was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.37. 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.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Matthias Weiß has gone, the accounts have $4.6M 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.
Racing Club paid $4.6M and SV Ried took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 6.92 for the rest of it.
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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between SV Ried and Austria Lustenau, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
In brief
SquadWords at SV Ried training over how hard people work
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Racing Club waiting with a shirt. Nobody at SV Ried is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
David Ewemade 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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad17 Dec 2035
Alix Hugon 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Cody Hateboer after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. SV Ried told Matthias Weiß something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Nothing was announced, because nothing ever is. The team sheet simply stopped looking the way it did, 2 matches ago, and it has not looked that way since. Every supporter noticed in the same week and none of them were told.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Ewemade was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
It needed Steven Gaote to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Nobody at SV Ried 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at SV Ried, another week without a signature from Andy Lyons.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Łukasz Poręba’s negotiating for him
Words at SV Ried training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Ewemade 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.
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“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 SV Ried will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Stripfing in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Nobody at SV Ried 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 conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Fabian Hafenscher has written the date down.
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.
Steven Gaote 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.
Squad29 Oct 2035
David Ewemade 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 finished 1‑0, and it was Steven Gaote’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to SV Ried.
Player ratings29 Oct 2035
Steven Gaote was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.47. 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Cody Hateboer on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at SV Ried, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, SV Ried have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Gernot Kalajdzic
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.
14 seasons and 534 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
6 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Łukasz Poręba 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Ewemade was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Matthias Weiß 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SV Ried this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Philippe Caron has just signed for SV Ried, and for once the answer mattered.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Fabian Hafenscher and SV Ried agree another 3 years.
Squad17 Sep 2035
Words at SV Ried training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Ewemade 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Gernot Kalajdzic has his answer from SV Ried; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Philipp Pomer
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SV Ried can pretend not to have heard.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 15 arrived, 24 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The deal with Austria Wien 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.
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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
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.
“I have watched this squad. There is more in it than the table says.” First press conference, first promise — Cody Hateboer made the one every new manager makes, and now comes the part where it gets checked.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SV Ried is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Rapid Wien keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Austria Wien have kept their man, and SV Ried go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad27 Aug 2035
Words at SV Ried training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alix Hugon 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Cody Hateboer after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Steven Gaote is in the works
The dugoutA fresh start for Łukasz Poręba under the new man
The dugoutŁukasz Poręba knocks on the manager's door
72 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Austria Wien lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Austria Wien 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 Austria Wien, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal that would have taken Steven Gaote to Austria Salzburg has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Austria Wien with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Austria Wien know it.
Simón Bodnar 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.
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 words a physio says slowly. 79 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Amstetten waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Austria Wien is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Austria Wien can pretend not to have heard.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.88 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Austria Wien is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Simón Bodnar 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 words a physio says slowly. 86 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.
“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 Austria Wien, and it is not being withdrawn.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Austria Wien have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Two goals and a mark of 8.21 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Salaheddine El Kanfoud will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Austria Wien the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Austria Wien this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
12 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Squad6 Aug 2035
Words at Austria Wien training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Da Silva Sousa 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.
There is nobody left to promote and nobody left to run a session. The board have brought in a name the supporters do not know, and the question of how a club gets here will outlast whoever answers it.
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SV Ried can pretend not to have heard.
Łukasz Poręba 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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
The words a physio says slowly. 130 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Austria Wien have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Aleksander Andresen 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 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 name of Tomislav Glavan has come up in conversations Austria Wien were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Austria Wien are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Callum Marshall signs something — a contract at Austria Wien or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Position 4 on 40 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
The words a physio says slowly. 146 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Austria Wien have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Austria Wien, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Salaheddine El Kanfoud will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Austria Wien the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Austria Wien now know that too.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Tomislav Glavan has agreed terms with Kapfenberg for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
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.
In brief
The dugoutSimón Bodnar has become a man the manager trusts
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Everything agreed with Austria Wien, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Owen Gibs 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at SV Ried can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
David Ewemade 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 shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
The words a physio says slowly. 42 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Wolfsberger AC can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Wolfsberger AC is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Zuriko Davitashvili 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Côme Bianay was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Stripfing have kept their man, and Wolfsberger AC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Wolfsberger AC, another week without a signature from Zuriko Davitashvili.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Austria Wien have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Austria Wien is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Simón Bodnar 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diego Da Silva Sousa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Austria Wien 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Austria Wien they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Austria Wien can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from FAC Wien for Steven Gaote 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.
The name of Argyris Darelas has come up in conversations Austria Wien were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
9 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
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.
84 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SV Ried lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.88 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SV Ried can pretend not to have heard.
The deal with Austria Wien 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.
Amir Abdijanović 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.
Squad15 Jan 2035
Words at SV Ried training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Per van Loon 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 words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Wolfsberger AC can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Wolfsberger AC they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Zuriko Davitashvili 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.
Squad8 Jan 2035
Words at Wolfsberger AC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Côme Bianay 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.
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Austria Wien lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Austria Wien will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Austria Wien is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Simón Bodnar 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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom30 Oct 2034
120% of the income goes out in wages at Austria Wien
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 dugout30 Oct 2034
the manager answers for it
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Austria Wien has been clear about where Lévy Néne stands, which is more than many ever get.