“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 The request is on a desk at Admira Wacker, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Admira Wacker this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Artur Maxetsov commits to Admira Wacker for another 2 years.
Squad7 Jun 2038
Amer Mehić 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 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Admira Wacker will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Admira Wacker have had the benefit of it.
Raphael Dragovic 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.
In brief
SquadAmer Mehić falls out with a teammate over standards
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 10.00 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“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 The request is on a desk at Admira Wacker, and it is not being withdrawn.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Maksym Soloviov and Admira Wacker agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Grodig tried to reorganise, Admira Wacker did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
At 2 goals adrift this was a formality, and the formality lasted right up until it did not. Admira Wacker found something the first half had given no notice of, and Wolfsberger AC could not hold what they had.
Player ratings3 Aug 2037
A brace, and Amer Mehić takes the afternoon — 8.86
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Amer Mehić provided it, and the 8.86 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.23 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Admira Wacker this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad29 Jun 2037
Words at Admira Wacker training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Linus Larsen 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.
In brief
SquadAmer Mehić has become a man the manager trusts
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Admira Wacker have had the benefit of it.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Squad1 Jun 2037
Amer Mehić 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 Admira Wacker has been clear about where Florian Laimer stands, which is more than many ever get.