Marked for Bartosz Mazurek
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market18 Jun 2029
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Arka Gdynia waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Jagiellonia is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market18 Jun 2029
“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 The request is on a desk at Jagiellonia, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout18 Jun 2029
This is not rotation. Rodrigo Conceição has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Jagiellonia is pretending otherwise.
Boardroom18 Jun 2029
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $150.0K — a club that wants Jakub Tecław enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2029
Everything agreed with Atalanta, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Market18 Jun 2029
The deal that would have taken Luca Barani to Motor Lublin has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Jagiellonia with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2029
Jagiellonia have gone to Cracovia with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Market18 Jun 2029
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Bartosz Mazurek is a Jagiellonia player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2029
Jagiellonia offered $250.0K; Gornik Zabrze said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 Jan 2029
19 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Match6 Jan 2029
5 matches without a win for FC Liefering
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around FC Liefering are no longer polite ones.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikolas Freund was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match6 Jan 2029
Sturm Graz II left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad8 Jan 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 FC Liefering this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Rüştü Erdoğan has had enough of the bench
“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 FC Liefering will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Squad8 Jan 2029
A place in the month's best eleven for Benedict Scharner
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Benedict Scharner has come out of that comparison in the side, and FC Liefering have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout8 Jan 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marcel Moswitzer, and the manager let it.
Market8 Jan 2029
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Heinz Junuzovic has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at FC Liefering.
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 FC Liefering, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Enrique Aguilar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market26 Jun 2028
The interest is real enough to have reached print. FC Liefering have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad26 Jun 2028
FC Liefering are still strangers to each other
6 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.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jonas Winklhofer trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market26 Jun 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. FC Liefering know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match12 Jun 2028
10 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market12 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 FC Liefering, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Phillip Verhounig 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.
Market12 Jun 2028
Enrique Aguilar is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at FC Liefering has been clear about where Enrique Aguilar stands, which is more than many ever get.
Market12 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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakob Zangerl was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad12 Jun 2028
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and FC Liefering will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
Miha Matjašec 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 FC Liefering, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Enrique Aguilar has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Feb 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 16 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match21 Feb 2028
Position 2 and 41 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Match15 Feb 2028
0‑2 against Real Madrid. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Red Bull Salzburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Loan watch21 Feb 2028
19 shut-outs in 27 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Salko Hamzić has been having a lot of them.
Squad21 Feb 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 Red Bull Salzburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match15 Feb 2028
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
“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.
Loan watch21 Feb 2028
The goals keep arriving from Yorbe Vertessen’s exile
13 goals in 21 games at First Vienna — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Red Bull Salzburg updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Red Bull Salzburg have done the hard part with Leicester City, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Match24 Jan 2028
41 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market24 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.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
Kawasaki Frontale wanted more than $12.3M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Market24 Jan 2028
The offer from Skonto for Johannes Moser 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 Jan 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 Red Bull Salzburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch24 Jan 2028
Salko Hamzić’s loan is measured in nothing happening
16 clean sheets from 23 appearances at Fehervar. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
Red Bull Salzburg asked and Amstetten said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at Red Bull Salzburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakob Zangerl 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.