Marked for Emmanuel Agyemang
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Jan 2028
Simon Piesinger: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Wolfsberger AC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad3 Jan 2028
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 Wolfsberger AC have had the benefit of it.
Market3 Jan 2028
Fofin Turay hands in a written request
“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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Philipp Wiesinger 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Berat Djimsiti 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.
Market3 Jan 2028
The name of Tobias Gruber has come up in conversations Wolfsberger AC were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market3 Jan 2028
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Emmanuel Agyemang has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Wolfsberger AC.
Loan watch3 Jan 2028
21 appearances at Tondela and the goals keep coming. Wolfsberger AC are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Loan watch3 Jan 2028
The goals keep arriving from Ryan Bakayoko’s exile
3 goals in 9 games at Altach — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Wolfsberger AC updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Dec 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Wolfsberger AC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad27 Dec 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Wolfsberger AC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad29 Nov 2027
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.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 24 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Philipp Wiesinger 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The terraces29 Nov 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Emmanuel Agyemang 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.
Match27 Nov 2027
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Luca Kronberger in the middle of it, and Sturm Graz unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Marc Cardona in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Wolfsberger AC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Oct 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Wolfsberger AC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Philipp Wiesinger 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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match16 Oct 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Too much change too quickly at Wolfsberger AC
6 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.
The terraces18 Oct 2027
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Loan watch18 Oct 2027
The goals keep arriving from Sankara Karamoko’s exile
7 goals in 10 games at Tondela — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Wolfsberger AC updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Marked 5.25, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Oct 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Boris Matić 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Berat Djimsiti 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Philipp Wiesinger, and the manager let it.
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
A performance of 8.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match9 Oct 2027
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Donis Avdijaj had Wolfsberger AC level again within 4 minutes, and Admira Wacker never got to play with a lead at all.
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
A mark of 5.54 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces27 Sep 2027
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 9 of the 34 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Giacomo Vrioni 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Wolfsberger AC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Philipp Wiesinger 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nikolas Polster, and the manager let it.
Match25 Sep 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad27 Sep 2027
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.
Market27 Sep 2027
He is 18, and nobody at Wolfsberger AC signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market27 Sep 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nikolas Polster signs something — a contract at Wolfsberger AC or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match20 Sep 2027
Position 3 and 14 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad20 Sep 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Wolfsberger AC may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match18 Sep 2027
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Wolfsberger AC have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Emmanuel Agyemang is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Giacomo Vrioni and Wolfsberger AC agree another 4 years.
Squad20 Sep 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Wolfsberger AC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match18 Sep 2027
A 2‑1 win over SV Ried, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.71, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
A performance of 8.26 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Jan 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Wolfsberger AC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market11 Jan 2027
SV Ried come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Wolfsberger AC did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad11 Jan 2027
14 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Emin Kujović is a better footballer than he was
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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Philipp Wiesinger 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.
Loan watch11 Jan 2027
21 appearances at IMT and the goals keep coming. Wolfsberger AC are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match17 Oct 2026
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Wolfsberger AC are no longer polite ones.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Nikolas Polster has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Match17 Oct 2026
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Wolfsberger AC can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Boris Matić 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match17 Oct 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Red Bull Salzburg came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Market19 Oct 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nikolas Polster signs something — a contract at Wolfsberger AC or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.