80 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Altach lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Altach can pretend not to have heard.
Matteo Prati 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
SquadPatrick Greil falls out with a teammate over standards
101 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Altach lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Altach this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Altach training over how hard people work
SquadThe manager's exit leaves Matteo Prati exposed
“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 The request is on a desk at Altach, and it is not being withdrawn.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 Altach this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Altach training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrick Greil 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Altach, and it is not being withdrawn.
Matteo Prati 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Patrick Greil 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Altach are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad17 Jan 2028
5 new faces, and Altach are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“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 Altach, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Altach have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Position 10 and 11 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“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 Altach, and it is not being withdrawn.
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Altach can tell you which week it ends in.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Altach have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Matteo Prati 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Altach are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“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 Altach, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
1 for Lukas Gugganig, marked 7.78, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Altach this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Altach can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Austria Wien for Filip Milojević 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.
1 for Vesel Demaku, marked 7.91, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Altach this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Altach training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vesel Demaku 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.
18 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Altach know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Add another name to the list: Pro Patria have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jonas Perrault. The answer from Altach has not changed — yet.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Altach this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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 Altach, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Altach this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 27 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Position 8 and 19 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Altach this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Altach training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vesel Demaku 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. 76 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Altach this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Altach training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vesel Demaku 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.
141 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Altach lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Brandon Molina is living that version at Altach, and it tends to show in the first month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Altach this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Altach training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Quintijn Steelant 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.