$17.0K on the table at Grodig. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Altach asked and SV Ried said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Yusuf Demir 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Altach can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
A loan enquiry to Red Bull Salzburg: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad17 Jul 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Altach people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Altach and Austria Wien have settled on $83.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Altach have done the hard part with Rapid Wien, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Altach offered $420.0K; Admira Wacker 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.
Pedro Gomes 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.
Rapid Wien paid $440.0K and Altach took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
In brief
SquadWords at Altach training over how hard people work
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nicola Pintus is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad22 May 2028
Yusuf Demir 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 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 Altach know it.
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.
“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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Elias Scherf will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Altach 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 Altach 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 Yusuf Demir was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Altach will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
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 Alexander Schlager is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Benjamin Böckle signs something — a contract at Altach or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Anrie Chase 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.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Altach training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Akaki Gogia 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.
“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 Altach know it.
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 Anrie Chase is on it.
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.
Position 2, 33 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Altach 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 Altach 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 Akaki Gogia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Altach, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Altach have no good answer.
Edmund Baidoo 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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Altach training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yusuf Demir 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 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Benjamin Böckle trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Altach lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
Salko Hamzić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Altach training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yusuf Demir 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.
9 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.
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.
33 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.
0‑1 against Panathinaikos, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
“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.
Mike-Steven Bähre 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Yusuf Demir 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 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 Altach know it.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
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 0‑1 Kevin Dragovic left the room before anybody could ask which.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Peter Michorl will call it something else in private.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Altach have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 deal with Rapid 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.
Altach had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at SV Ried, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Mike-Steven Bähre 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 Akaki Gogia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Altach asked and AS Roma said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yusuf Demir was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Altach know it.
Nobody at Altach 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 year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Altach would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Altach and Austria Wien have settled on $240.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $250.0K — a club that wants Lukas Wedl enough to be asked twice.
The name of Elias Scherf has come up in conversations Altach were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Altach training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yusuf Demir 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.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
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 Anrie Chase is on it.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Altach than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.