Marked for Ignacio Riera
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Oct 2035
No end in sight to Admira Wacker's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Admira Wacker has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad22 Oct 2035
Leandro Barreiro 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.
Squad22 Oct 2035
Words at Admira Wacker training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ignacio Riera 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 dugout22 Oct 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Elias Scherf, and the manager let it.
Match20 Oct 2035
0‑1 to Sturm Graz, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Match22 Oct 2035
Half the programme played, position 12, 4 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
The dugout22 Oct 2035
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Market22 Oct 2035
Edimilson Benito is 19, and Admira Wacker have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Squad22 Oct 2035
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Edimilson Benito commits to Admira Wacker for another 4 years.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market8 Oct 2035
René Fuchs 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 Admira Wacker can pretend not to have heard.
Match6 Oct 2035
5 matches without a win for Admira Wacker
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Admira Wacker are no longer polite ones.
Market8 Oct 2035
Only the photograph left for Leon Liović
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Leon Liović will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Admira Wacker the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad8 Oct 2035
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.
Squad8 Oct 2035
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Unai Ropero commits to Admira Wacker for another 2 years.
Squad8 Oct 2035
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ignacio Riera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market8 Oct 2035
“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.
Squad8 Oct 2035
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Admira Wacker can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Match6 Oct 2035
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Sep 2035
Leandro Barreiro 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.
Squad24 Sep 2035
Armin Sivić 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.
The dugout24 Sep 2035
Elias Scherf is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout24 Sep 2035
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The dugout24 Sep 2035
Justin Forst knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Justin Forst trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout24 Sep 2035
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Player ratings24 Sep 2035
Shots: 14. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Match23 Sep 2035
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Blau-Weiß Linz came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Looking ahead24 Sep 2035
Kapfenberg next, and one man in the Admira Wacker dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Sep 2035
Every point is an argument now for Admira Wacker
Position 11 and 1 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.
Market17 Sep 2035
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Patrick Sabitzer had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market17 Sep 2035
Aleks Zeković has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Admira Wacker they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad17 Sep 2035
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.
Boardroom17 Sep 2035
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad17 Sep 2035
Ignacio Riera 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.
The dugout17 Sep 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Elias Scherf, and the manager let it.
Match15 Sep 2035
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings17 Sep 2035
Jon Eceizabarrena ran the middle of the pitch — 6.86
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 6.86, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market20 Nov 2034
“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 Rapid Wien, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market20 Nov 2034
Ignacio Riera has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rapid Wien they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad20 Nov 2034
Phillip Verhounig 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.
Squad20 Nov 2034
Kerem Yalçin 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.
The dugout20 Nov 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jakob Brunnhofer, and the manager let it.
The dugout20 Nov 2034
Daniel Gore has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Rapid Wien 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.
Boardroom20 Nov 2034
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
The dugout20 Nov 2034
The manager has not finished forgetting Mathys Plessis's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout20 Nov 2034
Cheick Doucouré asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings6 Nov 2034
A debut Kevin Alaba will not forget — 7.30
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.30 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Player ratings6 Nov 2034
A defender's goal wins it for Rapid Wien — 7.87
1 for Ignacio Riera, marked 7.87, 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.
Market6 Nov 2034
Only the photograph left for Ítalo
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ítalo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rapid Wien the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad6 Nov 2034
Phillip Verhounig and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom6 Nov 2034
Blau-Weiß Linz will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Emil Møller has pre-agreed a move to Rapid Wien, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
The terraces6 Nov 2034
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match4 Nov 2034
It finished 1‑0, and it was Phillip Verhounig’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Rapid Wien.
Squad6 Nov 2034
Words at Rapid Wien training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kerem Yalçin 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market23 Oct 2034
Only the photograph left for Ignacio Riera
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ignacio Riera will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rapid Wien the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom23 Oct 2034
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Nikola Skrobonja has agreed terms with First Vienna for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad23 Oct 2034
Phillip Verhounig 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.
Match21 Oct 2034
A 1‑0 win over WSG Tirol, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings23 Oct 2034
Thapelo Maseko was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.31. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Match23 Oct 2034
Half the programme played, position 4, 18 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Squad23 Oct 2034
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Rapid Wien can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad23 Oct 2034
No place for Pietro Saio in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Rapid Wien are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Squad23 Oct 2034
A row about effort at Rapid Wien
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mathys Plessis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market18 Sep 2034
Only the photograph left for Ignacio Riera
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ignacio Riera will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rapid Wien the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad18 Sep 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rapid Wien this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom18 Sep 2034
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Felix Fischer has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Rapid Wien have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Player ratings18 Sep 2034
Marked 7.72 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Rapid Wien had the best player on the pitch.
Squad18 Sep 2034
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Rapid Wien know which stage they are at.
The dugout18 Sep 2034
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 Diogo Ferreira is on it.
The dugout18 Sep 2034
Somebody else is better right now than Cheick Doucouré
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Boardroom18 Sep 2034
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Market18 Sep 2034
“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.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Player ratings
Phillip Verhounig could have had three
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Squad
Words at Rapid Wien training over how hard people work
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout4 Sep 2034
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Rapid Wien may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market4 Sep 2034
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Austria Lustenau waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Rapid Wien is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market4 Sep 2034
“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 Rapid Wien, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom4 Sep 2034
Deadline passes with 30 signed and 35 gone
That is the business done at Rapid Wien until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Market4 Sep 2034
David Trimmel has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rapid Wien they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market4 Sep 2034
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Boardroom4 Sep 2034
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Ignacio Riera has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad4 Sep 2034
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.
Boardroom4 Sep 2034
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Jayden Ettienne has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Rapid Wien have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market21 Aug 2034
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market21 Aug 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rapid Wien is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad21 Aug 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rapid Wien this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout21 Aug 2034
The manager makes an example of Moris Valinčić
“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.
Match19 Aug 2034
0‑1 to Sturm Graz, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad21 Aug 2034
Words at Rapid Wien training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oluwaseun Adewumi 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.
Squad21 Aug 2034
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Rapid Wien can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout21 Aug 2034
Diogo Ferreira is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Squad21 Aug 2034
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Jul 2034
Loizos Loizou 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.
Boardroom24 Jul 2034
The numbers do not look good at Rapid Wien
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2034
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Austria Wien have kept their man, and Rapid Wien go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market24 Jul 2034
The name of Gernot Arnautovic has come up in conversations Rapid Wien were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad24 Jul 2034
Jakob Brunnhofer 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.
The dugout24 Jul 2034
Loizos Loizou asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout24 Jul 2034
Thapelo Maseko has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Rapid Wien 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.
The dugout24 Jul 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ignacio Riera, and the manager let it.
Squad24 Jul 2034
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Jun 2034
80 days out for Kairat Orazov after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Rapid Wien will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match19 Jun 2034
Rapid Wien are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 43 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market19 Jun 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rapid Wien is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2034
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Stripfing is saying, and nobody at Rapid Wien is enjoying the guessing.
Boardroom19 Jun 2034
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Jon Eceizabarrena has agreed terms with Admira Wacker for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad19 Jun 2034
Loizos Loizou 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.
Boardroom19 Jun 2034
LASK will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Pietro Saio has pre-agreed a move to Rapid Wien, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2034
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad19 Jun 2034
Oluwaseun Adewumi 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 May 2034
Phillip Verhounig 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.
Squad8 May 2034
A move Anton Drozd would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Anton Drozd is living that version at Rapid Wien, and it tends to show in the first month.
Boardroom8 May 2034
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Kenan Jusič has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Rapid Wien have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad8 May 2034
Words at Rapid Wien training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oluwaseun Adewumi 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.
Market8 May 2034
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad8 May 2034
8 new faces, and Rapid Wien 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 dugout8 May 2034
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.
The dugout8 May 2034
“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.
Market8 May 2034
4 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Rapid Wien could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Apr 2034
Bruno Iglesias 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.
Boardroom17 Apr 2034
The numbers do not look good at Rapid Wien
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
The dugout17 Apr 2034
The manager makes an example of Diogo Ferreira
“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.
Squad17 Apr 2034
Oluwaseun Adewumi 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.
Squad17 Apr 2034
“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 Rapid Wien know it.
The dugout17 Apr 2034
Moris Valinčić has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Rapid Wien 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.
Squad17 Apr 2034
No place for Kylan Midwood in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Rapid Wien are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout17 Apr 2034
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market17 Apr 2034
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Rapid Wien know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout13 Feb 2034
“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.
Squad13 Feb 2034
Fabian Silber and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Feb 2034
A row about effort at Rapid Wien
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oluwaseun Adewumi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad13 Feb 2034
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Rapid Wien can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad13 Feb 2034
Rapid Wien are still strangers to each other
5 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 dugout13 Feb 2034
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.
Market13 Feb 2034
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout13 Feb 2034
“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.
Loan watch13 Feb 2034
“For the first time in years I am picked because somebody wants me in the team.” Blau-Weiß Linz suits him; the awkward conversation belongs to Rapid Wien, and the summer will force it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Dec 2033
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rapid Wien this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings26 Dec 2033
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match24 Dec 2033
It finished 1‑0, and it was Moris Valinčić’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Rapid Wien.
Squad26 Dec 2033
Oluwaseun Adewumi 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.
Player ratings26 Dec 2033
Moris Valinčić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.17. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Looking ahead26 Dec 2033
The fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Rapid Wien will be judged on one thing only.
The dugout26 Dec 2033
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The dugout26 Dec 2033
The manager makes an example of Ekain Orobengoa
“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.
The dugout26 Dec 2033
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Pablo Moretti on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Dec 2033
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Rapid Wien can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad19 Dec 2033
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.
Squad19 Dec 2033
Ignacio Riera gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ignacio Riera has just signed for Rapid Wien, and for once the answer mattered.
The dugout19 Dec 2033
The manager makes an example of George Wickens
“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.
Match17 Dec 2033
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad19 Dec 2033
A row about effort at Rapid Wien
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakob Brunnhofer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Dec 2033
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Alessandro Marcandalli will call it something else in private.
Player ratings19 Dec 2033
Marked 7.57. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout19 Dec 2033
Nobody at Rapid Wien 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.