Marked for Julian Ulmer
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Feb 2027
Lukas Lazaro 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 Mattersburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch15 Feb 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Mattersburg, and 0 appearances in 27 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad15 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Karel Soldát
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Jan 2027
Julian Ulmer 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 Mattersburg can pretend not to have heard.
Market25 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Mattersburg have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Lukas Lazaro 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Martin Rasner
“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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Julian Sabitzer 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.
Market25 Jan 2027
Gregor Jäger is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Mattersburg has been clear about where Gregor Jäger stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Jan 2027
Lukas Lazaro 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 Mattersburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Julian Sabitzer 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.
Loan watch18 Jan 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Mattersburg, and 0 appearances in 23 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad18 Jan 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Karel Soldát 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.
Market18 Jan 2027
Mattersburg have made Julian Ulmer available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match4 Jan 2027
Mattersburg are in real trouble now
Position 9, 15 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Mattersburg may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market4 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad4 Jan 2027
14 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Lukas Lazaro 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 Mattersburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market4 Jan 2027
A conversation is coming this week. Mattersburg will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad4 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Cláudio Silva
“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.
Market4 Jan 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Mattersburg, another week without a signature from Martin Rasner.
Loan watch4 Jan 2027
“I watch every Mattersburg game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Red Bull Salzburg runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
Stefan Voigt breaks a bone — 68 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 68 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Patrick Lazaro
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Mattersburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.20 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad16 Nov 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.
Match14 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Mattersburg's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Mattersburg has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Lukas Lazaro 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer from Sturm Graz for Gernot Schlager 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Lukas Lazaro 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 Mattersburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lukas Lazaro, and the manager let it.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Thomas Wimmer did the work nobody counts — 6.56
12 combined actions and 6.56. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Match15 Aug 2026
A 1‑0 win over Austria Wien, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Julian Sabitzer 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 ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 14 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.