“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.
Markus Baumgartner 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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Mattersburg can tell you which week it ends in.
Markus Baumgartner 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
David Ulmer 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Mattersburg can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad9 Aug 2027
5 new faces, and Mattersburg 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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Peter Fuchs has his answer from Mattersburg; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Ulmer 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.
At 26 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Ulmer 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.
Idrissa Dioh 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.
21 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.
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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Ulmer 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. 36 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 Mattersburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Nicolas is living that version at Mattersburg, and it tends to show in the first month.
In brief
SquadWords at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
44 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
David Ulmer 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.
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.
53 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.
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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tobias Gruber 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.
60 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
David Ulmer 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 words a physio says slowly. 70 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 Mattersburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
78 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.
Markus Baumgartner 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Tobias Gruber 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.
85 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.
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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Ulmer 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.
94 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Mattersburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Markus Baumgartner 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
SquadDavid Ulmer falls out with a teammate over standards
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mattersburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Guido Lazaro and Mattersburg agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Ulmer 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.
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Ulmer 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Mattersburg, and both men came out saying it was fine.
7 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Mattersburg can tell you which week it ends in.
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.