Marked for Florian Baumgartner
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces7 Feb 2028
Anger at Mattersburg spills outside the ground
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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Mattersburg will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market7 Feb 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Mattersburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Window shuts: 0 in, 4 out at Mattersburg
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets7 Feb 2028
The paperwork begins on Uroš Đerić
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Mattersburg have done the hard part with Altach, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad7 Feb 2028
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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pascal Köpke was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets7 Feb 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Stade Brestois have kept their man, and Mattersburg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Jan 2028
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Mattersburg will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market31 Jan 2028
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Mattersburg have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market31 Jan 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Wolfgang Wimmer 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pascal Köpke was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets31 Jan 2028
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.
Transfer targets31 Jan 2028
A loan enquiry to Padova: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
Patrick Trimmel 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.
Market31 Jan 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Michael Lienhart’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Jan 2028
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.
Match24 Jan 2028
12 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market24 Jan 2028
René Zia puts it in writing
“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 Mattersburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
Everything was agreed with Admira Wacker and then the doctor spoke. Mattersburg have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
Market24 Jan 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mattersburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Wolfgang Wimmer 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 Jan 2028
“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; Mattersburg are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Central Espanol have kept their man, and Mattersburg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad24 Jan 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Julian Onisiwo and Mattersburg agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Jan 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 77 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad17 Jan 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Patrick Fuchs
16 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.
Market17 Jan 2028
“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 Mattersburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets17 Jan 2028
Mattersburg had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at PSV, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Market17 Jan 2028
Only the photograph left for Andreas Prass
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Andreas Prass will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mattersburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets17 Jan 2028
$480.0K on the table at Admira Wacker. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Wolfgang Wimmer and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Pascal Köpke 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 Jan 2028
The manager makes an example of Patrick Trimmel
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Jan 2028
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Mattersburg will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Patrick Fuchs damages knee ligaments — 25 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
“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.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
The clubs have shaken hands with Altach; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market10 Jan 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
The deal with PSV 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pascal Köpke was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Jan 2028
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Mattersburg will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Patrick Fuchs damages knee ligaments — 32 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 32 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.
Market3 Jan 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad3 Jan 2028
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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
David Grillitsch 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.
Transfer targets3 Jan 2028
A loan move for Paul Mullin is in the works
Mattersburg have made the call to Middlesbrough. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets3 Jan 2028
PSV have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Patrick Trimmel'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.
Market3 Jan 2028
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Víctor Corral has his answer from Mattersburg; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Dec 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 98 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad27 Dec 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Patrick Fuchs
40 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.
Match27 Dec 2027
12 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market27 Dec 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mattersburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Wolfgang Wimmer and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pascal Köpke 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
Uneasy
Squad20 Dec 2027
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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Patrick Fuchs
47 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.
Market20 Dec 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
“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.
Market20 Dec 2027
Andreas Prass has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Mattersburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Wolfgang Wimmer 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Dec 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 114 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad13 Dec 2027
56 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mattersburg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Wolfgang Wimmer 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Grillitsch 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 dugout13 Dec 2027
The manager makes an example of René Zia
“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 dugout13 Dec 2027
Bastian Müller 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 Bastian Müller trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Dec 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 121 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad6 Dec 2027
64 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mattersburg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market6 Dec 2027
“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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pascal Köpke was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
The manager makes an example of Patrick Trimmel
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Nov 2027
72 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mattersburg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match29 Nov 2027
12 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Match24 Nov 2027
Red Bull Salzburg ended it 0‑4. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Match29 Nov 2027
12 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
Match27 Nov 2027
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad29 Nov 2027
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
The terraces29 Nov 2027
0-4, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Match27 Nov 2027
7 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Nov 2027
80 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mattersburg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.89 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match20 Nov 2027
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market22 Nov 2027
Only the photograph left for Andreas Prass
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Andreas Prass will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mattersburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Wolfgang Wimmer 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.
Match20 Nov 2027
5 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match20 Nov 2027
2‑4 to Admira Wacker, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Michael Lienhart was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.15. 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Nov 2027
98 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mattersburg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad8 Nov 2027
9 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market8 Nov 2027
“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 Mattersburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad8 Nov 2027
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.
Match6 Nov 2027
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Mattersburg and Sturm Graz, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad8 Nov 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Florian Brügmann and Mattersburg agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
A performance of 8.49 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Ninety minutes of Michael Lienhart at his very best
Marked 8.26. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Mattersburg.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match16 Oct 2027
Grodig will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Mattersburg were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad18 Oct 2027
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Wolfgang Wimmer 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.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.67, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pascal Köpke was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 3‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
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 dugout18 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lukas Wimmer, and the manager let it.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
6 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Oct 2027
0‑4 against Rapid Wien, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market11 Oct 2027
“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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
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.
Looking ahead11 Oct 2027
Mattersburg face Grodig in the game that matters most
Two sides from the bottom of the table, three points, and an afternoon that will be described afterwards as a relegation decider by whoever loses it.
Boardroom11 Oct 2027
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Valentino Wober 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
David Grillitsch 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
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
Crisis
Squad20 Sep 2027
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mattersburg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 30. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match18 Sep 2027
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Wolfgang Wimmer 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 Sep 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. João Costa is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match18 Sep 2027
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Valentino Wober, and the manager let it.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Marked 8.04 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Sep 2027
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mattersburg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 12 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market13 Sep 2027
“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 Mattersburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad13 Sep 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Florian Baumgartner and Mattersburg agree another 3 years.
Squad13 Sep 2027
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.
Match11 Sep 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
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 Valentino Wober is on it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Aug 2027
Bastian Müller damages knee ligaments — 55 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 55 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.
Match7 Aug 2027
9 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad9 Aug 2027
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.
Market9 Aug 2027
“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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market9 Aug 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mattersburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Wolfgang Wimmer and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match7 Aug 2027
Rapid Wien left with the points after a 2‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Mar 2027
126 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.
Match15 Mar 2027
Mattersburg are in real trouble now
Position 8, 17 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Jakob Schöller 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“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 Mattersburg know it.
Squad15 Mar 2027
The medical room confirms 30 days on the sidelines for Florian Baumgartner, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Feb 2027
Michael Schlager damages knee ligaments — 65 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 65 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.
Market8 Feb 2027
“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.
Market8 Feb 2027
Only the photograph left for Marcel Wimmer
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marcel Wimmer will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mattersburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Jakob Schöller 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 Feb 2027
70 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pascal Köpke was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Andreas Weimann
“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 dugout8 Feb 2027
Rico Strieder 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 dugout8 Feb 2027
Marcel Wimmer gets picked when it counts
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 Marcel Wimmer is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match10 Oct 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Grodig, and it could have been more.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.92, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.04 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad12 Oct 2026
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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Pascal Köpke 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.
Match10 Oct 2026
It had gone 5 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Something was said to Jakob Schöller and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market24 Aug 2026
$5.4M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
Supporters turn on the $5.4M sale of Dominik Trimmel
He is going to Red Bull Salzburg, the club has $5.4M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market24 Aug 2026
The chase for Erkin Yalcin ended with $580.0K changing hands and Altach out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Wolfgang Wimmer 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. SV Ried have kept their man, and Mattersburg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
Mattersburg spend $580.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $580.0K for Erkin Yalcin, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Pascal Köpke 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
A 2‑0 win over SV Ried, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.