Marked for Markus Dragovic
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Aug 2026
There were 12 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Markus Dragovic damages knee ligaments — 23 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
Match26 Aug 2026
Mattersburg go through and Admira Wacker go home, 2‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Kevin Ulmer breaks a bone — 31 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 31 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match29 Aug 2026
6 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Marko Alaba 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market31 Aug 2026
The paperwork is done: Romeo Vučić joins from Austria Wien in a deal worth $720.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Raphael 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Markus Dragovic
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Admira Wacker lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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
“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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Admira Wacker have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Admira Wacker's wait for a win
4 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.
Squad24 Aug 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 Admira Wacker this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match22 Aug 2026
1‑2 to Red Bull Salzburg, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Thomas Laimer 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 ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Aug 2026
Markus Dragovic damages knee ligaments — 41 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 41 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer from Rapid Wien for Valentino Lainer 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. 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
No sign of nerves from Heinz Laimer at 18 — 7.63
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Heinz Laimer did not need any: 7.63, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Raphael 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.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
At 18 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.