Marked for Raphael Fuchs
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Jun 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad26 Jun 2028
A move Raphael Fuchs 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. Raphael Fuchs is living that version at Cherno More, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market26 Jun 2028
Franco Pinho has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cherno More they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSKA Moscow have kept their man, and Cherno More go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Asen Donchev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Jun 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Raphael Fuchs commits to Cherno More for another 1 years.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Cherno More told Jorge Padilla something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
A loan enquiry to Levski: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
Cherno More have made the call to Gimnasia y Esgrima. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Mar 2028
He is 20, he is averaging 7.04, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Thomas Wober 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Alaba 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 dugout20 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mauro Muhlethaler, and the manager let it.
Squad20 Mar 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ghianny Kodia and Mattersburg agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market20 Mar 2028
He is 20, and nobody at Mattersburg signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
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.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
Darryl Geurts has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Mattersburg 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 dugout20 Mar 2028
Heinz Lienhart 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
Steady
Market13 Mar 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.
Squad13 Mar 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Konrad Lindner 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 dugout13 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Edoardo Goldaniga, and the manager let it.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
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 Xaver Kalajdzic is on it.
Squad13 Mar 2028
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Mattersburg would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Mar 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Julian Grillitsch and Mattersburg agree another 3 years.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Edoardo Goldaniga and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Mattersburg is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Konrad Lindner was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market6 Mar 2028
“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 dugout6 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Xaver Kalajdzic, and the manager let it.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
Dominik Alaba 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 Dominik Alaba trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
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 Alexander Posch is on it.
Market6 Mar 2028
The clock does Raphael Fuchs’s negotiating for him
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Mattersburg could ask drops and the wages Raphael Fuchs can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Feb 2028
The offer from IF Elfsborg for Julian Grillitsch 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.
Market28 Feb 2028
Raphael 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 Mattersburg can pretend not to have heard.
Market28 Feb 2028
Raphael Fuchs 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Thomas Wober and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Dominik Alaba 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 dugout28 Feb 2028
The manager makes an example of Wolfgang Wober
“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 dugout28 Feb 2028
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 Julian Grillitsch is on it.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Market28 Feb 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Mattersburg know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Jan 2028
Raphael 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 Mattersburg can pretend not to have heard.
Market31 Jan 2028
Raphael Fuchs 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Thomas Wober and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets31 Jan 2028
Mattersburg asked and Boca Juniors said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wolfgang Wober 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 dugout31 Jan 2028
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 dugout31 Jan 2028
The manager makes an example of Hugo López
“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 dugout31 Jan 2028
Heinz Lienhart knocks on the manager's door
“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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Ben Wodskou wants out of the dugout
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Mattersburg will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Jan 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Sergio Fernández
24 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
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Austria Wien had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market17 Jan 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Grodig waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Mattersburg is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market17 Jan 2028
The offer from Austria Wien for Julian Grillitsch 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.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
Mariano Filiosi: that is not what I was promised
“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.
Transfer targets17 Jan 2028
The paperwork begins on Kévin Boma
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Mattersburg have done the hard part with Red Bull Salzburg, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Hörður Magnússon 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Alaba 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.
Transfer targets17 Jan 2028
Mattersburg asked and Austria Wien said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market27 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.
Market27 Dec 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marco Grillitsch will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mattersburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad27 Dec 2027
He is 20, he is averaging 7.04, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad27 Dec 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Dominik Alaba and Mattersburg agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Thomas Wober 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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dominik Alaba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dominik Alaba, and the manager let it.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Miguel Tavares'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 dugout27 Dec 2027
Darryl Geurts has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Mattersburg 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Nov 2027
Marcus Odegaard damages knee ligaments — 21 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
Match24 Nov 2027
Red Bull Salzburg ended it 1‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
A brace, and Heinz Lienhart takes the afternoon — 8.86
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Heinz Lienhart provided it, and the 8.86 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market29 Nov 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.
Market29 Nov 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marco Grillitsch will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mattersburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad29 Nov 2027
He is 20, he is averaging 7.01, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Hörður Magnússon 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Oliver Irow gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Oliver Irow has just signed for Mattersburg, and for once the answer mattered.
Match27 Nov 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Heinz Lienhart. 3‑2 against Sturm Graz, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Oct 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Hörður Magnússon
52 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.
Match11 Oct 2027
Every point is an argument now for Mattersburg
Position 9 and 7 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.
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
Hörður Magnússon 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Dominik Alaba 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
“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.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
The manager makes an example of Xaver Kalajdzic
“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 dugout11 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 dugout11 Oct 2027
“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
Uneasy
Squad6 Sep 2027
Hörður Magnússon damages knee ligaments — 92 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 92 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.
Market6 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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Window shuts: 21 in, 10 out at Mattersburg
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 21 arrived, 10 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market6 Sep 2027
The Grodig deal is off
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Raphael Fuchs reports back to Mattersburg with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Market6 Sep 2027
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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Hörður Magnússon and Mattersburg agree another 2 years.
Market6 Sep 2027
The shirt still fits. Wolfgang Wober is back at Mattersburg, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Thomas Wober 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Aug 2027
Hörður Magnússon damages knee ligaments — 107 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 107 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.
Market23 Aug 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.
Market23 Aug 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Mattersburg people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market23 Aug 2027
Raphael Fuchs 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.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad23 Aug 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Dominik Alaba 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 targets23 Aug 2027
Mattersburg asked and Köln said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match21 Aug 2027
0‑1 to Austria Wien, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Jul 2027
137 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.
Market26 Jul 2027
The offer from Austria Wien for Konrad Lindner 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.
Market26 Jul 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.
Market26 Jul 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Mattersburg people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market26 Jul 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.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Sion keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Mattersburg
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Martin Hinteregger and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Haladas have kept their man, and Mattersburg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Jul 2027
$3.7M 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.
Market12 Jul 2027
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.
Market12 Jul 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 terraces12 Jul 2027
Supporters turn on the $3.7M sale of Marcel Kalajdzic
He is going to Austria Wien, the club has $3.7M 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.
Market12 Jul 2027
The name of Thomas Wober has come up in conversations Mattersburg were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Alaba 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Alexander Posch and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Mattersburg asked and Wolfsberger AC said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad12 Jul 2027
No place for Jayden Wareham in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Mattersburg are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Mattersburg offered $1.6M; Wolfsberger AC said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“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.
Squad5 Jul 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.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Marko 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.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Philipp Erhardt, and the manager let it.
Market5 Jul 2027
Grodig are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Mattersburg will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Barrow AFC 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.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Intake day at the Mattersburg academy
4 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Jun 2027
Hörður Magnússon damages knee ligaments — 29 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
Market7 Jun 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.
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $110.0K — a club that wants Samuel Chukwudi enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
The offer went to SV Ried this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
$110.0K was the most the club would pay and Sturm Graz were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Cristian Berrio gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Cristian Berrio has just signed for Mattersburg, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad7 Jun 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Martin Hinteregger and Mattersburg agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Dominik Alaba 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 targets7 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Austria Wien have kept their man, and Mattersburg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 May 2027
Hörður Magnússon damages knee ligaments — 36 days out
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.
Boardroom31 May 2027
Continental nights are coming to Mattersburg
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
Squad31 May 2027
Alexander Posch 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 May 2027
Marcel Kalajdzic 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.
Squad31 May 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Mattersburg can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout31 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Raphael Fuchs
“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 dugout31 May 2027
Marcel Kalajdzic has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Mattersburg 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.
Market31 May 2027
At 35, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.
Market31 May 2027
The shop window has Marko Laimer in it
Mattersburg have let the market know Marko Laimer can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 May 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Hörður Magnússon
43 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.
Match24 May 2027
Mattersburg are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 31 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market24 May 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Martin Hinteregger 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 May 2027
Marcel Kalajdzic 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 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Peter Tschernegg, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Apr 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Hörður Magnússon
97 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.
Squad5 Apr 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Luis Engelns is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Apr 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.
The dugout5 Apr 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 Marcel Kalajdzic is on it.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Xaver Kalajdzic
“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
Steady
Squad22 Feb 2027
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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Luis Engelns 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Heinz Lienhart 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 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Raphael Fuchs, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 Feb 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.
Market22 Feb 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marcel Kalajdzic signs something — a contract at Mattersburg or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Feb 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Alexander Posch 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Marcel Kalajdzic 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
12 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.
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 9 appearances in 27 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Alexander Posch has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Mattersburg 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Nov 2026
76 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.
Match9 Nov 2026
Mattersburg are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 24 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Match7 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Mattersburg's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Mattersburg has to find a result from somewhere.
Match4 Nov 2026
1‑3 against Dynamo Kyiv. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Squad9 Nov 2026
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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Alexander Posch and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match7 Nov 2026
SV Ried left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Konrad Lindner was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Michael Dragovic left the room before anybody could ask which.