Position 9 and 5 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Mattersburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Philipp Hoffmann and Mattersburg agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peter Busch 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.
Successful dribbles: 41. 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.
Julian Sabitzer 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Benjamin Göschl, and the manager let it.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peter Busch 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.
Altach held the lead for 1 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Mattersburg answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Half the programme played, position 8, 5 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
8 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.
“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 deal that would have taken Dominik Laimer to Grodig has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Mattersburg with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
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.
Dario Parisi scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Wolfsberger AC, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peter Busch 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.
Position 8 and 3 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.
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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 26 signed and 8 gone
That is the business done at Mattersburg until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Modena keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Mattersburg have gone to SV Ried with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Palermo is saying, and nobody at Mattersburg is enjoying the guessing.
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.
Julian Sabitzer 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Benjamin Göschl has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
In brief
SquadWords at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
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.
Mattersburg asked and Cremonese said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Peter Busch was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 97. Grodig had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rodrigo Carvalho and Mattersburg agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Julian Sabitzer 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Mattersburg and Red Bull Salzburg, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Mattersburg asked and Córdoba said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Peter Busch 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.
24 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 2‑4 defeat, delivered by Sebastian Wimmer to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Marcel Lienhart
“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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Slavia Prague keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Julian Sabitzer 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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Red Bull Salzburg have kept their man, and Mattersburg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Christoph Trimmel has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Gernot Trimmel has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Sebastian Lindner has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Peter Busch 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 offer from Austria Wien for Peter Busch 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.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Mattersburg have paid $920.0K for Lucien Littbarski, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
David Sabitzer 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.
$34.0K on the table at Grodig. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad12 Jul 2027
David Sabitzer has improved at 31, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Lucien Littbarski from SV Ried for $920.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Peter Busch 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.
In brief
The dugoutDominik Laimer has become a man the manager trusts
The deal with SV Ried 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.
Julian Sabitzer 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Peter Busch was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
19 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
$910.0K was the most the club would pay and Red Bull Salzburg 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.
Julian Sabitzer 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.
At 27 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.
Admira Wacker pay $17.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Mattersburg have made the call to Werder Bremen. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
28 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.
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.
Pablo García 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
Peter Busch 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Peter Busch was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Position 6 on 17 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 59 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Julian Sabitzer 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.
Squad3 May 2027
Peter Busch 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Philipp Erhardt is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 30 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Pablo García 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 easiest signature of my career.” Dario Parisi and Mattersburg agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peter Busch 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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Patrick Touray has written the date down.
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.
Pablo García 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Djibril Sarr has, at Mattersburg, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“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 5 appearances in 34 say he has earned the hearing.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Philipp Erhardt has written the date down.
“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 Guilherme Venâncio.
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.
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. Peter Busch 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.
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 Dominik Laimer is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Mattersburg. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
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.
“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.
Pablo García 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peter Fuchs 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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“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.
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.
Pablo García and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Peter Busch 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Mattersburg count the cost of losing a squad player
26 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Patrick Touray has written the date down.
17 points from position 6. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
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.
Pablo García 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Peter Busch 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.
“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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
13 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.
“I watch every Mattersburg game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Grodig runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Jack Nunn is 20, and Mattersburg have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“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.
Add another name to the list: Tranmere Rovers have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Dejan Baumgartner. The answer from Mattersburg has not changed — yet.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Mattersburg have done the hard part with Wolfsberger AC, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Mattersburg asked and Red Bull Salzburg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Philipp Hoffmann and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peter Fuchs 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.
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.
Julian Sabitzer 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Altach have kept their man, and Mattersburg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Peter Busch 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.
Austria Wien 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.
Cristian Guzmán is 20, and Mattersburg have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Pablo García 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rapid Wien have kept their man, and Mattersburg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peter Fuchs 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.
“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 5 appearances in 22 say he has earned the hearing.
Mattersburg have made the call to Rapid Wien. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Mattersburg will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
“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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peter Busch 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 easiest signature of my career.” Matteo Schiavon and Mattersburg agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
“I watch every Mattersburg game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Juve Stabia runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Pablo García
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Pablo García has come out of that comparison in the side, and Mattersburg have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Patrick Touray will call it something else in private.
“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.
There were 86 minutes on the clock and Altach had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Mattersburg did not stop to explain themselves.
Two goals and a mark of 8.19 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Guido Junuzovic. 2‑1 against Altach, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Sebastian Wimmer, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Guido Junuzovic has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Mattersburg are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 6 signed and 5 gone
That is the business done at Mattersburg until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The name of Peter Busch has come up in conversations Mattersburg were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The dugout7 Sep 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 0‑1 Sebastian Wimmer left the room before anybody could ask which.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Peter Wober is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Successful dribbles: 43. 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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 offer from FC Augsburg for Peter Busch 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Mattersburg have done the hard part with Rapid Wien, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Philipp Hoffmann 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.