Marked for Raphael Lainer
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match14 Aug 2027
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑0 against Grodig, and it could have been more.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Ryan Ogam scores twice — 8.88
Two goals and a mark of 8.88 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market16 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 The request is on a desk at Mattersburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
Everything agreed with Venezia, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Match14 Aug 2027
7 matches without a win, and then this, against Grodig. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Ryan Ogam 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Ibrahim Buhari 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 targets16 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cremonese have kept their man, and Mattersburg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces16 Aug 2027
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 Aug 2027
0‑3 against Rapid Wien, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Mattersburg may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad9 Aug 2027
8 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.
Market9 Aug 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.
Match7 Aug 2027
No end in sight to Mattersburg's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Mattersburg has to find a result from somewhere.
Market9 Aug 2027
Grodig come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Mattersburg did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Everything agreed with Red Bull Salzburg, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Mantova keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Ryan Ogam and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 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.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
$1.1M settles it between the clubs for Ibrahim Buhari
Austria Wien have accepted the money. What Mattersburg do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Market14 Jun 2027
Rapid Wien come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Mattersburg did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
The terraces14 Jun 2027
Mattersburg sell a favourite for $1.3M
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Florian Lazaro was one of the reasons people came, and $1.3M does not replace that by itself.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Heinz Fuchs 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Maximilian Lienhart and Mattersburg agree another 4 years.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valentino Prass 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 dugout14 Jun 2027
Heinz Fuchs 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 May 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 141 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market17 May 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.
Squad17 May 2027
Oscar Naasei and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 May 2027
Valentino Prass 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.
Squad17 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 dugout17 May 2027
Thomas Dragovic 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 May 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 dugout10 May 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Mattersburg may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad10 May 2027
Oscar Naasei 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.
The dugout10 May 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 Maximilian Lienhart is on it.
Market10 May 2027
The Heinz Fuchs talk will not go away
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.
The dugout10 May 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Apr 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Oscar Naasei 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Florian Lazaro 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
70 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Oscar Naasei 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 dugout26 Apr 2027
Marko Fuchs 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 dugout26 Apr 2027
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.
Market26 Apr 2027
Mattersburg have made Raphael Lainer available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Market26 Apr 2027
The name of Marcel Lindner keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Mattersburg say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match5 Apr 2027
Every point is an argument now for Mattersburg
Position 8 and 14 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.
Market5 Apr 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Oscar Naasei 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Florian Lazaro 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 dugout5 Apr 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Yannick Häringer is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Mattersburg will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
Guido Weimann 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.
Market5 Apr 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Marvin Knoll may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 Mar 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Oscar Naasei 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
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valentino Prass 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 dugout1 Mar 2027
“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.
Squad1 Mar 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Too much change too quickly at Mattersburg
5 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.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
Oscar Naasei 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 Oscar Naasei is on it.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
Marko Fuchs 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 dugout1 Mar 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 Feb 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Window shuts: 4 in, 1 out at Mattersburg
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Oscar Naasei and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tim Stegerer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sergio Rodríguez and Mattersburg agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Too much change too quickly at Mattersburg
5 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.
The dugout1 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match14 Dec 2026
Every point is an argument now for Mattersburg
Position 8 and 14 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.
Market14 Dec 2026
“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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Oscar Naasei 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Raphael Lainer commits to Mattersburg for another 3 years.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filippo Alessio 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 dugout14 Dec 2026
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 Florian Lazaro is on it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market23 Nov 2026
“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.
Match21 Nov 2026
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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Oscar Naasei 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
Altach left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Filippo Alessio 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 ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
The chances came and went for Heinz Fuchs
8 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
Steady
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Oscar Naasei 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valentino Prass 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Raphael Lainer’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Mattersburg.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.22 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Mattersburg told Marvin Knoll something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑1, already talking about the next one.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Oscar Naasei 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
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.