Marked for Maximilian Schlager
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match2 Sep 2028
0‑4 to Rapid Wien, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad4 Sep 2028
There were 7 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.
Market4 Sep 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Admira Wacker, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad4 Sep 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Domagoj Jelavić and Admira Wacker agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Ziad El Sheiwi 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.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Frans Krätzig 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.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Market4 Sep 2028
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Admira Wacker will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Player ratings4 Sep 2028
4.10. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market2 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.
The terraces2 Aug 2027
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 8 of the 30 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad2 Aug 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Tomás Cruz commits to Admira Wacker for another 4 years.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Marko Hinteregger 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.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Admira Wacker now.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Philipp Jung gets it from the manager
“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.
Market2 Aug 2027
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Admira Wacker has been clear about where Florian Lienhart stands, which is more than many ever get.
Match31 Jul 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Admira Wacker training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dejan Ilsanker is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Jul 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Raphael Laimer
17 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.
Squad19 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 Admira Wacker this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Maximilian Schlager has improved at 29, 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.
Squad19 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; Admira Wacker are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Loan watch19 Jul 2027
“I did not go to Wolfsberger AC to sit and watch. I want to come back to Admira Wacker and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Market19 Jul 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Philipp Jung may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for David Schloffer
135 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 91 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market18 Jan 2027
The offer from Sturm Graz for Maximilian Schlager 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Dec 2026
The words a physio says slowly. 56 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Florian Lienhart out for 113 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Admira Wacker will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Michael Lang 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces23 Nov 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 10 of the 28 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Michael Lang 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 Admira Wacker this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match21 Nov 2026
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad23 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Michael Lang
“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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Philipp Jung was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.03. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad23 Nov 2026
David Schloffer 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: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Dejan Ilsanker dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The terraces23 Nov 2026
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.