Marked for Patrick Fuchs
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Sep 2026
120 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Stripfing lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad21 Sep 2026
David Ulmer is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Sturm Graz II left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad21 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stripfing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Lukas Ahrend 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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Raphael Trimmel after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Michael Kalajdzic
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
João Luiz changes it off the bench
He was not in the side at half past three and he had settled it before five. Half an hour, and Stripfing had a different afternoon.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The plan did not have a place for Lukas Dragovic
Nobody at Stripfing is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Sep 2026
135 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Stripfing lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 4 in, 2 out at Stripfing
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Stripfing ran out of time with Rapid Wien. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
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.
Market7 Sep 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Stripfing have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Stripfing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peter 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
No place for Lukas Ahrend in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Stripfing are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Patrick Fuchs slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Patrick Fuchs is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
The terraces17 Aug 2026
Supporters turn on the $2.4M sale of Andreas Weimann
He is going to Red Bull Salzburg, the club has $2.4M 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Stripfing have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
SV Ried wanted more than $1.9M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Market17 Aug 2026
Red Bull Salzburg pay $2.4M, 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Stripfing cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Patrick Fuchs 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Stripfing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andreas Kalajdzic 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Stefan Trimmel’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Stripfing.
Market17 Aug 2026
He is 20, and nobody at Stripfing signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.23 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The deal with Sturm Graz 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Patrick Fuchs commits to Stripfing for another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Patrick Fuchs and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match8 Aug 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Stripfing and Austria Salzburg, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Market10 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Stripfing have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Andreas 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match1 Aug 2026
Young Violets will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Stripfing were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The match ball belongs to Raphael Lazaro, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Alexander Baumgartner could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.91
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.91, 0 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Andreas Weimann at 21 — 7.93
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Andreas Weimann did not need any: 7.93, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Stripfing have gone to Sturm Graz 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Stripfing
Patrick Fuchs 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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A performance of 9.56 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Andreas 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.
In brief
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The terraces
The crowd has taken to David Ulmer
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Transfer targets
A loan move for João Luiz is in the works
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Transfer targets
A loan move for Juri Kirchmayr is in the works