Marked for Patrick Lindner
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout11 Oct 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Stripfing have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Maximilian Laimer and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Hugo Sousa gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Hugo Sousa has just signed for Stripfing, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Xaver Wimmer 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
28 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Boardroom11 Oct 2027
88% of the income goes out in wages at Stripfing
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
The manager makes an example of Luka Caculović
“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
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 dugout11 Oct 2027
David Posch 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 Stripfing, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
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 The request is on a desk at Stripfing, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Stripfing may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 26 signed and 11 gone
That is the business done at Stripfing 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.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
The deal with WSG Tirol 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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $230.0K — a club that wants Max Kleinbruckner enough to be asked twice.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words exchanged at Stripfing
Markus Arnautovic 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.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Stripfing will try again when the window opens; SV Ried may not be selling by then.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Patrick Lindner is a better footballer than he was
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.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
Stripfing asked and Amstetten 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
Squad19 Jul 2027
Maximilian Laimer and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market19 Jul 2027
A conversation is coming this week. Stripfing will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Xaver Wimmer 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 dugout19 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Patrick Lindner, and the manager let it.
Market19 Jul 2027
The Xaver Wimmer story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Xaver Wimmer signs something — a contract at Stripfing or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Vicente Valor wants to know why he earns less
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Stripfing have no good answer.
Squad19 Jul 2027
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Stripfing would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
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.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
Dominik Onisiwo 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
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Dec 2026
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Stripfing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Xaver Wimmer 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Markus Arnautovic 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
4 groups that do not mix, and 3 players belonging to none of them. Nothing here can be fined or dropped, which is why it lasts longer than any row that can.
Looking ahead28 Dec 2026
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Loan watch28 Dec 2026
“I did not go to Altach to sit and watch. I want to come back to Stripfing and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 17 matches say the rest.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ivan Ostojić, and the manager let it.