Marked for Martin Baumgartner
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom28 Jun 2027
Pressure builds in the WSG Tirol boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match28 Jun 2027
WSG Tirol sink to position 11
18 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market28 Jun 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around WSG Tirol people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad28 Jun 2027
84 days out for Thomas Geris after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. WSG Tirol will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market28 Jun 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 WSG Tirol can pretend not to have heard.
The terraces28 Jun 2027
Quincy Butler has gone, the accounts have $1.3M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Amstetten; WSG Tirol go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
WSG Tirol had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Fiorentina, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Market28 Jun 2027
Business is business: Quincy Butler goes
First Vienna paid $1.3M and WSG Tirol took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 Feb 2027
WSG Tirol sink to position 11
18 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market8 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 The request is on a desk at WSG Tirol, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market8 Feb 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad8 Feb 2027
David Gugganig 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Quincy Butler 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 targets8 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bohemians 1905 have kept their man, and WSG Tirol go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad8 Feb 2027
The medical room confirms 36 days on the sidelines for Martin Baumgartner, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout8 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jonny Howson commits to WSG Tirol for another 1 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces25 Jan 2027
Supporters organise against the WSG Tirol board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Market25 Jan 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 WSG Tirol, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market25 Jan 2027
WSG Tirol say no — this time
The offer from Kapfenberg for Johannes Naschberger 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.
Market25 Jan 2027
The name of Quincy Butler has come up in conversations WSG Tirol were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
The deal with Red Bull Salzburg 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A row about effort at WSG Tirol
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thomas Sabitzer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Crvena Zvezda have kept their man, and WSG Tirol go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Loan watch25 Jan 2027
“I watch every WSG Tirol game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hertha Wels runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad25 Jan 2027
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and WSG Tirol know which stage they are at.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match16 Jan 2027
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 6‑1 against Sturm Graz II, and it could have been more.
The terraces18 Jan 2027
Supporters turn on the $3.0M sale of David Arnautovic
He is going to Red Bull Salzburg, the club has $3.0M 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.
Market18 Jan 2027
Add another name to the list: Young Boys have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Wolfgang Arnautovic. The answer from Stripfing has not changed — yet.
Market18 Jan 2027
Red Bull Salzburg pay $3.0M, 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.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
The deal with Kapfenberg 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Wolfgang 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.
Match16 Jan 2027
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Stripfing and Sturm Graz II, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Stripfing
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sebastian Lienhart was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market18 Jan 2027
Martin Baumgartner has left for WSG Tirol in a $86.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market11 Jan 2027
Union Berlin arrived with $12.6M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
The terraces11 Jan 2027
Alexander Trimmel has gone, the accounts have $12.6M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Match9 Jan 2027
The run is over for Stripfing
10 matches without defeat, and then St. Pölten. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Oliver Sorg is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market11 Jan 2027
Add another name to the list: WSG Tirol have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Martin Baumgartner. The answer from Stripfing has not changed — yet.
Market11 Jan 2027
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Sebastian Lienhart 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 targets11 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rapid Wien have kept their man, and Stripfing go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match9 Jan 2027
1‑2 to St. Pölten, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
In brief
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Squad
Noah Andreas has improved at 24, which nobody expected
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Squad
Words exchanged at Stripfing
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match11 Jan 2027
WSG Tirol are in real trouble now
Position 11, 18 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Match6 Jan 2027
The small margins put WSG Tirol out
Out, 2‑3 to Blau-Weiß Linz, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Market11 Jan 2027
Quincy Butler hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what WSG Tirol can pretend not to have heard.
Market11 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Match9 Jan 2027
No end in sight to WSG Tirol's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at WSG Tirol has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad11 Jan 2027
David Gugganig 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.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
The offer went to Stripfing this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at WSG Tirol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thomas Sabitzer 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.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sparta Prague have kept their man, and WSG Tirol go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market4 Jan 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 Stripfing can pretend not to have heard.
Match4 Jan 2027
39 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
David Arnautovic, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.07
A mark of 8.07 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Match2 Jan 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 10 matches without defeat is a foundation Stripfing did not have in the autumn.
Squad4 Jan 2027
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Stripfing have had the benefit of it.
The dugout4 Jan 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Stripfing
Alexander Trimmel 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Dec 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
David Arnautovic, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.80
A mark of 7.80 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Match19 Dec 2026
Whatever happens, Stripfing do not lose
8 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Market21 Dec 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Stripfing
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexander Trimmel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match19 Dec 2026
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
The dugout21 Dec 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match26 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Wolfgang 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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Osarenren Okungbowa, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Stefan Lienhart after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Stripfing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastian Lienhart 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.
Market28 Sep 2026
Dominik Posch is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Stripfing has been clear about where Dominik Posch stands, which is more than many ever get.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
5 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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Martin Baumgartner
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 ratings28 Sep 2026
9 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market14 Sep 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Septemvri had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market14 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stripfing can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Stripfing asked and Beerschot said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match12 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Martin Baumgartner. 1‑0 against St. Pölten, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Oliver Sorg 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Stripfing
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexander Trimmel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 7.50 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Stripfing had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.