Marked for Raphael Ulmer
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Jan 2027
Daniel Henareh damages knee ligaments — 62 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 62 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Taiki Kagayama 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Marc Manchón 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Jan 2027
Trabzonspor come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Red Bull Salzburg did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market11 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad11 Jan 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 Red Bull Salzburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Tim Drexler and Red Bull Salzburg agree another 5 years.
Loan watch11 Jan 2027
“I watch every Red Bull Salzburg game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at GIF Sundsvall runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Market11 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Red Bull Salzburg have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Dec 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market14 Dec 2026
The phone has started ringing about Karim Konaté again, and this time the name on the line is Vélez. Red Bull Salzburg are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Umut Tohumcu 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Karim Konaté, and the manager let it.
Loan watch14 Dec 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Red Bull Salzburg, and 0 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Red Bull Salzburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad16 Nov 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 Red Bull Salzburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match14 Nov 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Red Bull Salzburg did not have in the autumn.
Match14 Nov 2026
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Red Bull Salzburg can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad16 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
“I did not go to GIF Sundsvall to sit and watch. I want to come back to Red Bull Salzburg and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
Match14 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Rapid Wien will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match17 Oct 2026
Suwaibou Kebbeh wins it after the whistle should have gone
90 minutes played. Suwaibou Kebbeh found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Orebro went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Market19 Oct 2026
Marc Manchón has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around GIF Sundsvall they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad19 Oct 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Taiki Kagayama 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Lucas Forsberg
“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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Orebro made GIF Sundsvall work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Red Bull Salzburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Dominik Schmid 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Loan watch19 Oct 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Red Bull Salzburg, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Match17 Oct 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Wolfsberger AC leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Off the bench and decisive: Karim Konaté
The substitution nobody applauded turned out to be the whole story. Red Bull Salzburg were going nowhere until he came on.
Market19 Oct 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Abubakr Barry signs something — a contract at Red Bull Salzburg or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad19 Oct 2026
The plan did not have a place for Cican Stanković
Nobody at Red Bull Salzburg 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“Nobody outside is coming to save us.” It was short, it was not comfortable, and by all accounts the Red Bull Salzburg squad were quieter afterwards than they had been all season.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 40. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 112 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.01, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
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 Red Bull Salzburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Sep 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Red Bull Salzburg did not have in the autumn.
Match19 Sep 2026
Grodig made Red Bull Salzburg work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Leon Grgić, and the manager let it.
Loan watch21 Sep 2026
“I watch every Red Bull Salzburg game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at GIF Sundsvall runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad21 Sep 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 Aug 2026
A 0‑3 beating by BK Hacken was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market24 Aug 2026
Marc Manchón has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around GIF Sundsvall they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Taiki Kagayama 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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
Falkenberg will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Gustav Lillienberg has pre-agreed a move to GIF Sundsvall, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Lucas Forsberg 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 ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hugo Aviander, and the manager let it.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at GIF Sundsvall
9 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.