Marked for Marcel Arnautovic
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match31 Jul 2027
The wait goes on for Altach
11 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Marcel Arnautovic damages knee ligaments — 14 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
Match31 Jul 2027
A hiding for Altach
Beaten 0‑3 by SV Ried, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad2 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Altach
Benjamin Böckle and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Mike-Steven Bähre 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.
Market2 Aug 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Benjamin Böckle has his answer from Altach; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Marco Fuchs to a room that had heard them before.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Jul 2027
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Altach lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market26 Jul 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Altach have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words exchanged at Altach
Marc Lorenz 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.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Altach
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Benedikt Zech 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 targets26 Jul 2027
Altach asked and FC Nordsjaelland said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market26 Jul 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Stefan Grillitsch has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market26 Jul 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Valentino Alaba is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market26 Jul 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Heinz Wimmer has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Jul 2027
Marcel Arnautovic damages knee ligaments — 31 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 31 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.
Market19 Jul 2027
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Wolfsberger AC had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Bayer Leverkusen keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad19 Jul 2027
A falling-out at Altach
Marc Lorenz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Altach training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benedikt Zech 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Elias Scherf commits to Altach for another 4 years.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
A loan move for Souleymane Alio is in the works
Altach have made the call to FC Nordsjaelland. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
The manager makes an example of Daniel Antosch
“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 dugout19 Jul 2027
The manager makes Uroš Đerić a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Altach. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Jul 2027
39 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Altach lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market12 Jul 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 Altach, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market12 Jul 2027
Altach say no — this time
The offer from Grodig for Daniel Antosch 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Marc Lorenz 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 Altach this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Altach training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mike-Steven Bähre 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.
The dugout12 Jul 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.