Ralph Maier

Right Forward - Pro Patria
4 Aug 2043
Tuesday
Process
Overview Personal Contract News 3 Transfers Relations Events 53 Awards Matches History

Marked for Ralph Maier

868 Edition

The Pro Patria Gazette

16 Mar 2043
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match14 Mar 2043

No end in sight to Pro Patria's wait for a win

24 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Pro Patria has to find a result from somewhere.

Squad16 Mar 2043

Marco Giuseppe Pirrò keeps Pro Patria in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Market16 Mar 2043

Hovhannes Adamyan 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 Pro Patria can pretend not to have heard.

Squad16 Mar 2043

Tomasz Grosicki keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Pro Patria may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Market16 Mar 2043

Vasyl Ohorodnyk is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pro Patria is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad16 Mar 2043

Tempers go at Pro Patria

Nicolò Camarda 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.

Match14 Mar 2043

Virtus Verona take the points off Pro Patria

Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Boardroom16 Mar 2043

No signings allowed at Pro Patria

The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.

Squad16 Mar 2043

Marco Giuseppe Pirrò 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.

In brief

Back issues
843 Edition

The Pro Patria Gazette

22 Sep 2042
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad22 Sep 2042

Tempers go at Pro Patria

Nicolò Camarda 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.

Squad22 Sep 2042

Words at Pro Patria training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Baron Ochieng 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.

Squad22 Sep 2042

The manager makes an example of Gerardo Marino

“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.

Boardroom22 Sep 2042

86% of the income goes out in wages at Pro Patria

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.

Squad22 Sep 2042

When it matters, Marco Giuseppe Pirrò plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

Player ratings22 Sep 2042

Nothing got past Timofey Rozhkov

Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 13 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.

Match20 Sep 2042

Pro Patria and Ospitaletto cancel each other out

Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Ospitaletto came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.

Player ratings22 Sep 2042

Nobody could get near Andrej Budimir

Successful dribbles: 10. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Market22 Sep 2042

The clock does Sebastian Juliussen’s negotiating for him

1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Pro Patria could ask drops and the wages Sebastian Juliussen can ask rise.

In brief

836 Edition

The Pro Patria Gazette

4 Aug 2042
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad4 Aug 2042

Baron Ochieng signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Baron Ochieng commits to Pro Patria for another 2 years.

Squad4 Aug 2042

Nicolò Camarda 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 Pro Patria this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Boardroom4 Aug 2042

The owner puts $498.4K into Pro Patria

This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.

Squad4 Aug 2042

Baron Ochieng 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.

Boardroom4 Aug 2042

Pro Patria cannot sign anybody

The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.

Squad4 Aug 2042

No hiding place for Andrej Budimir

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrej Budimir, and the manager let it.

In brief