“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 The request is on a desk at Sturm Graz II, and it is not being withdrawn.
Mykola Mykhailenko 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. David Weimann is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Sturm Graz II will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Manuel Scacchi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bruno Iglesias 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.
Position 16 and 21 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Sturm Graz II have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Wolfgang Kalajdzic trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Bruno Iglesias 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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
Something was said to Santiago Sequeira and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
8 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.
“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 Sturm Graz II, and it is not being withdrawn.
Mykola Mykhailenko 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against FAC Wien? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Tizian-Valentino Scharmer’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Sturm Graz II needing him to play as if none of it matters.
A new face in his position, and Mykola Mykhailenko suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Sturm Graz II have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
In brief
The dugoutDylan Mbayo is not enjoying his job description
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sturm Graz II can pretend not to have heard.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Sturm Graz II and Austria Klagenfurt, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Beaten 5 times, 4 saves, and an afternoon that will go on his record whether it was his fault or the defence’s. It is the quiet unfairness of the position.
David Weimann 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.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Dylan Mbayo’s negotiating for him
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nazar Semenenko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sturm Graz II the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sturm Graz II this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Sturm Graz II have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
0‑3 against Austria Salzburg, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
David Weimann 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.
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Sturm Graz II could ask drops and the wages Stefan Kalajdzic can ask rise.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Position 15 and 14 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
7.69, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sturm Graz II this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Half the programme played, position 15, 14 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Sturm Graz II have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Young Violets kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Sturm Graz II will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Marked 7.15 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Squad12 Nov 2035
Thomas Prass, 20, is the weekend’s best young player
Measured against every other kid in the division and first among them. The senior award is where Sturm Graz II would like this to lead.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sturm Graz II they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Bruno Iglesias 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Dejan Onisiwo is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sturm Graz II, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Thomas Prass has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Amstetten were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Thomas Prass. 1‑0 against Amstetten, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sturm Graz II this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Asked to play a role that is not his, or taken off before the hour once too often — Dylan Mbayo has let it be known that he does not like the way Sturm Graz II are using him. Managers hear this long before the press does.
9 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Mykola Mykhailenko 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.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sturm Graz II, another week without a signature from Hocine Boulegroun.
5 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Sturm Graz II could ask drops and the wages Ben Cabango can ask rise.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sturm Graz II they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sturm Graz II have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Mykola Mykhailenko 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.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sturm Graz II, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Shots: 6. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Thomas Prass