Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around FC Liefering they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
6 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.
Player ratings19 Feb 2035
Konrad Sabitzer, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.61
A mark of 7.61 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.
Nobody at FC Liefering 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.
In brief
Player ratingsThe pass was always on for Peter Lainer
Position 2 and 51 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Match10 Feb 2035
After 14 games, FC Liefering finally taste it again
The first defeat in 14 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Kapfenberg; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at FC Liefering is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about FC Liefering and Kapfenberg in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Two goals and a mark of 8.75 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Konrad Sabitzer did not need any: 7.84, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at FC Liefering is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
4 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.
Emmanuel Michael 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Simão Rocha will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Liefering the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 FC Liefering, and it is not being withdrawn.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Wolfsberger AC defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
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.
“I am not asking anybody to be better than they are. I am asking everybody to be as good as they are, every week.” Said out loud, in front of everybody, and the room at FC Liefering was different afterwards.
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee FC Liefering could ask drops and the wages Pablo Durán can ask rise.
In brief
The dugoutAndreas Prass asks for a word with the manager
Player ratingsThe pass was always on for Peter Lainer
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Hertha Wels the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that FC Liefering will enjoy reviewing.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Marcel Onisiwo did not need any: 7.71, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
47 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Player ratings8 Jan 2035
Konrad Sabitzer, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.11
A mark of 8.11 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.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Audax Italiano moved on, Pablo Durán reports back to FC Liefering, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Peter Lainer 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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Sturm Graz II tried to reorganise, FC Liefering did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. FC Liefering had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around FC Liefering they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The phone has started ringing about Pablo Durán again, and this time the name on the line is Audax Italiano. FC Liefering are listening politely and promising nothing.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and FC Liefering will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
A brace, and Pablo Durán takes the afternoon — 8.19
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Pablo Durán provided it, and the 8.19 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings27 Nov 2034
Konrad Sabitzer, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.13
A mark of 8.13 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Peter Lainer will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Liefering the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Emmanuel Michael 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.
At 21 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.
Half the programme played, position 1, 33 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
A brace, and Erkin Yalcin takes the afternoon — 8.27
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Erkin Yalcin provided it, and the 8.27 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Konrad Sabitzer did not need any: 7.87, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at FC Liefering is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Emmanuel Michael 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 3‑1 win over Austria Lustenau, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
At 23 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ange Ahoussou will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Liefering the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Marcel Onisiwo did not need any: 8.18, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Liefering this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 19 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.
One booking too many, and Emmanuel Michael sits out. FC Liefering lose him for the sort of avoidable reason that makes a manager's week longer.
Squad9 Oct 2034
A FC Liefering teenager takes the young player award
Dejan Wimmer is 19, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee FC Liefering could ask drops and the wages Ange Ahoussou can ask rise.