The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around WSG Tirol people have started saying his name in the past tense.
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. WSG Tirol lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 The request is on a desk at WSG Tirol, and it is not being withdrawn.
Kristjan Kozar 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.
WSG Tirol asked and RB Leipzig said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout25 Aug 2036
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
Squad25 Aug 2036
Words at WSG Tirol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sven Šušković 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 words a physio says slowly. 90 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. WSG Tirol will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Stripfing waiting with a shirt. Nobody at WSG Tirol is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The name of Marcel Kalajdzic has come up in conversations WSG Tirol were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Kristjan Kozar 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Valentin Toifl was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
WSG Tirol have made the call to Red Bull Salzburg. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Valentin Toifl 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.
Squad19 May 2036
Luka Vrbančić 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Oliver Wettergren trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. WSG Tirol lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at WSG Tirol is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Dylan Moody has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad21 Apr 2036
Luka Vrbančić 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at WSG Tirol has been clear about where Facundo Pérez stands, which is more than many ever get.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at WSG Tirol, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Facundo Pérez’s negotiating for him
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what WSG Tirol can pretend not to have heard.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at WSG Tirol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout3 Mar 2036
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
1 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.31 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ronan Kpakio will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around WSG Tirol the goodbyes have quietly begun.
10 matches without defeat, and then Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Andreas Albrecht 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.
Squad18 Feb 2036
Luka Vrbančić 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and WSG Tirol know it.
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and WSG Tirol now know that too.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” WSG Tirol have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Facundo Pérez 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Marušić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
16 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.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee WSG Tirol could ask drops and the wages Denny Pucci can ask rise.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tim Bergmann trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 WSG Tirol, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dejan Suhovršnik will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around WSG Tirol 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 WSG Tirol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Nicolas Pignatel Jenssen has just signed for WSG Tirol, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad12 Nov 2035
Words at WSG Tirol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Vrbančić 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nikolas Sattlberger. 1‑0 against Austria Lustenau, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
8.34. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Something was said to Nikolas Sattlberger and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutDenny Pucci dropped after a run of poor form
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. WSG Tirol lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Heinrich Schulz is living that version at WSG Tirol, and it tends to show in the first month.
WSG Tirol asked and Partizan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at WSG Tirol, another week without a signature from Denny Pucci.
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.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Denny Pucci
Position 12 and 15 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.
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. WSG Tirol lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 WSG Tirol, and it is not being withdrawn.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 62 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at WSG Tirol is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Something was said to Pedro Virgínia and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Ensar Mušič’s negotiating for him
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason WSG Tirol will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 WSG Tirol, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is nobody left to promote and nobody left to run a session. The board have brought in a name the supporters do not know, and the question of how a club gets here will outlast whoever answers it.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around WSG Tirol they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason WSG Tirol will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mikołaj Molendowski will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around WSG Tirol the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Andreas Albrecht 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mikołaj Molendowski was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at WSG Tirol has been clear about where Philipp Laimer stands, which is more than many ever get.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at WSG Tirol, another week without a signature from Bartosz Biedrzycki.