Marked for Michael Lainer
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Jun 2032
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mattersburg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market28 Jun 2032
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Wolfgang Lienhart will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mattersburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market28 Jun 2032
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2032
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Mattersburg have done the hard part with Sturm Graz, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad28 Jun 2032
Alexander Lainer 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.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2032
Mattersburg offered $170.0K; Sturm Graz said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad28 Jun 2032
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rapid Wien have kept their man, and Mattersburg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad28 Jun 2032
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giovanni Farneti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces21 Jun 2032
The mood at Mattersburg has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad21 Jun 2032
Michael Lainer damages knee ligaments — 24 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
Boardroom21 Jun 2032
The scrutiny sharpens at Mattersburg
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Mattersburg is running low.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2032
The deal with Red Bull Salzburg is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2032
Mattersburg asked and Red Bull Salzburg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad21 Jun 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mattersburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market21 Jun 2032
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Konrad Ilsanker is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market21 Jun 2032
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Thomas Fuchs 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.
Market21 Jun 2032
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Lukas Prass is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Jun 2032
Michael Lainer 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.
Squad14 Jun 2032
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Wojciech Mońka and Mattersburg agree another 3 years.
Squad14 Jun 2032
Alexander Lainer and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Jun 2032
Maximilian Schlager 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 targets14 Jun 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Red Bull Salzburg have kept their man, and Mattersburg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market14 Jun 2032
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
The dugout14 Jun 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Daniel Köstl, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2032
A loan enquiry to Red Bull Salzburg: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2032
A loan move for Bradley Madjo is in the works
Mattersburg have made the call to Sturm Graz. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Jun 2032
Michael Lainer damages knee ligaments — 38 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
Match7 Jun 2032
4 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market7 Jun 2032
Emmanuel Bably has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Mattersburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2032
The deal with Red Bull Salzburg is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Boardroom7 Jun 2032
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Emmanuel Bably 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.
Squad7 Jun 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mattersburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jun 2032
Maximilian Schlager 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.
Squad7 Jun 2032
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mattia Tomasella and Mattersburg agree another 3 years.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Red Bull Salzburg have kept their man, and Mattersburg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.