Marked for Patrick Baumgartner
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Feb 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Markus Junuzovic
55 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rapid Wien lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market12 Feb 2029
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Ercan Kara reports back to Rapid Wien with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Market12 Feb 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rapid Wien is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 Feb 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rapid Wien this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Words at Rapid Wien training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kasey McAteer 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.
Market12 Feb 2029
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Martin Ndzie wants continental football; whether Rapid Wien can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Market12 Feb 2029
The name of Wolfgang Alaba has come up in conversations Rapid Wien were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Loan watch12 Feb 2029
“I watch every Rapid Wien game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Bali United runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout15 Jan 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad15 Jan 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bali United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Words at Bali United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thijmen Goppel 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.
Transfer targets15 Jan 2029
Bali United asked and Llaneros said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
“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.
Squad15 Jan 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Iarley Alayo and Bali United agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market15 Jan 2029
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Bali United will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
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.
Market15 Jan 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Mike Hauptmeijer’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Jan 2029
Jort van der Sande and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diego Campos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets8 Jan 2029
Bali United asked and Danubio said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad8 Jan 2029
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Bali United know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Too much change too quickly at Bali United
8 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 dugout8 Jan 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Thijmen Goppel is on it.
The dugout8 Jan 2029
“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.
Market8 Jan 2029
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jort van der Sande signs something — a contract at Bali United or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Boardroom8 Jan 2029
Open for business: Bali United enter the window
The registration window is open and the phone has started. Between now and the deadline this club will be linked with forty players and sign three, which is the usual ratio.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market4 Sep 2028
Ricky Fajrin 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 Bali United can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout4 Sep 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Bali United may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 5 signed and 10 gone
That is the business done at Bali United until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Transfer targets4 Sep 2028
Bali United had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Rapid Wien, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad4 Sep 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bali United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Diego Campos 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 targets4 Sep 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rentistas have kept their man, and Bali United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces4 Sep 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Maouri Simon 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Jul 2027
The knee: Jannes Horn out for 17 days
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rapid Wien lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market26 Jul 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
Guido Trimmel signs on for the long haul
Rapid Wien moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Guido Trimmel, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
Squad26 Jul 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Tobias Gulliksen and Rapid Wien agree another 5 years.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Eduard Löwen 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.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Rapid Wien
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad26 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Rapid Wien
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Petter Nosa Dahl was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market26 Jul 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Guido Arnautovic has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market26 Jul 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Patrick Baumgartner is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.