Marked for David Lawrence
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market23 Apr 2029
Tim Coremans 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 Altach can pretend not to have heard.
Squad23 Apr 2029
A falling-out at Altach
Mike-Steven Bähre and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Apr 2029
A row about effort at Altach
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Modou Kéba Cissé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Time is catching up with Ángel García
Everybody at Altach saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
Modou Kéba Cissé is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout23 Apr 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.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Allen Rojas, and the manager let it.
Market23 Apr 2029
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Altach know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market23 Apr 2029
The clock does Dominik Frieser’s negotiating for him
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Altach could ask drops and the wages Dominik Frieser can ask rise.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Oct 2028
43 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Altach lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad23 Oct 2028
A fracture rules Benedikt Zech out for 61 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Altach will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market23 Oct 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Altach is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.42 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
Johannes Moser, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.75
A mark of 7.75 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Tempers go at Altach
Patrick Greil 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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Words at Altach training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Modou Kéba Cissé 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.
Boardroom23 Oct 2028
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Marcus Dobrić has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Altach have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
The terraces23 Oct 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Johannes Moser 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
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
No deal for James Hill at that price
Manchester United offered $4.0M; Bournemouth 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.
Market17 Jul 2028
Reading come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Manchester United did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market17 Jul 2028
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Luke Scott is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market17 Jul 2028
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Steven Price 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.
Market17 Jul 2028
The academy exists for exactly this morning. David Lawrence 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.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
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 Matthijs de Ligt is on it.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
The manager makes Mason Mount a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Manchester United. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Match17 Jul 2028
Position 6 on 66 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
Alexey Batrakov asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.