8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Austria Salzburg has to find a result from somewhere.
8 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
“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 The request is on a desk at Austria Salzburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Maximiliano Arias 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 Jacob Christensen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 6.96, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
7 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.
7 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Austria Salzburg can tell you which week it ends in.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Trym Foss Smedsrud has, at Austria Salzburg, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mladen Cvjetinović 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 shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“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 Austria Salzburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Austria Salzburg has to find a result from somewhere.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Maximiliano Arias 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Lenne Coomans has just signed for Austria Salzburg, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fabian Rossdorfer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabian Rossdorfer 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.
Maximiliano Arias 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Adem Sarajlić and Austria Salzburg agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Nobody at Austria Salzburg will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Justin Forst 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.
Admira Wacker offered $140.0K; Red Bull Salzburg 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.
Squad13 Sep 2032
Words at Admira Wacker training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adu Ares 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.
“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 Admira Wacker know it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Admira Wacker, another week without a signature from Dean Titkov.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Admira Wacker, and 4 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
7.71, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Admira Wacker had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout13 Sep 2032
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Roberto Soares kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.71 for the rest of it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. LASK have kept their man, and Austria Salzburg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Patrick Sabitzer 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yury Koledin 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.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Austria Salzburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 19 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabian Rossdorfer 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.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Austria Salzburg asked and WSG Tirol said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Maximiliano Arias 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.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
“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 Austria Salzburg know it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Austria Salzburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Austria Salzburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.01 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Florian Krebs was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. St. Pölten have kept their man, and Austria Salzburg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Austria Salzburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Austria Salzburg know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fabian Rossdorfer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Austria Salzburg 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.
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Austria Salzburg can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Austria Salzburg have made the call to WSG Tirol. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The deal with Grazer AK 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Valentin Zabransky and Admira Wacker agree another 4 years.
Adu Ares 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.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Sondre Tveiten has just signed for Admira Wacker, and for once the answer mattered.
Admira Wacker asked and Rapid Wien said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Admira Wacker is running low.
“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 Admira Wacker, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with Sturm Graz 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.
$110.0K was the most the club would pay and St. Pölten were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
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.
Admira Wacker asked and Wolfsberger AC said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Admira Wacker can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“I did not go to Austria Salzburg to sit and watch. I want to come back to Admira Wacker and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Admira Wacker they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Admira Wacker this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 May 2032
Words at Admira Wacker training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Unai Ropero 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.
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
The mood at Admira Wacker 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Admira Wacker can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Patrick Sabitzer will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Admira Wacker the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Justin Forst 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 Adu Ares was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Admira Wacker are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Adu Ares was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
In brief
The dugoutDean Titkov asks for a word with the manager
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Roberto Soares has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 18 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Patrick Sabitzer will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Admira Wacker 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 Admira Wacker this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Admira Wacker are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fin Stevens was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Admira Wacker, another week without a signature from Valentin Zabransky.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Fin Stevens was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Admira Wacker 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 Admira Wacker, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Admira Wacker this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fin Stevens was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Admira Wacker know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Admira Wacker, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Admira Wacker can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Admira Wacker 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. Patrick Sabitzer will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Admira Wacker the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Adu Ares 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Jonathan Lovera has just signed for Admira Wacker, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Unai Ropero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Adu Ares was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
The manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Admira Wacker will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Admira Wacker is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Admira Wacker this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Fernando Palacios is living that version at Admira Wacker, and it tends to show in the first month.
Austria Wien will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Aaron Sky Schwarz has pre-agreed a move to Admira Wacker, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Admira Wacker will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Admira Wacker can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Admira Wacker have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Admira Wacker have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Admira Wacker can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom2 Feb 2032
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 5 gone
That is the business done at Admira Wacker 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Admira Wacker they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Justin Forst and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Feb 2032
Fin Stevens 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Admira Wacker have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Kapfenberg for Nils Donat was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Justin Forst 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.
Squad19 Jan 2032
Fin Stevens 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.
Admira Wacker 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.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Admira Wacker know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Austria Salzburg will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Austria Salzburg can pretend not to have heard.
Florian Krebs 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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Austria Wien have kept their man, and Austria Salzburg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 Austria Salzburg know it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Kevin Lebersorger has his answer from Austria Salzburg; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“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 Admira Wacker, and it is not being withdrawn.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Marko Raguž has just signed for Admira Wacker, and for once the answer mattered.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Luca Plogmann and Admira Wacker agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The shirt still fits. Marko Raguž is back at Admira Wacker, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Justin Forst 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.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad8 Sep 2031
Words at Admira Wacker training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valentin Zabransky 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.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Admira Wacker lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Admira Wacker they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Admira Wacker this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Admira Wacker lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
15 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and WSG Tirol were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Austria Lustenau waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Admira Wacker is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
1 for Aleix Febas, marked 7.62, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
The deal with Rapid Wien 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.
Justin Forst 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.
15 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Admira Wacker have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Red Bull Salzburg have kept their man, and Admira Wacker go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Admira Wacker they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Admira Wacker can tell you which week it ends in.
Justin Forst 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.
In brief
Player ratingsJonas Mayer ran the middle of the pitch — 6.56
SquadDean Titkov falls out with a teammate over standards
“I have supported clubs like this one. I know what a bad Saturday feels like here.” The new man starts with nothing behind him and everything in front of him.
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Admira Wacker now.
Squad21 Apr 2031
Words at Admira Wacker training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valentin Zabransky 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 dugout21 Apr 2031
Ajdin Hasić is playing like a man with something to prove
The oldest phenomenon in the sport: a new voice in the dressing room and suddenly everybody is available for everything. Ajdin Hasić is training as though the last team sheet never existed, because as far as he is concerned it does not.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Admira Wacker, another week without a signature from Moreno Gompel.
“I have watched this squad. There is more in it than the table says.” First press conference, first promise — the manager made the one every new manager makes, and now comes the part where it gets checked.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Admira Wacker can pretend not to have heard.
Justin Forst 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sturm Graz have kept their man, and Admira Wacker go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ajdin Hasić has his answer from Admira Wacker; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad20 Jan 2031
Words at Admira Wacker training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Unai Ropero 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Admira Wacker are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
A new manager did not pick last season’s side and does not care what it looked like. Ajdin Hasić has taken that personally, in the best sense, and Admira Wacker are seeing a version of him the last regime had stopped seeing.