Marked for Marcel Junuzovic
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces1 Dec 2031
Anger at SV Ried spills outside the ground
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.
Boardroom1 Dec 2031
Pressure builds in the SV Ried boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad1 Dec 2031
A row about effort at SV Ried
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yusuf Maart was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad1 Dec 2031
Words exchanged at SV Ried
Patrick Lazaro 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 dugout1 Dec 2031
Lukas Fuchs gets it from the manager
“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.
The dugout1 Dec 2031
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. SV Ried told Ivan Furmanov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad1 Dec 2031
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at SV Ried has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Squad1 Dec 2031
The table is being checked before the results are in, which is always the tell. Nobody at SV Ried says the word and every senior player in the building is thinking it.
The dugout1 Dec 2031
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Marcel Junuzovic trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Apr 2031
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SV Ried they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout7 Apr 2031
Julian Lazaro: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” SV Ried have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom7 Apr 2031
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Gabriele Finocchiaro 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 Apr 2031
A row about effort at SV Ried
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yusuf Maart was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market7 Apr 2031
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad7 Apr 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Patrick Lazaro commits to SV Ried for another 3 years.
Squad7 Apr 2031
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Conrad Scholl has moved up it.
The dugout7 Apr 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marcel Junuzovic, and the manager let it.
The dugout7 Apr 2031
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Jan 2031
57 days out for Radek Ondroušek after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. SV Ried will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market13 Jan 2031
Rapid Wien come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and SV Ried did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad13 Jan 2031
A row about effort at SV Ried
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yusuf Maart was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets13 Jan 2031
SV Ried asked and Newcastle United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets13 Jan 2031
A loan enquiry to Sturm Graz: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets13 Jan 2031
A loan move for Massimo Zilli is in the works
SV Ried have made the call to Bologna. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad13 Jan 2031
Marcel Junuzovic 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.
Market13 Jan 2031
Admira Wacker are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. SV Ried will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
The dugout13 Jan 2031
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match23 Nov 2030
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Admira Wacker, and it could have been more.
Match25 Nov 2030
The season ends: position 7 for SV Ried
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 19 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Squad25 Nov 2030
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Player ratings25 Nov 2030
Marked 9.48 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings25 Nov 2030
Gabriele Finocchiaro was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.39. 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.
The dugout25 Nov 2030
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad25 Nov 2030
Darwin Balanta 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.
Squad25 Nov 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SV Ried this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout25 Nov 2030
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” the manager, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Oct 2030
0‑3 to Red Bull Salzburg, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match7 Oct 2030
SV Ried sink to position 8
10 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Match5 Oct 2030
4 matches without a win for SV Ried
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around SV Ried are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Oct 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Philipp Pomer and SV Ried agree another 2 years.
Squad7 Oct 2030
Yusuf Maart 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.
Match5 Oct 2030
SV Ried are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad7 Oct 2030
At 18 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. SV Ried will try not to make too much of it.
Boardroom7 Oct 2030
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout7 Oct 2030
the manager faces the questions
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” the manager after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Jul 2030
Anteo Fetahu breaks a bone — 123 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 123 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout29 Jul 2030
Matthew Taylor: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” SV Ried have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Transfer targets29 Jul 2030
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. SV Ried have done the hard part with Atlético Madrid, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Boardroom29 Jul 2030
5 academy graduates step up at SV Ried
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Squad29 Jul 2030
Yusuf Maart 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 targets29 Jul 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. VfL Wolfsburg have kept their man, and SV Ried go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market29 Jul 2030
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Valentino Alaba is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market29 Jul 2030
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Konrad Junuzovic 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.
Market29 Jul 2030
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Marcel Junuzovic is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.