Marked for Marcel Ilsanker
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Apr 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Marcel Ilsanker
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Blau-Weiß Linz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad30 Apr 2035
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Blau-Weiß Linz will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom30 Apr 2035
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Blau-Weiß Linz is running low.
Squad30 Apr 2035
David Puntigam 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.
Squad30 Apr 2035
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Simon Seidl was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout30 Apr 2035
Borisav Burmaz has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Blau-Weiß Linz 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.
The dugout30 Apr 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jack Matthews, and the manager let it.
Loan watch30 Apr 2035
22 appearances away from home and 7 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
The dugout30 Apr 2035
Franco Pelozo 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Apr 2035
Marcel Ilsanker 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.
Match23 Apr 2035
Every point is an argument now for Blau-Weiß Linz
Position 11 and 18 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad23 Apr 2035
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Blau-Weiß Linz will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad23 Apr 2035
David Puntigam 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.
Boardroom23 Apr 2035
The numbers do not look good at Blau-Weiß Linz
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad23 Apr 2035
Abubakr Barry 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 dugout23 Apr 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Emeka Peters, and the manager let it.
The dugout23 Apr 2035
Simon Seidl has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Blau-Weiß Linz 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.
Market23 Apr 2035
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Blau-Weiß Linz, another week without a signature from Matthew Harris.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Apr 2035
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Blau-Weiß Linz lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad16 Apr 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad16 Apr 2035
Abubakr Barry 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.
Squad16 Apr 2035
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Simon Seidl was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout16 Apr 2035
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout16 Apr 2035
Abubakr Barry gets picked when it counts
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 Abubakr Barry is on it.
The dugout16 Apr 2035
Emeka Peters knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Emeka Peters trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market16 Apr 2035
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Apr 2035
Marcel Ilsanker 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.
Squad9 Apr 2035
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Blau-Weiß Linz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad9 Apr 2035
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Thomas Schiestl and Blau-Weiß Linz agree another 2 years.
Squad9 Apr 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Blau-Weiß Linz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout9 Apr 2035
Emeka Peters gets picked when it counts
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 Emeka Peters is on it.
Market9 Apr 2035
“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.
The dugout9 Apr 2035
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Blau-Weiß Linz, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market9 Apr 2035
The Simon Seidl story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Simon Seidl signs something — a contract at Blau-Weiß Linz or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout9 Apr 2035
The manager has not finished forgetting Andrew Oluwabori's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Apr 2035
45 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Blau-Weiß Linz lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad2 Apr 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 52 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom2 Apr 2035
Pressure builds in the Blau-Weiß Linz boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market2 Apr 2035
“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.
Squad2 Apr 2035
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Thomas Schiestl commits to Blau-Weiß Linz for another 2 years.
Squad2 Apr 2035
Thomas Schiestl 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.
Market2 Apr 2035
“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.
The dugout2 Apr 2035
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.
Market2 Apr 2035
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Jordan Allies has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Blau-Weiß Linz.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Jul 2034
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Blau-Weiß Linz can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2034
Blau-Weiß Linz asked and Austria 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.
Squad17 Jul 2034
Rafael Magalhães 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.
Squad17 Jul 2034
Franco Pelozo 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.
Market17 Jul 2034
Add another name to the list: Kapfenberg have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Robin van Asten. The answer from Blau-Weiß Linz has not changed — yet.
Market17 Jul 2034
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Raphael Hinteregger 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 2034
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Marcel Ilsanker 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.
Squad17 Jul 2034
Gonçalo Pinto pulls a muscle — 18 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 18 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
The dugout17 Jul 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to André Sarim, and the manager let it.