It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hartberg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Words at Hartberg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jan Žambůrek 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.
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Gernot Ulmer to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody at Hartberg 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hartberg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hartberg can pretend not to have heard.
The deal with Austria Klagenfurt 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.
Dario Marešić 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.
Hartberg asked and Austria Lustenau said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikolas Veratschnig was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 34 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Nobody at Hartberg 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.
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hartberg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hartberg can pretend not to have heard.
Hartberg asked and Austria Lustenau said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Add another name to the list: Hapoel Kfar Saba have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Musibau Aziz. The answer from Hartberg has not changed — yet.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Words at Hartberg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikolas Veratschnig 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hartberg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
74 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hartberg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Hartberg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Dario Marešić 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jan Žambůrek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Hartberg 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Hartberg has been clear about where Jonathan Scherzer stands, which is more than many ever get.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Red Bull Salzburg will make the call about Thierry Gale this week. Hartberg have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Hartberg have made the call to Red Bull Salzburg. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
97 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hartberg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 111 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hartberg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Younes Zöllner is living that version at Hartberg, and it tends to show in the first month.
Nobody at Hartberg 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.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Hartberg, another week without a signature from Jonathan Scherzer.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Hartberg, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hartberg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Andreas Radics has, at Hartberg, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
Nobody at Hartberg 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jed Drew trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Mark Helm has written the date down.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hartberg will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Herold 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. Austria Wien have kept their man, and Hartberg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 106 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Words at Hartberg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Herold 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. LASK have kept their man, and Hartberg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Rúben Dantas Fernandes 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.
Everybody at Hartberg 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.
Hartberg have made the call to Austria Klagenfurt. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hartberg 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 Hartberg, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Hartberg have done the hard part with Amstetten, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Jacob Brown 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Jonathan Macaulay has, at Hartberg, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fabian Wilfinger was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Hartberg asked and Sturm Graz said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hartberg will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Herold was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Sturm Graz will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Alexander Eckmayr has pre-agreed a move to Hartberg, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Patrick Touray 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.
Tom Hülsmann and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Nov 2028
David Herold 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.
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 Jan Žambůrek is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tom Hülsmann signs something — a contract at Hartberg or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
Position 10 and 8 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.
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.
Pius Grabher 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.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Hartberg, another week without a signature from Jonathan Scherzer.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jed Drew trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hartberg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
1‑2 against Union SG. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Iza scored, was marked 7.44, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fabian Wilfinger was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A mark of 7.86, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad25 Sep 2028
7 new faces, and Hartberg are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Jonathan Scherzer will call it something else in private.
In brief
The dugoutKarim Onisiwo dropped after a run of poor form
53 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hartberg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hartberg 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 David Herold was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Hartberg know which stage they are at.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
69 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hartberg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hartberg can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 26 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at Hartberg 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.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Words at Hartberg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lukas Spendlhofer 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rapid Wien have kept their man, and Hartberg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Tobias Kainz damages knee ligaments — 120 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 120 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.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hartberg can pretend not to have heard.
Everything was agreed with Red Bull Salzburg and then the doctor spoke. Hartberg have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Harald Postl will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hartberg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Words at Hartberg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lukas Spendlhofer 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 afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Hartberg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lukas Spendlhofer 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.
At 21 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Hartberg will try not to make too much of it.
Something was said to Cheick Conde and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Gernot Ulmer left the room before anybody could ask which.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Anton Matković. 1‑0 against WSG Tirol, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad22 Nov 2027
David Peham 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Edin Omerović 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 dugout22 Nov 2027
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.” Gernot Ulmer kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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 Jed Drew is on it.