Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Emmen will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Dies Janse 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Youri Regeer 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tristan van Gilst trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Emmen know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at Emmen 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.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Roy Kortsmit’s negotiating for him
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around FAC Wien people have started saying his name in the past tense.
FAC Wien and SV Ried have settled on $250.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Lan Piskule 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.
“I did not go to Austria Klagenfurt to sit and watch. I want to come back to FAC Wien and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 30 matches say the rest.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at FAC Wien pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“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 The request is on a desk at FAC Wien, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FAC Wien have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. David Bumberger is living that version at FAC Wien, and it tends to show in the first month.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.07 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The phone has started ringing about Benjamin Leneis again, and this time the name on the line is SV Ried. FAC Wien are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at FAC Wien training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lee Kang-Hee 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Gaoussou Diakité 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.
FAC Wien asked and Altach said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FAC Wien this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Lee Kang-Hee 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.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Lan Piskule 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at FAC Wien training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lee Kang-Hee 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at FAC Wien, and 1 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason FAC Wien will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Lee Kang-Hee 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.
FAC Wien asked and Blau-Weiß Linz said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and FAC Wien will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. FAC Wien 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 FAC Wien can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Wisła Płock keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Lee Kang-Hee 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. FAC Wien will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
He is going to Grazer AK, the club has $1.7M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
FAC Wien 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.
Lan Piskule and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Lee Kang-Hee 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.
FAC Wien have made the call to Dinamo Zagreb. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.
FAC Wien and LASK have settled on $2.0M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
FAC Wien had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Zbrojovka Brno, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at FAC Wien training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lee Kang-Hee 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.
A loan enquiry to Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around FAC Wien people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 FAC Wien, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cambuur have kept their man, and FAC Wien go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at FAC Wien training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabian Wohlmuth 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.
Patrick Touray 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.
Greuther Fürth have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and FAC Wien know which stage they are at.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lukas Gabbichler trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Position 16 and 21 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FAC Wien this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 38 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for FAC Wien is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. FAC Wien know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. FAC Wien know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sturm Graz have kept their man, and FAC Wien go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Patrick Touray and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at FAC Wien training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Flavio 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 registration window is open and the phone has started. Between now and the deadline this club will be linked with forty players and sign three, which is the usual ratio.
The mood at FAC Wien 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.
Lan Piskule 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at FAC Wien, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at FAC Wien. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
SquadMoritz Neumann is training like a man with a point to make
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FAC Wien can pretend not to have heard.
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.
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 Benjamin Leneis has written the date down.
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FAC Wien 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. FAC Wien know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at FAC Wien. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
David Jaunegg 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.
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.
David Jaunegg 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 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at FAC Wien can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“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 FAC Wien, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at FAC Wien, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
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 Benjamin Leneis has written the date down.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at FAC Wien, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Giannis Niarchos 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Benjamin Leneis, and the manager let it.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at FAC Wien training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mirnes Bećirović 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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FAC Wien can pretend not to have heard.
Lan Piskule 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 Vladimir Lučić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Constantin Reiner trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Moritz Neumann is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Lan Piskule 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 Vladimir Lučić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FAC Wien this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 38 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for FAC Wien is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
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 Benjamin Leneis has written the date down.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and David Nieland trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
David Jaunegg 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 Vladimir Lučić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lukas Gabbichler trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Lan Piskule 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at FAC Wien training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giannis Niarchos 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.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order FAC Wien prefer.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Maximilian Sabitzer chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
“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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at FAC Wien training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mirnes Bećirović 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at FAC Wien, and both men came out saying it was fine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.37 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FAC Wien this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mirnes Bećirović. 2‑0 against Austria Lustenau, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
5 matches without a win, and then this, against Austria Lustenau. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Mame Wade was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.24. 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Mame Wade 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Maximilian Sabitzer could afford to be generous.
1‑4 to Austria 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.
Tomislav Glavan 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Benjamin Leneis, and the manager let it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Mame Wade 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.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
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.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
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 1‑4 defeat, delivered by Maximilian Sabitzer to a room that had heard them before.
6 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.
Mame Wade 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 Mirnes Bećirović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
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 0‑3 Maximilian Sabitzer left the room before anybody could ask which.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
7.71, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at FAC Wien training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mame Wade 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 FAC Wien this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. FAC Wien told Mame Wade something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Maximilian Sabitzer was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the FAC Wien dressing room was either.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at FAC Wien, and both men came out saying it was fine.
10 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and FC Liefering were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Habib Coulibaly is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Habib Coulibaly 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.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
6 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.
“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 FAC Wien, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
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 7.52 for the rest of it.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $35.0K — a club that wants Tolga Öztürk enough to be asked twice.
The deal with Stripfing 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.
The offer went to Amstetten this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between FAC Wien and Hertha Wels, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hertha Wels have kept their man, and FAC Wien go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Nyíregyháza is saying, and nobody at FAC Wien is enjoying the guessing.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Andreas Trimmel 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Dejan Baumgartner 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Patrick Baumgartner 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Guido Wimmer is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and FAC Wien know which stage they are at.