Marked for Leon Klußmann
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Aug 2026
Grodig bow out of the cup
SV Ried go through and Grodig go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Grodig, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match29 Aug 2026
The wait goes on for Grodig
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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The paperwork begins on Romeo Vučić
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Grodig have done the hard part with Austria Wien, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Grodig asked and TSG Hoffenheim said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Grodig training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leon Klußmann 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 dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Leon Klußmann
“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 dugout31 Aug 2026
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.” Marko Hinteregger chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 Aug 2026
0‑3 to Sturm Graz, 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Grodig can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Wolfsberger AC, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Grodig's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Grodig has to find a result from somewhere.
Match22 Aug 2026
Grodig cannot find the net
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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rapid Wien have kept their man, and Grodig go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Leon Klußmann 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 dugout24 Aug 2026
“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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
Doors closed at Grodig
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Aug 2026
Grodig say no — this time
The offer from PSM for Jake Dennis 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Grodig
Leon Klußmann and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match15 Aug 2026
Grodig cannot find the net
3 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rapid Wien have kept their man, and Grodig go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match15 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market17 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Grodig, another week without a signature from Denis Thomalla.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Grodig training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Simon Ernemann 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Altach: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
In brief
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The dugout
Vlado Graboviča knocks on the manager’s door
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Looking ahead
Grodig take on the side everybody is chasing
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Squad
No place for Adama Dramé in the new shape
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Grodig 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Grodig
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leon Klußmann was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad10 Aug 2026
David Drljić in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Grodig this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. David 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Thomas Lainer 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Markus Lainer 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Christoph Lazaro 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
10 new faces, and Grodig 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Altach: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.