Marked for Nick Scharkowski
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Sep 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 113 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.
Match11 Sep 2027
No end in sight to Grodig's wait for a win
14 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Grodig has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Akaki Gogia 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.
Match11 Sep 2027
Grodig are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Transfer targets13 Sep 2027
The clock did what Rapid Wien would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Grodig training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrick Bauer 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.
Match11 Sep 2027
Admira Wacker left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Robert Völkl, and the manager let it.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Aug 2027
148 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Grodig lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match7 Aug 2027
The wait goes on for Grodig
8 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 targets9 Aug 2027
$100.0K settles it between the clubs for Michael Sollbauer
SV Ried have accepted the money. What Grodig do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Match7 Aug 2027
No clean sheets in sight for Grodig
7 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Everything agreed with Admira Wacker, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad9 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Grodig
Akaki Gogia and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match7 Aug 2027
1‑3 to Austria Wien, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad9 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Grodig
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Patrick Bauer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Jun 2027
The knee: Daniel Leitz out for 53 days
53 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Grodig lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market7 Jun 2027
“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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words exchanged at Grodig
Akaki Gogia 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Patrick Bauer 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 targets7 Jun 2027
A loan enquiry to Feyenoord: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
Red Bull Salzburg 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.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
“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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
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. Nick Scharkowski has moved up it.
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
Open for business: Grodig enter the window
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Sep 2026
The wait goes on for Grodig
10 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
No clean sheets in sight for Grodig
9 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.31 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Grodig
Akaki Gogia 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Grodig
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mario Pokar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Akaki Gogia beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match28 Sep 2026
The half-term report on Grodig
Position 10, 2 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 2‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.