33 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rapid Wien this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Daley Blind 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Matthias Seidl was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.37. 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rapid Wien this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Rapid Wien training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daley Blind 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 figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Matthias Seidl 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.
At 23 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.
Serge-Philippe Raux-Yao 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
“I watch every Rapid Wien game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Rodina runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Sturm Graz defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
In brief
Player ratingsA defender's afternoon for Jannes Horn
At 39 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.02 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rapid Wien this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Marcel Weimann is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Marked 9.49 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Tobias Gulliksen 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.
Marked 8.32 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
24 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rapid Wien this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Rapid Wien training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Serge-Philippe Raux-Yao 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
276% of the income goes out in wages at Rapid Wien
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Defensive actions: 19, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Marc Cardona was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.21. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rapid Wien this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Janis Antiste 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.
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.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Grodig? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
In brief
Player ratingsThe chances came and went for Marc Cardona
Beaten 0‑1 by Austria Wien in the one fixture that is never just a fixture. Work, school, the corner shop — there will be no getting away from this one.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Serge-Philippe Raux-Yao 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Rapid Wien training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daley Blind 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.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.29 at 39, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Matthias Seidl 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Daley Blind 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Tobias Gulliksen 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.
8 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The deal that would have taken Amīn-Elias Gröller to Mattersburg has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Rapid Wien with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Serge-Philippe Raux-Yao 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rapid Wien this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Daley Blind 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.
“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 Rapid Wien, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rapid Wien this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Rapid Wien training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daley Blind 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. Ange Ahoussou 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rapid Wien this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Janis Antiste 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.
Interest from Red Bull Salzburg is the one kind Rapid Wien cannot discuss calmly. The player has said nothing; the supporters have said everything, most of it unprintable.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Rapid Wien know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Sturm Graz? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Rapid Wien have paid $3.1M for Jalal Abdullai, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Serge-Philippe Raux-Yao and Rapid Wien agree another 4 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rapid Wien this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Daley Blind 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.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Jalal Abdullai from Molde for $3.1M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rapid Wien this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Rapid Wien training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bendegúz Bolla 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.
Still no offer on the table, and Bendegúz Bolla’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Rapid Wien has been clear about where Yusuf Demir stands, which is more than many ever get.