Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Bonaventure Lendambi is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
A season average of 7.00 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Danny Schmidt 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. Danny Schmidt 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.
Marcus Maier 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Danny Schmidt 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Jan Stefanon has his answer from Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Atsushi Zaizen's mistake
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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.80 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Marcus Maier 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Sturm Graz II tried to reorganise, Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
At 21 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz will try not to make too much of it.
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for John Dembe
9Edition
The Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz Chronicle
28 Sep 2026
From our football correspondentSteady
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
John Dembe, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.04
A mark of 8.04 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Danny Schmidt 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.
Level with 85 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz had all but put away. St. Pölten will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
7 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.
“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.
John Dembe, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.90
A mark of 7.90 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danny Schmidt was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 21 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: John Dembe. 2‑0 against Austria Lustenau, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.11 — 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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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.” Marko Wimmer kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“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 Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Florian Prirsch and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Jan Stefanon 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.
In brief
The dugoutMarcus Maier knocks on the manager's door
“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 Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 21 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz 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.
Marcus Maier 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.
Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz offered $65.0K; Austria Lustenau said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danny Schmidt was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz ran out of time with Grazer AK. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Kapfenberg go through and Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $68.2K — a club that wants Ibrahim Ouattara enough to be asked twice.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Viktoria Plzen is saying, and nobody at Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz is enjoying the guessing.
Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz asked and KuPS 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 Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz have gone to Austria Lustenau with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Levan Eloshvili. 3‑2 against Young Violets, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Levan Eloshvili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz have done the hard part with Viktoria Plzen, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz 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.
Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz offered $21.0K; Austria Salzburg said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Julian Gölles has, at Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $22.8K — a club that wants Edin Omerović enough to be asked twice.
Marcus Maier 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 Levan Eloshvili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Marko Martinović has his answer from Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
In brief
The dugoutHalf-satisfied: Marko Wimmer on the draw
“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 Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz have done the hard part with Fortuna Düsseldorf, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Red Bull Salzburg keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The offer went to Austria Salzburg 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Christoph Alaba has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Thomas Weimann is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sebastian Dirnberger and Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Sebastian Dirnberger 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz, another week without a signature from Lars Nussbaumer.