Maximilian Laimer and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Stripfing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Xaver Wimmer 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Xaver Wimmer signs something — a contract at Stripfing or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Junior Robinson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Luka Caculović 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 Kevin Trimmel trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Maximilian Laimer 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 Apr 2027
Xaver Wimmer 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 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Stripfing, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Charlie Penman is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Stripfing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Xaver Wimmer 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 happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stripfing 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Stripfing, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Maximilian Laimer and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Xaver Wimmer 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 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 Patrick Touray 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 Simon Caillet trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Stripfing heard it as anything else.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Stripfing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Xaver Wimmer 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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Stripfing told Dinis Rodrigues something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
11 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.
Dominik Onisiwo 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Stripfing, and both men came out saying it was fine.
54 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Kennet Eichhorn, 17, plays like he has been here for years — 8.21
A mark of 8.21 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 17-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stripfing can pretend not to have heard.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Michael Lang and Stripfing agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Stripfing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maximilian Laimer 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 Stripfing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 17-year-old it feels ownership of. Kennet Eichhorn 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stripfing can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Xaver Wimmer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
David Posch 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.
22 appearances and 7 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ivan Ostojić, and the manager let it.
The dugout1 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.” Julian Onisiwo chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dinis Rodrigues did not need any: 7.62, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Stripfing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Xaver Wimmer 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 21 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.
Level with 92 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Stripfing had all but put away. FAC Wien will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
“I watch every Stripfing game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Altach runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Kparobo Arierhi will call it something else in private.
Xaver Wimmer 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.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Romeo Vučić. 1‑0 against Amstetten, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stripfing can pretend not to have heard.
Maximilian Laimer 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Tomás Aristizábal has just signed for Stripfing, and for once the answer mattered.
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Xaver Wimmer 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Stripfing know it.
“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 Stripfing, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Matthieu Cuirassier is living that version at Stripfing, and it tends to show in the first month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stripfing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Xaver Wimmer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Stripfing asked and Bradford City 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 17 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: David Posch. 1‑0 against Austria Klagenfurt, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
Looking aheadThe big one: Admira Wacker come into view
Player ratingsNinety minutes of David Posch at his very best
Player ratingsXaver Wimmer beats them one at a time
Two goals and a mark of 8.32 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Stripfing had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at SV Elversberg, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Stripfing hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Karviná have kept their man, and Stripfing go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Marked 8.02 — 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.
“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 Stripfing, and it is not being withdrawn.
Blau-Weiß Linz pay $290.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Xaver Wimmer 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.
Stripfing 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.
Michael Wober 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 23 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.
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.
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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Maximilian Laimer had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stripfing can pretend not to have heard.
Position 3, 36 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Maximilian Laimer 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.
St. Pölten left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Stripfing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christoph Kalajdzic 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Julian Onisiwo after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“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 Stripfing, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Wolfsberger AC for Maximilian Laimer 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.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Stripfing have had the benefit of it.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.27 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 Stripfing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hartberg have kept their man, and Stripfing go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Stripfing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Xaver Wimmer 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.
Markus Arnautovic 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.
4 groups that do not mix, and 3 players belonging to none of them. Nothing here can be fined or dropped, which is why it lasts longer than any row that can.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Xaver Wimmer 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.
A 2‑0 win over Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Xaver Wimmer was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.40. 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.
“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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Stripfing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christoph Kalajdzic 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Julian Onisiwo could afford to be generous.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Ivan Ostojić
Austria Salzburg will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Stripfing were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
The hardest thing about being 17 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kennet Eichhorn did not need any: 8.00, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Maximilian Laimer 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 23 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.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Austria Salzburg spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
18 combined actions and 7.01. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Stripfing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Xaver Wimmer 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
David Posch was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.20. 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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Luka Caculović
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Stripfing has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Stripfing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Xaver Wimmer 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 Stripfing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Half the programme played, position 5, 23 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
“I watch every Stripfing game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Altach runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
0‑3 against FC Liefering, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Maximilian Laimer 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Simon Caillet is living that version at Stripfing, and it tends to show in the first month.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Konrad Ulmer and Stripfing agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout23 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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Julian Onisiwo to a room that had heard them before.
Simon Caillet is 20, and Stripfing have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Maximilian Laimer 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Stripfing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Xaver Wimmer 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Christoph Junuzovic trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against FC Liefering in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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 Patrick Touray has written the date down.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
Xaver Wimmer 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.
Markus Arnautovic 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Julian Onisiwo to a room that had heard them before.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Position 2, 23 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
“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 Stripfing, and 3 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Marked 7.46. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout2 Nov 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.” Julian Onisiwo chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The captaincy has been taken off Christoph Junuzovic. Stripfing will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
Maximilian Laimer 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 Xaver Wimmer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 23 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Romeo Vučić. 2‑0 against Amstetten, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Stripfing have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kennet Eichhorn is 17, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Xaver Wimmer 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 Markus Arnautovic, and the manager let it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Stripfing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christoph Kalajdzic 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 dugout19 Oct 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 0‑2 Julian Onisiwo left the room before anybody could ask which.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Stripfing told Alexander Murillo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Stripfing told Kennet Eichhorn something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad12 Oct 2026
8 new faces, and Stripfing 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Stripfing, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Xaver Wimmer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Stripfing prefer.
It needed Philipp Laimer to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Austria Klagenfurt, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“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.
In brief
The dugoutLuka Caculović dropped after a run of poor form
Maximilian Laimer 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.
A 1‑0 win over Hertha Wels, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Stripfing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Xaver Wimmer 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Xaver Wimmer was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.26. 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Julian Onisiwo could afford to be generous.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
In brief
Looking aheadA test against the best for Stripfing
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Stripfing will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Sturm Graz II scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
It needed Alexander Murillo to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Sturm Graz II, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Maximilian Laimer may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stripfing can pretend not to have heard.
$74.0K was the most the club would pay and Austria Wien were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nyíregyháza have kept their man, and Stripfing go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Valentino Prass, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Xaver Wimmer 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.
Patrick Touray 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
8 new faces, and Stripfing 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.
“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 Stripfing, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 8 arrived, 11 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $77.9K — a club that wants Fabian Janković enough to be asked twice.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Werder Bremen keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The offer went to Austria Wien 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.
Admira Wacker paid $480.0K and Stripfing took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
At 19 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Stripfing will try not to make too much of it.
“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 Stripfing, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Michael Laimer had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Stripfing asked and FC Annecy said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Xaver Wimmer 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.
A 1‑0 win over Austria Lustenau, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The offer from Omonia 29M for Michael Laimer 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.
“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 Stripfing, and it is not being withdrawn.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Dominik Ulmer was one of the reasons people came, and $3.3M does not replace that by itself.
Stripfing asked and Admira Wacker said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Maximilian Laimer 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 Xaver Wimmer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The offer from Kapfenberg for Dominik Ulmer 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.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $660.0K has been paid because Romeo Vučić is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hartberg have kept their man, and Stripfing go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $166.9K — a club that wants Abdoulaye Kanté enough to be asked twice.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stripfing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$160.0K on the table at Austria Wien. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Rapid Wien paid $770.0K and Stripfing took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
$160.0K was the most the club would pay and Blau-Weiß Linz were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Successful dribbles: 41. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Michael Laimer, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.80
A mark of 7.80 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The offer from Wolfsberger AC for Christian Graf 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.
The deal with Austria Wien 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $166.9K — a club that wants João Luiz enough to be asked twice.
Maximilian Laimer 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.
$160.0K on the table at Blau-Weiß Linz. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Stripfing asked and Austria 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.
Young Violets will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Stripfing were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Michael Laimer could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.32
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.32, 1 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A brace, and David Posch takes the afternoon — 8.35
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. David Posch provided it, and the 8.35 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Stripfing have gone to Rapid Wien 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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Maximilian Laimer and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Stripfing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Xaver Wimmer 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.
Stripfing asked and Eintracht Braunschweig said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is 17 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.