It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at TSG Hoffenheim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.42 — 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at TSG Hoffenheim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.53 — 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.
The chase for Chupete ended with $12.0M changing hands and Málaga out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Oliver Baumann 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.
Andreas Meier is 16, and TSG Hoffenheim 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.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at TSG Hoffenheim would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Wouter Burger and TSG Hoffenheim agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about 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 TSG Hoffenheim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Wouter Burger trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at TSG Hoffenheim, another week without a signature from Ozan Kabak.
“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 The request is on a desk at TSG Hoffenheim, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at TSG Hoffenheim heard it as anything else.
Oliver Baumann 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.
Still no offer on the table, and Vladimír Coufal’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.