109 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nürnberg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Nürnberg have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Jan Reichert 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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at Nürnberg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Julian Justvan 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.
Preußen Münster paid $120.0K and Nürnberg took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Nürnberg asked and RB Leipzig said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nürnberg can pretend not to have heard.
Joe Gelhardt 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.
Add another name to the list: Hertha BSC have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Sam Adekugbe. The answer from Nürnberg has not changed — yet.
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.
Holstein Kiel paid $200.0K and Nürnberg took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Borussia Dortmund have kept their man, and Nürnberg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Austria Wien 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Nürnberg, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: O'Higgins keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Keven Schlotterbeck 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Nürnberg can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Julian Justvan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
39 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nürnberg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nürnberg can pretend not to have heard.
Joe Gelhardt 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Nürnberg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Julian Justvan 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Nürnberg are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Jan Reichert is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Nürnberg know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luka Lochoshvili trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nürnberg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
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.
8 goals in 31 games at Torreense — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Nürnberg updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Nürnberg has been clear about where Styopa Mkrtchyan stands, which is more than many ever get.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Keven Schlotterbeck and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Nürnberg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Julian Justvan 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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Adriano Grimaldi’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Nürnberg needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pyunik 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 Eric Boakye was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Vadim Uljanov'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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pyunik have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
1 for Pedro Ivo, marked 7.70, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pyunik they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pyunik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Pyunik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eric Boakye 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Witi is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Pyunik know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Albert Gareginyan is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Eric Boakye 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 watch every Pyunik game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Urartu runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Styopa Mkrtchyan is on it.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Pyunik will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Position 4 on 31 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nürnberg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nürnberg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Jobe Bellingham scored, was marked 7.62, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Nürnberg close the window on a squad of their own making
7 in and 4 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
“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.
Noah will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Eric Boakye has pre-agreed a move to Pyunik, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at Pyunik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hovhannes Harutyunyan 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.
Anton Sinyak 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.
Nobody at Pyunik will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Position 4 on 31 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
The offer from Van for Yegor Baburin 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.
Albert Gareginyan 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 terraces17 Jan 2028
Pyunik spend $940.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $940.0K for Malik Odeyinka, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Erik Simonyan 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.
Pyunik asked and Shirak said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
7 new faces, and Pyunik 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Pyunik has been clear about where Sergiy Vakulenko stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
The dugoutErik Simonyan asks for a word with the manager
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pyunik lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Mika waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Pyunik is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Iman Griffith had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The clubs have shaken hands with Alashkert; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pyunik is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Pyunik had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Noah, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Vadim Uljanov 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pyunik lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Add another name to the list: Mika have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Erik Simonyan. The answer from Pyunik has not changed — yet.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Pyunik had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Erik Petrosyan 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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Pyunik will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The words a physio says slowly. 34 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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at Pyunik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erik Simonyan 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.
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.
Miguel Velosa 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 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.
Position 4, 31 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
64 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nürnberg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Nürnberg are no longer polite ones.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Nürnberg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Julian Justvan 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.
“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 Nürnberg, and 0 appearances in 19 say he has earned the hearing.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Luka Lochoshvili has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
65 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pyunik lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alexandr Andreev is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
19 appearances and 44 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and James was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Pyunik will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Pyunik will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
73 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pyunik lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pyunik have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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 Pyunik have had the benefit of it.
Vadim Uljanov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Pyunik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robert Darbinyan 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Styopa Mkrtchyan is on it.
Position 4 on 31 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pyunik, and both men came out saying it was fine.
43 goals in 17 games at Urartu — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Pyunik updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Sergiy Vakulenko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Pyunik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. James 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.
Nobody at Pyunik will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Nikos Kainourgios has his answer from Pyunik; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Iman Griffith trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Pyunik had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Alashkert, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Styopa Mkrtchyan is on it.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Pyunik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Momo Yansané 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pyunik, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Pyunik have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Pyunik know it.
Alemão 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Pyunik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hovhannes Harutyunyan 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.
A loan enquiry to Krylya Sovetov: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pyunik, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Alashkert is saying, and nobody at Pyunik is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pyunik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Pyunik will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Pyunik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robert Darbinyan 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.
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.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nürnberg will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The offer from Hannover 96 for Jan Reichert 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Pyunik waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Nürnberg is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The deal that would have taken Christian Mathenia to SC Paderborn has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Nürnberg with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Daniel Hanslik 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Alashkert keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Pyunik have done the hard part with Nürnberg, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Alemão 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Pyunik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hovhannes Harutyunyan 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Pyunik can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nürnberg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Nürnberg people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Fortuna Düsseldorf for Rafael Lubach 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nürnberg can pretend not to have heard.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Werder Bremen is saying, and nobody at Nürnberg is enjoying the guessing.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Nürnberg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Julian Justvan 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 Nürnberg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nürnberg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from Kaiserslautern for Jan Reichert 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.
Daniel Hanslik 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 Jun 2027
Words at Nürnberg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jan Reichert 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.
Nürnberg asked and Bayer Leverkusen 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 not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Nürnberg are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The words a physio says slowly. 56 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nürnberg will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sandro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nürnberg, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.