“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 The request is on a desk at VfB Stuttgart, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Timon Wellenreuther is living that version at VfB Stuttgart, and it tends to show in the first month.
Jamie Leweling 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.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Deniz Undav was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Atakan Karazor, and the manager let it.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at VfB Stuttgart training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tiago Tomás is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There were 89 minutes on the clock and Union Berlin had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Eintracht Frankfurt did not stop to explain themselves.
Arthur Theate 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 had been thinking. Ritsu Doan 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: 44. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Can Uzun, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.91
A mark of 7.91 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 Eintracht Frankfurt this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Hugo Larsson 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 goal that put Köln ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Eintracht Frankfurt equalised, 3 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Kauã Santos wants continental football; whether Eintracht Frankfurt can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.72 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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 Eintracht Frankfurt hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Can Uzun 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.
Mario Götze 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 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nnamdi Collins is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Arthur Theate 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 had been thinking. Ritsu Doan 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 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.86 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Eintracht Frankfurt this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Ritsu Doan 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 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.
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.
Arthur Theate was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Can Uzun has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Rogério wants continental football; whether Eintracht Frankfurt can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Mario Götze 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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ritsu Doan 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 ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Ritsu Doan was the best thing in any of them.
“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 Eintracht Frankfurt hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mario Götze and Eintracht Frankfurt agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Arthur Theate 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 had been thinking. Ritsu Doan 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.