Marked for Philipp Schulz
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Mainz 05 asked and St. Pauli said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market28 Jun 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Mainz 05, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market28 Jun 2027
The bid was some way short and Mainz 05 did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
The terraces28 Jun 2027
Mainz 05 sell a favourite for $28.6M
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Nadiem Amiri was one of the reasons people came, and $28.6M does not replace that by itself.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
The manager makes an example of Adam Taggart
“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.
Market28 Jun 2027
Maxim Leitsch is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Mainz 05 has been clear about where Maxim Leitsch stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
Tiago Tomás knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Mainz 05, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
The paperwork begins on Tiago Tomás
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Mainz 05 have done the hard part with VfB Stuttgart, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Match20 Jan 2027
Bayern Munich ended it 0‑3. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Market25 Jan 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Mainz 05, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Silas was unplayable
Successful dribbles: 33. 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.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
No deal for Keke Topp at that price
Mainz 05 offered $8.1M; Werder Bremen 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.
The terraces25 Jan 2027
0-3. Going out of a cup is one afternoon; going out like that is a week of phone-ins, and the manager will hear every one of them.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match23 Jan 2027
The wait goes on for Mainz 05
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Mainz 05
Benedict Hollerbach and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Mainz 05 have gone to Cruzeiro 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.
Market4 Jan 2027
The bid was some way short and Mainz 05 did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
The offer went to Heidenheim 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.
Match2 Jan 2027
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 11 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Market4 Jan 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mainz 05 can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
The deal with Bayern Munich 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Kaishu Sano in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mainz 05 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market4 Jan 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Nadiem Amiri has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Mainz 05.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Racing Genk have kept their man, and Mainz 05 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.