The chase for Jussef Nasrawe ended with $9.0M changing hands and SV Ried out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The phone has started ringing about Steve Mounié again, and this time the name on the line is Mainz 05. FC Augsburg are listening politely and promising nothing.
Tim Hoffmann 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.
Nobody at FC Augsburg 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dan Sinaté was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. FC Augsburg 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 Maximilian Bauer trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The offer from Fortuna Düsseldorf for Kwon Hyeok-Kyu 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 chase for Enis Kamga ended with $1.2M changing hands and Kaiserslautern out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Words at Karlsruher SC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marvin Wanitzek 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.
Marcello Trippel is 20, and Karlsruher SC 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.
19 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FC Augsburg can pretend not to have heard.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Killian Corredor has, at FC Augsburg, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Riku Yamane was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces19 Jun 2028
FC Augsburg spend $9.7M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $9.7M for Killian Corredor, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Tim Hoffmann 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.
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 Andrés Martín is on it.
FC Augsburg offered $54.3M; Bayer Leverkusen 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.
“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 FC Augsburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with Karlsruher SC 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.
Robin Fellhauer 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.
Words at FC Augsburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Riku Yamane 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.
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Karlsruher SC lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 17 and 29 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and FC Augsburg waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Karlsruher SC is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Rav van den Berg was one of the reasons people came, and $13.1M does not replace that by itself.
Everything agreed with SV Elversberg, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marvin Wanitzek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
FC Augsburg have gone to Bayer Leverkusen 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around FC Augsburg people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 FC Augsburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer went to Hannover 96 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at FC Augsburg heard it as anything else.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Darmstadt 98 will make the call about Uchenna Ogundu this week. FC Augsburg have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Karlsruher SC 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.
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Karlsruher SC lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom5 Jun 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Karlsruher SC
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“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 Karlsruher SC, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Union Berlin for Hans Christian Bernat 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 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.
Hans Christian Bernat 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 phone has started ringing about Tim Hoffmann again, and this time the name on the line is FC Augsburg. Karlsruher SC are listening politely and promising nothing.
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 Karlsruher SC 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 Tunde was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad29 May 2028
6 new faces, and Karlsruher SC 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 Karlsruher SC, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Karlsruher SC has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
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.
Tim Hoffmann 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gergő Gyurkits trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Paksi will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Tim Hoffmann 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.
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Paksi could ask drops and the wages József Windecker can ask rise.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Paksi has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Paksi. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
9 seasons and 467 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
37 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Noah Botic was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Karlsruher SC, another week without a signature from Sam Adekugbe.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Paksi will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Paksi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Tim Hoffmann 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 Louey Ben Farhat was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Paksi lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Paksi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Akos Nagy 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 Louey Ben Farhat was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Paksi could ask drops and the wages József Windecker can ask rise.
10 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Hans Christian Bernat 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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Karlsruher SC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marvin Wanitzek 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 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 Karlsruher SC know it.
Day 9 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Paksi will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Paksi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Gergő Gyurkits 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Paksi can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
In brief
The dugoutErik Silye asks for a word with the manager
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 42 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Position 12 and 5 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
392 appearances across 12 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Paksi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Paksi, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Paksi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Tim Hoffmann 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 Louey Ben Farhat was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Paksi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Paksi 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 Louey Ben Farhat was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Paksi could ask drops and the wages József Windecker can ask rise.
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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Paksi has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
In brief
The dugoutBálint Rideg knocks on the manager’s door
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Bence Lenzsér
7 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Karlsruher SC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Karlsruher SC heard it as anything else.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Karlsruher SC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Glushenkov 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 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 Karlsruher SC 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 Paksi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Akos Nagy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Paksi, another week without a signature from Ádám Kovácsik.
The table has started to be checked before the results are in, and that is always the tell. Nobody at Paksi says the word out loud, and everybody in the building is thinking it.
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 Istvan Orban has written the date down.
In brief
The dugoutZoltán Pesti knocks on the manager’s door
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Besar Halimi
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Position 12 and 5 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Louey Ben Farhat 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 used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Everything agreed with Borussia Dortmund, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Add another name to the list: Paksi have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Tim Hoffmann. The answer from Karlsruher SC has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marvin Wanitzek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Karlsruher SC know it.
“I watch every Karlsruher SC game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hannover 96 runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Maxim Glushenkov is in the works
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Paksi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 15 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Louey Ben Farhat 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. Akos Nagy 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.
Paksi asked and Volos NPS said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Paksi have made the call to Karlsruher SC. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Borussia Dortmund have kept their man, and Karlsruher SC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.03 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The fee is $620.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Dynamo Dresden drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Lucas Digne 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Noah Botic. 1‑0 against St. Pauli, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Hertha BSC asked and Frosinone said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The clubs have shaken hands with FC Augsburg; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Derlis Gonzalez has, at Hertha BSC, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The shirt still fits. Derlis Gonzalez is back at Hertha BSC, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Jón Dagur Þorsteinsson 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.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Hertha BSC will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Michaël Cuisance trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A clause somebody insisted on years ago, in a negotiation nobody remembers, has just paid Hertha BSC $400.0K. Tim Hoffmann left a long time ago; the paperwork stayed.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Karlsruher SC can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Karlsruher SC can pretend not to have heard.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Hans Christian Bernat: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
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.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Karlsruher SC can tell you which week it ends in.
At 21 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.
Marcel Sabitzer 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 Marvin Wanitzek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Tim Hoffmann is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Nürnberg in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Karlsruher SC. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Karlsruher SC 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 Rav van den Berg was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rav van den Berg trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Christoph Heinrich after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Enes Zengin has his answer from Karlsruher SC; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
4 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Karlsruher SC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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 Karlsruher SC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Karlsruher SC can tell you which week it ends in.
0‑2 to Arminia Bielefeld, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Karlsruher SC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kwon Hyeok-Kyu 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.
Meiko Wäschenbach 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Christoph Heinrich after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at Karlsruher SC 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.
In brief
The dugoutLilian Egloff asks for a word with the manager
“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 Karlsruher SC, and it is not being withdrawn.
4 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.
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.
Tim Hoffmann 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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Karlsruher SC told Christoph Kobald something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Karlsruher SC scored in the 93th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Karlsruher SC 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 Marvin Wanitzek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout23 Nov 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 0‑1 Christoph Heinrich left the room before anybody could ask which.
4 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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Karlsruher SC can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Karlsruher SC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kwon Hyeok-Kyu 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.
Marvin Wanitzek 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.
9 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.