“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Werder Bremen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Werder Bremen 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 Wouter Burger was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Werder Bremen has been clear about where Skelly Alvero stands, which is more than many ever get.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Köln in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Werder Bremen would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Werder Bremen lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Werder Bremen can give him that is a question about the club, not 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 Werder Bremen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 6 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
Something was said to Samu Aghehowa and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Michael Hofmann after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
In brief
Player ratingsSamu Aghehowa beats them one at a time
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Werder Bremen lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Christian Pulisic signs something — a contract at Werder Bremen or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Werder Bremen lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Christian Pulisic. 1‑0 against VfL Wolfsburg, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.12 — 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jonathan Rodríguez and Werder Bremen agree another 1 years.
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.
5 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.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Michael Hofmann kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at RB Leipzig heard it as anything else.
“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 RB Leipzig, and 5 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Leroy Sané is on it.
Schalke 04 next, and one man in the RB Leipzig dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of 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 Werder Bremen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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; Werder Bremen are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Tim Lemperle’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Werder Bremen needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Where he used to play does most of his talking for him at Werder Bremen. The room defers to it, the kids study it, and the only thing that can puncture it is a bad month.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Werder Bremen, another week without a signature from Jannik Huth.
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 Ludovit Reis has written the date down.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Werder Bremen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Werder Bremen, and it is not being withdrawn.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Samuel Mbangula 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.
With 5 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Werder Bremen told Christian Pulisic something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I watch every Werder Bremen game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Mainz 05 runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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.
Wouter Burger 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: Samu Aghehowa. 3‑2 against RB Leipzig, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Michael Hofmann on a 3‑2 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Christian Pulisic signs something — a contract at Werder Bremen or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
SquadThe division's best last weekend was a Werder Bremen man
Werder Bremen offered $2.2M; Schalke 04 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.
Wouter Burger 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 13 actions, 6.67, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
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.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
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 1‑4 Michael Hofmann left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
The dugoutTim Lemperle asks for a word with the manager
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Filip Bilbija
“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 Werder Bremen, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two goals and a mark of 8.43 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The offer from Spartak Moscow for Niklas Stark 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.
$3.5M was the most the club would pay and Greuther Fürth were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Köln have kept their man, and Werder Bremen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 Werder Bremen hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Werder Bremen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Samu Aghehowa 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.
“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 RB Leipzig, and it is not being withdrawn.
The chase for Fabian Rieder ended with $16.8M changing hands and FC Augsburg out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The offer from SC Freiburg for Samu Aghehowa 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.
RB Leipzig asked and Red Bull Salzburg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RB Leipzig this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Fabian Rieder has, at RB Leipzig, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between RB Leipzig and Bayer Leverkusen, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The offer went to Bayer Leverkusen 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.
RB Leipzig asked and Bayern Munich 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at RB Leipzig, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at RB Leipzig, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. RB Leipzig know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at RB Leipzig would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at RB Leipzig heard it as anything else.
Willi Orbán 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.
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 Castello Lukeba is on it.
48 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
“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.
Leroy Sané 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.
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 Christoph Baumgartner is on it.
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
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 RB Leipzig have had the benefit of it.
Willi Orbán 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 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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. RB Leipzig 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 Brajan Gruda trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Mainz 05 will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. RB Leipzig were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Mainz 05 spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Two goals and a mark of 8.76 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 RB Leipzig this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Position 3, 68 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Antonio Nusa 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.
9 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.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Rômulo.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.97, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Antonio Nusa, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.32
A mark of 8.32 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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.98 for the rest of it.
“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 RB Leipzig know it.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at RB Leipzig heard it as anything else.
6 goals in one match, Rômulo on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of RB Leipzig and Köln.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. RB Leipzig have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 RB Leipzig, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 22 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.
RB Leipzig have gone to Bayern Munich 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.
4 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RB Leipzig this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Rômulo provided it, and the 8.77 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between RB Leipzig and VfL Wolfsburg, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
A 4‑2 win over VfL Wolfsburg, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
At 21 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. RB Leipzig will try not to make too much of it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RB Leipzig this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Two goals and a mark of 9.12 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Antonio Nusa did not need any: 8.23, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.48, and 2 involvements.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about RB Leipzig and Heidenheim in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Christoph Baumgartner. 4‑2 against Heidenheim, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Antonio Nusa 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.
Brajan Gruda 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.
Something was said to Leroy Sané and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one RB Leipzig will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. RB Leipzig know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Antonio Nusa has written the date down.
A side in position 18 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
“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.
Christopher Nkunku 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.
With 7 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Badredine Bouanani 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what RB Leipzig can pretend not to have heard.
A 2‑0 win over TSG Hoffenheim, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Leroy Sané was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.12. 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Karl Mayer could afford to be generous.
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.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“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 RB Leipzig, and it is not being withdrawn.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. RB Leipzig will try again when the window opens; FC Augsburg may not be selling by then.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
RB Leipzig close the window on a squad of their own making
12 in and 6 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.
“78 caps. I have loved every one, and it is somebody else’s turn.” At 36 he has stepped away from his country and is going nowhere at RB Leipzig.
Squad7 Sep 2026
10 new faces, and RB Leipzig 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.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Leroy Sané signs something — a contract at RB Leipzig or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
RB Leipzig paid $35.2M and Porto took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
$20.7M on the table at Alverca. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Porto will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and Marcel Ruiz takes the afternoon — 8.33
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marcel Ruiz provided it, and the 8.33 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Porto have gone to Nacional 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.
Everything agreed with Sarpsborg 08, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. William Gomes did not need any: 7.91, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $35.2M has been paid because Samu Aghehowa is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Borussia Dortmund have kept their man, and RB Leipzig go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
$5.3M on the table at FC Augsburg. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Samu Aghehowa has just signed for RB Leipzig, and for once the answer mattered.
Ota Yamamoto 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 training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 8 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation RB Leipzig are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The fee is $17.9M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. VfB Stuttgart drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The offer went to Union Berlin 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $14.1M — a club that wants Aljoscha Kemlein enough to be asked twice.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Badredine Bouanani is living that version at RB Leipzig, and it tends to show in the first month.
Leroy Sané 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 version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Rafinha is living that version at Porto, and it tends to show in the first month.
The phone has started ringing about Diogo Costa again, and this time the name on the line is Tottenham. Porto are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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 Porto hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Porto can give him that is a question about the club, not 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 Porto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Porto asked and CSKA Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.