Marked for Ayoub Chaikhoun
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Mar 2028
A one-man rearguard from Diant Ramaj
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
“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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Rocco Reitz 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.
Market20 Mar 2028
Add another name to the list: KuPS have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Max Grüger. The answer from Schalke 04 has not changed — yet.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Ninety minutes of Luis Díaz at his very best
Marked 8.15. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Schalke 04.
Match18 Mar 2028
Level with 88 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Schalke 04 had all but put away. Holstein Kiel will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Squad20 Mar 2028
A row about effort at Schalke 04
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Felix Klaus was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
An own goal to forget for Mika Khadr
The one goal a footballer does not get to celebrate and does not get to forget either. His name is in the wrong column and nothing about it was meant.
Squad20 Mar 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Schalke 04 can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Jan 2028
50 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.
Match8 Jan 2028
9 matches without a win for Nürnberg
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Nürnberg are no longer polite ones.
Market10 Jan 2028
Semir Telalović has left for Union Berlin in a $6.2M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Market10 Jan 2028
Mickaël Biron hands in a written request
“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.
Market10 Jan 2028
Nürnberg say no — this time
The offer from Dila for Luka Lochoshvili 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.
Market10 Jan 2028
Schalke 04 paid $1.7M 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Christian Kofane 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 Jan 2028
A muscle injury sidelines Pascal Stenzel for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Nürnberg will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Antonio Sivera 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
Schalke 04 and Nürnberg have settled on $7.7M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
The deal with VfL Wolfsburg 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.
Market10 Jan 2028
Johan Gómez hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Schalke 04 can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
Age has not caught Kenan Karaman yet — 7.81
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.81 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market10 Jan 2028
The fee is $1.7M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Nürnberg drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Boardroom10 Jan 2028
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $8.4M — a club that wants Julian Justvan enough to be asked twice.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Rocco Reitz 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 Schalke 04 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Market10 Jan 2028
The name of Johannes Siebeking has come up in conversations Schalke 04 were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match29 Dec 2027
SC Freiburg ended it 0‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Transfer targets3 Jan 2028
$6.1M on the table at Nürnberg. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad3 Jan 2028
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Schalke 04 had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Market3 Jan 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets3 Jan 2028
Schalke 04 have gone to VfL Wolfsburg 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 dugout3 Jan 2028
Lukas Reich: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Schalke 04 have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Transfer targets3 Jan 2028
The offer went to Nürnberg 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.
Market3 Jan 2028
“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 Schalke 04 hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Sep 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 54 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market13 Sep 2027
The deal that would have taken Adam Markhiev to RB Leipzig 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.
Market13 Sep 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market13 Sep 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Christian Kofane 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Martin James is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Nürnberg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antonio Sivera 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.
Transfer targets13 Sep 2027
Nürnberg asked and Arminia Bielefeld said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market30 Aug 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 Nürnberg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad30 Aug 2027
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
No sign of nerves from Christian Kofane at 21 — 7.74
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Christian Kofane did not need any: 7.74, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Nürnberg have done the hard part with Hamburger SV, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Match28 Aug 2027
4 matches without a win for Nürnberg
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Nürnberg are no longer polite ones.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Semir Telalović 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.
Boardroom30 Aug 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Nürnberg
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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Nürnberg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adam Markhiev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market30 Aug 2027
Preußen Münster pay $160.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Jul 2027
Ayoub Chaikhoun damages knee ligaments — 16 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 16 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.
Market12 Jul 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Schalke 04 waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Nürnberg is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Pisa wanted more than $10.5M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Market12 Jul 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad12 Jul 2027
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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Nürnberg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adam Markhiev 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.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. VfB Stuttgart have kept their man, and Nürnberg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Noah Sarenren-Bazee'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.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Semir Telalović trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Jul 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ayoub Chaikhoun
24 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.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Nürnberg have gone to Pisa 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Lorenz Assignon 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words exchanged at Nürnberg
Mohamed Alì Zoma 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.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bayer Leverkusen have kept their man, and Nürnberg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market5 Jul 2027
The Piet Scobel conversation is coming
Everyone has stopped pretending: Schalke 04 will make the call about Piet Scobel this week. Nürnberg have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Julian Justvan, and the manager let it.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Intake day at the Nürnberg academy
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
Market5 Jul 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
$12.2M on the table at Eintracht Braunschweig. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market7 Jun 2027
The fee is $3.7M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Eintracht Braunschweig drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Market7 Jun 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market7 Jun 2027
Christian Kofane wants to know where this is going
“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 Nürnberg hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
The deal with RB Leipzig 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
A falling-out at Nürnberg
Christian Kofane and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Jun 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Tim Janisch commits to Nürnberg for another 5 years.
Squad7 Jun 2027
A row about effort at Nürnberg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adam Markhiev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. VfB Stuttgart have kept their man, and Nürnberg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.