A season's verdict on Finn Jeltsch: the best of his age
VfB Stuttgart have a 21-year-old the division has just voted its finest young footballer. The club's next problem is that everybody else now knows it too.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Phillip Tietz wants continental football; whether VfB Stuttgart can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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.
8 shut-outs in 16 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Fabian Bredlow has been having a lot of them.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. VfB Stuttgart 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 Ime Okon trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at VfB Stuttgart is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” VfB Stuttgart have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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.
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.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“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 VfB Stuttgart 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 VfB Stuttgart can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
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 Anthony Caci.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Niklas Werner after 0‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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 Andriy Lunin is on it.
A performance of 8.41 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Josha Vagnoman was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. 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.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Niklas Werner on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. VfB Stuttgart know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Ime Okon
2‑0 against Thun, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Angelo Stiller was at the centre of the description.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Angelo Stiller provided it, and the 8.52 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Dennis Seimen wants continental football; whether VfB Stuttgart can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at VfB Stuttgart pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The dugout29 Nov 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 1‑2 Niklas Werner left the room before anybody could ask which.
Bayer Leverkusen left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Niklas Werner to a room that had heard them before.
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 Angelo Stiller is on it.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Aurélien Tchouaméni signs something — a contract at VfB Stuttgart or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at VfB Stuttgart has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Johan Bakayoko provided it, and the 9.40 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at VfB Stuttgart heard it as anything else.
VfB Stuttgart asked and Eintracht Frankfurt said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
At 21 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.
Marked 8.16 — 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 transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Phillip Tietz is a VfB Stuttgart player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Köln paid $5.7M and VfB Stuttgart took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
12 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation VfB Stuttgart are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Schalke 04 next, and one man in the VfB Stuttgart dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
“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.
13 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.
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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at VfB Stuttgart that is a harder question to answer.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
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.
VfB Stuttgart asked and Hertha BSC 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at VfB Stuttgart, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 VfB Stuttgart would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
53 points from position 6. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
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.
St. Pauli will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. VfB Stuttgart were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 8.70 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Angelo Stiller wants continental football; whether VfB Stuttgart can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
34 appearances at SC Paderborn and the goals have stopped going in. VfB Stuttgart lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Aurélien Tchouaméni wants continental football; whether VfB Stuttgart can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Rodrigo Ribeiro 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at VfB Stuttgart can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
With 6 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.
10 shut-outs in 27 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Dennis Seimen has been having a lot of them.
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.
At 23 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.
A 1‑0 win over SC Freiburg, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Deniz Undav was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.09. 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at VfB Stuttgart pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Something was said to Assan Ouédraogo and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Niklas Werner on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. VfB Stuttgart know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and VfL Wolfsburg waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Hannover 96 is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Hannover 96 may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A muscle injury sidelines Virgil Ghiţă for 15 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Hannover 96 will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Bayer Leverkusen wanted more than $85.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Hannover 96 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphael Obermair 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.
7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Hannover 96 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphael Obermair 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.
Mustapha Bundu 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.
At 19 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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Isac Lidberg. 1‑0 against Fortuna Düsseldorf, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hannover 96 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
11 new faces, and Hannover 96 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.
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
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.” Martin Scholz kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hannover 96 can pretend not to have heard.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Union Berlin moved on, Virgil Ghiţă reports back to Hannover 96, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raphael Obermair was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. BK Hacken have kept their man, and Hannover 96 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Hannover 96, another week without a signature from Raphael Obermair.