Marked for Arnis Ademi
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match24 Jul 2032
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑0 against Luzern, and it could have been more.
Squad26 Jul 2032
A fracture rules Saverio Domanico out for 58 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zurich will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market26 Jul 2032
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Zurich have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad26 Jul 2032
A one-man rearguard from Silas Huber
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.
Market26 Jul 2032
“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.
Player ratings26 Jul 2032
A defender's goal wins it for Zurich — 7.86
1 for Rhys Bozinovski, marked 7.86, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2032
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Lugano keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad26 Jul 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zurich this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Jul 2032
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Djibril Sommer is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout16 Feb 2032
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Zurich may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market16 Feb 2032
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zurich can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom16 Feb 2032
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Omar Kamel has agreed terms with Grasshopper for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad16 Feb 2032
Words exchanged at Zurich
Kaly Sène 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.
Squad16 Feb 2032
A row about effort at Zurich
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lindrit Kamberi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout16 Feb 2032
The manager makes an example of Rhys Bozinovski
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad16 Feb 2032
The formation has left João Araujo behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Zurich will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout16 Feb 2032
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 Miguel Reichmuth is on it.
Market16 Feb 2032
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Zurich, another week without a signature from João Araujo.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Jan 2032
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zurich can pretend not to have heard.
Market26 Jan 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zurich is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad26 Jan 2032
Tempers go at Zurich
Kaly Sène 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.
Squad26 Jan 2032
Lindrit Kamberi 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.
Market26 Jan 2032
Add another name to the list: Aalborg have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ricardo Mvogo. The answer from Zurich has not changed — yet.
The dugout26 Jan 2032
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout26 Jan 2032
Livano Comenencia has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Zurich 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.
The dugout26 Jan 2032
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.
Market26 Jan 2032
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Philippe Keny’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.