106 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Union Berlin 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 Union Berlin can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Andrej Ilić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Words at Union Berlin training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Livan Burcu 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.
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 Woo-Yeong Jeong is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Andrej Ilić signs something — a contract at Union Berlin or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tim Skarke trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
115 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Union Berlin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Union Berlin heard it as anything else.
Andrej Ilić 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 Jaden Philogene was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Andrej Ilić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Nobody at Union Berlin 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Union Berlin, another week without a signature from András Schäfer.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Union Berlin have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Joshua Ajala is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Words at Union Berlin training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaden Philogene 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.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Borussia Mönchengladbach have kept their man, and Union Berlin go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Union Berlin has been clear about where Marco Pašalić stands, which is more than many ever get.
Nobody at Union Berlin 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Union Berlin will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Union Berlin, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Union Berlin heard it as anything else.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Germán Berterame wants continental football; whether Union Berlin can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Frederik Rønnow and Union Berlin agree another 2 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Union Berlin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Words at Union Berlin training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcel Sabitzer 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.
125 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Union Berlin lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Andrej Ilić 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Union Berlin they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Words at Union Berlin training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcel Sabitzer 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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Union Berlin will try again when the window opens; RB Leipzig may not be selling by then.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Marco Pašalić
132 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Union Berlin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Union Berlin can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets5 Feb 2029
$590.0K settles it between the clubs for Samba Konaté
RB Leipzig have accepted the money. What Union Berlin do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Union Berlin close the window on a squad of their own making
5 in and 7 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 want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Union Berlin heard it as anything else.
Rani Khedira 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Josip Juranović and Union Berlin agree another 2 years.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Words at Union Berlin training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrej Ilić 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Frederik Rønnow and Union Berlin agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“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 Union Berlin hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
Successful dribbles: 30. 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.
Andrej Ilić 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words at Union Berlin training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcel Sabitzer 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.
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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Union Berlin told Jordan Amavi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Union Berlin asked and Mainz 05 said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Union Berlin, and it is not being withdrawn.
Andrej Ilić 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 16 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 is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Livan Burcu wants continental football; whether Union Berlin can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at Union Berlin training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcel Sabitzer 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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
At 23 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.
Andrej Ilić 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 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Union Berlin can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Words at Union Berlin training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kastriot Imeri 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.
The terraces21 Aug 2028
Union Berlin spend $30.6M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $30.6M for Jaden Philogene, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Juve Stabia have kept their man, and Union Berlin go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Felix Platte damages knee ligaments — 106 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 106 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mainz 05 have kept their man, and Union Berlin go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Union Berlin heard it as anything 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Janik Haberer has his answer from Union Berlin; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
In brief
The dugoutRani Khedira has become a man the manager trusts
Felix Platte damages knee ligaments — 120 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 120 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.
The offer went to Mainz 05 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Andrej Ilić 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Union Berlin they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Josip Juranović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Union Berlin can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
$6.9M on the table at Hamburger SV. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Union Berlin 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 Union Berlin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Aljoscha Kemlein has come up in conversations Union Berlin were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
$130.0K was the most the club would pay and Heidenheim 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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Borussia Dortmund have kept their man, and Union Berlin go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Union Berlin will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Union Berlin have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
$730.0K on the table at St. Pauli. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Andrej Ilić 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 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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Union Berlin training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Livan Burcu 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Union Berlin have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Union Berlin they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Union Berlin 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 Kastriot Imeri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Union Berlin, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rani Khedira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Union Berlin can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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 Andrej Ilić is on it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Union Berlin told Luka Benko something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
In brief
The dugoutLivan Burcu knocks on the manager’s door
Andrej Ilić 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 Kastriot Imeri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 21 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Union Berlin will try not to make too much of 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 Josip Juranović is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Union Berlin know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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.
Andrej Ilić 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Union Berlin is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Union Berlin training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kastriot Imeri 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.
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 Woo-Yeong Jeong is on 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 Union Berlin, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Union Berlin than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Union Berlin they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Union Berlin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Union Berlin 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 Livan Burcu 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 Frederik Rønnow is on it.
Position 8 on 55 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
“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.
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.
Andrej Ilić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Union Berlin training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rani Khedira 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Union Berlin 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.
Andrej Ilić 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Union Berlin is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Hamburger SV left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Union Berlin training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Livan Burcu 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Union Berlin told Leopold Querfeld something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Union Berlin can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from St. Louis CITY SC for Dmytro Bogdanov 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.
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 7.80 for the rest of it.
Andrej Ilić 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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Livan Burcu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dmytro Bogdanov and Union Berlin agree another 4 years.
“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; Union Berlin are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Andrej Ilić 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Union Berlin heard it as anything else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rani Khedira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Add another name to the list: St. Louis CITY SC have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Dmytro Bogdanov. The answer from Union Berlin has not changed — yet.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Union Berlin have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Union Berlin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Union Berlin is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Union Berlin training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rani Khedira 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.
Union Berlin close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 5 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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Union Berlin can pretend not to have heard.
Andrej Ilić 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.
“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 Union Berlin hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Union Berlin training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rani Khedira 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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Union Berlin will try again when the window opens; St. Pauli may not be selling by then.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Livan Burcu 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.
Position 4, 33 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
“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 Union Berlin, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Union Berlin can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Rani Khedira 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 Woo-Yeong Jeong was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Benjamin Walter has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.