22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hamburger SV lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hamburger SV this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
64 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hamburger SV 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 Hamburger SV can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hamburger SV this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
78 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hamburger SV lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hamburger SV have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hamburger SV this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Lucas Rodrigues has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Hamburger SV have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
106 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hamburger SV lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hamburger SV 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 Hamburger SV is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
In brief
SquadNicolai Remberg falls out with a teammate over standards
0‑1 away to the standard of AEK. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
Damion Downs 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 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.
17 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hamburger SV have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hamburger SV this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Azem Yortaç has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Olivier Deman and Hamburger SV agree another 2 years.
1‑2 to VfB Stuttgart, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings9 Feb 2037
Malek El Mala was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.18. 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 is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front 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 Hamburger SV this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
St. Pauli will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Taichi Hara has pre-agreed a move to Hamburger SV, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
It needed Peter Arnold to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Borussia Mönchengladbach, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Damion Downs 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ikenna Festus will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hamburger SV the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Two goals and a mark of 10.00 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Two goals and a mark of 9.03 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
11 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.
Damion Downs 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Hamburger SV and St. Pauli in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad22 Dec 2036
Words at Hamburger SV training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolai Remberg 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.
Hatayspor will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Hamburger SV were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
1‑2 away to the standard of Cukaricki. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
Player ratings1 Dec 2036
A brace, and Malek El Mala takes the afternoon — 8.95
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Malek El Mala provided it, and the 8.95 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.47 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
25 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hamburger SV this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Dec 2036
Words at Hamburger SV training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Albert Sambi Lokonga 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.
In brief
MatchDamion Downs among the goals in a wild afternoon
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hamburger SV lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hamburger SV will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front 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 Hamburger SV this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.46, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings17 Nov 2036
Malek El Mala was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.30. 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.
Borussia Dortmund held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Hamburger SV answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hamburger SV lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hamburger SV will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
315 appearances across 11 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
“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 Hamburger SV hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
6 goals in one match, Samuele Inácio on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Hamburger SV and Köln.
Player ratings3 Nov 2036
Samuele Inácio was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.26. 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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.12, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings3 Nov 2036
Damion Downs was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.68. 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.
61 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hamburger SV lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hamburger SV will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. CSKA 1948 kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Hamburger SV will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Two goals and a mark of 9.18 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.93 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hamburger SV this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
9.34. 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.
68 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hamburger SV lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hamburger SV will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Two goals and a mark of 9.36 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Damion Downs 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.
Marked 9.61 — 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.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hamburger SV will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
75 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hamburger SV lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
0‑3 to RB Leipzig, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
1‑3 against Cukaricki. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.32 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 6 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hamburger SV this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals in one match, Samuele Inácio on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Hamburger SV and Hatayspor.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hamburger SV will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
82 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hamburger SV lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Damion Downs 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 Hamburger SV is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Marked 9.15 — 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hamburger SV will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
96 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hamburger SV lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Hamburger SV and Mainz 05, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
9.26. 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hamburger SV will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
124 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hamburger SV 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 Hamburger SV heard it as anything else.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hamburger SV will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
360 appearances across 10 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Damion Downs 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.
Squad7 Jul 2036
Words at Hamburger SV training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolai Remberg 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.
Werder Bremen will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Matthieu Cuirassier has pre-agreed a move to Hamburger SV, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
8 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.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hamburger SV will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Damion Downs 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 never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nicolai Remberg commits to Hamburger SV for another 2 years.
Squad9 Jun 2036
Words at Hamburger SV training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuele Inácio 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Morris Duggan has his answer from Hamburger SV; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 147 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hamburger SV this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 10.00 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 Hamburger SV this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals in one match, Samuele Inácio on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Hamburger SV and Werder Bremen.
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.
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 Albert Sambi Lokonga.
It needed Samuele Inácio to find the net to bring anything home at all: 3‑3 against Werder Bremen, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hamburger SV this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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: Samuele Inácio. 3‑2 against Union Berlin, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Two goals and a mark of 8.54 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 Hamburger SV this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Hamburger SV and Köln, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
Alexander Røssing-Lelesiit had done his part in building a 3-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and SC Freiburg were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Hamburger SV is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Damion Downs 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 Feb 2036
Words at Hamburger SV training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuele Inácio 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.
9.27. 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.
Marked 8.78. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Hamburger SV.
Player ratings25 Feb 2036
Damion Downs was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.61. 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Malek El Mala at his very best
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.30 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hamburger SV this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Player ratings18 Feb 2036
Samuele Inácio was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.58. 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.
9 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hamburger SV know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Hamburger SV is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Damion Downs 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.
Squad11 Feb 2036
Words at Hamburger SV training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolai Remberg 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.
Shots: 10. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Samuele Inácio signs something — a contract at Hamburger SV or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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 Hamburger SV, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hamburger SV have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Albert Sambi Lokonga and Hamburger SV agree another 2 years.
“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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hamburger SV this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A performance of 9.60 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings4 Feb 2036
Samuele Inácio was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.49. 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.
“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 Hamburger SV, and 0 appearances in 33 say he has earned the hearing.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.74 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hamburger SV they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Damion Downs 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 run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Hamburger SV are no longer polite ones.
Squad28 Jan 2036
Words at Hamburger SV training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuele Inácio 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.37 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hamburger SV this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 goals in one match, Rayan Philippe on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Hamburger SV and RB Leipzig.
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.
9.09. 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Hamburger SV is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Damion Downs 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.
Squad14 Jan 2036
Words at Hamburger SV training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuele Inácio 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.
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 Hamburger SV have had the benefit of it.
“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 Hamburger SV, and it is not being withdrawn.
308 appearances across 10 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.58 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Damion Downs 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Hamburger SV and Mainz 05, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad31 Dec 2035
Words at Hamburger SV training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolai Remberg 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alessandro Silvestro will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hamburger SV the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hamburger SV this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Dec 2035
Words at Hamburger SV training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuele Inácio 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.
Marked 8.84. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Hamburger SV.
Player ratings17 Dec 2035
Samuele Inácio was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.20. 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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Hamburger SV told Nicolai Remberg something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Shots: 12. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Damion Downs 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.
8 goals and a season average of 7.62. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad3 Dec 2035
Words at Hamburger SV training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuele Inácio 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.
“I watch every Hamburger SV game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Heidenheim runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Shots: 11. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
VfB Stuttgart go through and Hamburger SV go home, 1‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Samuele Inácio will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Hamburger SV escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.18 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hamburger SV this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
A performance of 9.21 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings26 Nov 2035
Samuele Inácio was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.76. 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.
In brief
Player ratingsMalek El Mala was on a different afternoon to everybody else
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.19 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Hamburger SV is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Damion Downs 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.
Squad19 Nov 2035
Words at Hamburger SV training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolai Remberg 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.
Marked 9.35 — 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.
It needed Samuele Inácio to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Borussia Dortmund, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hamburger SV this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Samuele Inácio was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.23. 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.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Alexander Røssing-Lelesiit in the middle of it, and Eintracht Frankfurt unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 14 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
3‑6 to Köln, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Player ratings5 Nov 2035
A brace, and Damion Downs takes the afternoon — 8.88
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Damion Downs provided it, and the 8.88 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 Hamburger SV heard it as anything else.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nicolai Remberg and Hamburger SV agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than 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 Hamburger SV this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
9 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Hamburger SV and Köln in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad5 Nov 2035
Words at Hamburger SV training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolai Remberg 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.
Ovie Ejeheri 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 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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hamburger SV know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
7 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 19 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Damion Downs 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.
Squad24 Sep 2035
Words at Hamburger SV training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolai Remberg 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.
Marked 9.10 — 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alexander Røssing-Lelesiit. 2‑1 against RB Leipzig, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.96 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Damion Downs 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.
Squad17 Sep 2035
Words at Hamburger SV training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuele Inácio 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.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Bayern Munich the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Hamburger SV will enjoy reviewing.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.62 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Albert Sambi Lokonga 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 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.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 13 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Rayan Philippe and Hamburger SV agree another 2 years.
Damion Downs 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 this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 10.00, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings3 Sep 2035
Samuele Inácio was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.43. 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.