Marked for Darío Ramírez
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Mar 2036
125 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Preußen Münster lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom24 Mar 2036
Pressure builds in the Preußen Münster boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match24 Mar 2036
Every point is an argument now for Preußen Münster
Position 16 and 21 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad24 Mar 2036
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market24 Mar 2036
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Preußen Münster can pretend not to have heard.
Market24 Mar 2036
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Preußen Münster is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad24 Mar 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Preußen Münster this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match22 Mar 2036
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad24 Mar 2036
Words at Preußen Münster training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Noah Karamoko 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom25 Feb 2036
Pressure builds in the Preußen Münster boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market25 Feb 2036
Darío Ramírez has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Preußen Münster they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match23 Feb 2036
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad25 Feb 2036
Lasse Eickel 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.
Boardroom25 Feb 2036
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Squad25 Feb 2036
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Noah Karamoko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout25 Feb 2036
The manager makes an example of Kenzo Goudmijn
“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.
Match23 Feb 2036
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout25 Feb 2036
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Interim Coach after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market11 Feb 2036
Yannis Lawson has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Preußen Münster they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market11 Feb 2036
“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.
Boardroom11 Feb 2036
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Darío Ramírez 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.
Squad11 Feb 2036
Jano ter Horst 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.
Match9 Feb 2036
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Transfer targets11 Feb 2036
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. VfL Bochum have kept their man, and Preußen Münster go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout11 Feb 2036
“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.
Squad11 Feb 2036
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Noah Karamoko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom11 Feb 2036
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Nov 2035
Bujar Pllana breaks a bone — 82 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 82 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market19 Nov 2035
Yannis Lawson has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Preußen Münster they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad19 Nov 2035
Lasse Eickel and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Nov 2035
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Squad19 Nov 2035
Noah Karamoko 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.
The dugout19 Nov 2035
“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 dugout19 Nov 2035
Brayan Nzita knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Preußen Münster, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market19 Nov 2035
3 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Preußen Münster could get for him.
Market19 Nov 2035
The Lasse Eickel story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lasse Eickel signs something — a contract at Preußen Münster or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 Sep 2035
0‑3 to Eintracht Braunschweig, 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.
Market24 Sep 2035
Yannis Lawson has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Preußen Münster they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad24 Sep 2035
Jano ter Horst 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.
Match22 Sep 2035
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
The dugout24 Sep 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kaio Eduardo, and the manager let it.
Boardroom24 Sep 2035
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout24 Sep 2035
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad24 Sep 2035
Words at Preußen Münster training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darío Ramírez 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.
Market24 Sep 2035
The Lasse Eickel story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lasse Eickel signs something — a contract at Preußen Münster or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market29 May 2034
Only the photograph left for Mamady Bangré
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mamady Bangré will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cádiz the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market29 May 2034
“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 Cádiz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom29 May 2034
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Rubén Quintanilla has agreed terms with Elche for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad29 May 2034
Words at Cádiz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bojan Kovačević 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.
Squad29 May 2034
Tempers go at Cádiz
Agustín Pérez 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.
Match27 May 2034
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Darío Ramírez. 1‑0 against Bilbao Athletic, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad29 May 2034
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Enzo Peña commits to Cádiz for another 4 years.
Player ratings29 May 2034
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout29 May 2034
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Interim Coach, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.