Marked for Bruno Katz
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match28 Sep 2030
The wait goes on for Nürnberg
10 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.
Market30 Sep 2030
Vini Souza hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nürnberg can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Nürnberg may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Words exchanged at Nürnberg
Elye Wahi 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.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Words at Nürnberg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Gourna-Douath 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.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Too much change too quickly at Nürnberg
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
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.
Player ratings30 Sep 2030
Chances created: 11. The column nobody reads carried the whole story of the match, and his name was at the top of it.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
The manager makes an example of Lasse Eickel
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market29 Jul 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nürnberg can pretend not to have heard.
Market29 Jul 2030
The name of Nediljko Labrović has come up in conversations Nürnberg were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad29 Jul 2030
Vini Souza 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.
Transfer targets29 Jul 2030
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout29 Jul 2030
“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.
Squad29 Jul 2030
Words at Nürnberg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Philipp Treu 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.
Market29 Jul 2030
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Zuriko Davitashvili has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Nürnberg.
Squad29 Jul 2030
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Nürnberg will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
Market29 Jul 2030
Tygo Land linked with a move away
The name of Tygo Land keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Nürnberg say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout27 May 2030
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market27 May 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nürnberg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market27 May 2030
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Nürnberg can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad27 May 2030
Words exchanged at Nürnberg
Tom Hülsmann 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.
Squad27 May 2030
Words at Nürnberg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Philipp Treu 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.
Squad27 May 2030
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Nürnberg can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Market27 May 2030
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout27 May 2030
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Zuriko Davitashvili trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout27 May 2030
Luca Kerber gets picked when it counts
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 Luca Kerber is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market6 May 2030
“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.
Match4 May 2030
16 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The dugout6 May 2030
Marco Hiller: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Nürnberg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market6 May 2030
Tygo Land has his eye on Europe
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Nürnberg can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Match4 May 2030
The wait goes on for Nürnberg
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.
Market6 May 2030
“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.
Squad6 May 2030
Words exchanged at Nürnberg
Lasse Eickel 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.
Squad6 May 2030
Bruno Katz is the real thing at 21
A season average of 7.04 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Nürnberg know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad6 May 2030
A row about effort at Nürnberg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Philipp Treu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match6 Apr 2030
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Market8 Apr 2030
Vini Souza hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nürnberg can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings8 Apr 2030
A brace, and Lasse Eickel takes the afternoon — 8.92
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lasse Eickel provided it, and the 8.92 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match6 Apr 2030
Nürnberg make home a hard place to visit
14 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.
Player ratings8 Apr 2030
No sign of nerves from Wisdom Mike at 21 — 8.27
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Wisdom Mike did not need any: 8.27, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad8 Apr 2030
29 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad8 Apr 2030
Tom Hülsmann 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.
Market8 Apr 2030
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Nürnberg can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad8 Apr 2030
Bruno Katz is the real thing at 21
A season average of 7.06 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Nürnberg know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match18 Mar 2030
The view from the top for Nürnberg
63 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Market18 Mar 2030
“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 ratings18 Mar 2030
Bruno Katz, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.16
A mark of 8.16 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Match16 Mar 2030
Nürnberg make home a hard place to visit
13 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.
Market18 Mar 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nürnberg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad18 Mar 2030
A season average of 7.48 with 13 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match16 Mar 2030
Nobody wants to play Nürnberg right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad18 Mar 2030
At 21, Wisdom Mike is already the best thing here
An average of 7.12 in a first team he is several years too young for. Nürnberg have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad18 Mar 2030
A falling-out at Nürnberg
Lasse Eickel and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market11 Mar 2030
“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 ratings11 Mar 2030
No sign of nerves from Wisdom Mike at 21 — 8.10
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Wisdom Mike did not need any: 8.10, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad11 Mar 2030
A season average of 7.44 with 12 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad11 Mar 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nürnberg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Mar 2030
At 21, Bruno Katz is already the best thing here
An average of 7.04 in a first team he is several years too young for. Nürnberg have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Player ratings11 Mar 2030
Bruno Katz did the work nobody counts — 7.11
12 combined actions and 7.11. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
The terraces11 Mar 2030
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The dugout11 Mar 2030
The manager makes an example of Tom Hülsmann
“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.
Market11 Mar 2030
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match2 Mar 2030
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings4 Mar 2030
A brace, and Lasse Eickel takes the afternoon — 8.50
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lasse Eickel provided it, and the 8.50 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market4 Mar 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nürnberg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings4 Mar 2030
No sign of nerves from Bruno Katz at 21 — 7.88
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Bruno Katz did not need any: 7.88, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match2 Mar 2030
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad4 Mar 2030
A falling-out at Nürnberg
Philipp Sander and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market4 Mar 2030
“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.
Market4 Mar 2030
Tygo Land wants European nights
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.
Squad4 Mar 2030
Defences have started doubling up on Bryan Zaragoza
11 goals and a season average of 7.42 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Feb 2030
“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.
Squad11 Feb 2030
Tom Hülsmann gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Tom Hülsmann has just signed for Nürnberg, and for once the answer mattered.
Market11 Feb 2030
Magdeburg come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Nürnberg did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Match9 Feb 2030
The run is over for Nürnberg
12 matches without defeat, and then Greuther Fürth. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
The dugout11 Feb 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Nürnberg may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market11 Feb 2030
The deal that would have taken Francisco Bareiro to Werder Bremen has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Nürnberg with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Transfer targets11 Feb 2030
Nürnberg ran out of time with FC Augsburg. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Squad11 Feb 2030
A falling-out at Nürnberg
Philipp Sander and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market11 Feb 2030
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Nürnberg heard it as anything else.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Jan 2030
Patrik Carlgren damages knee ligaments — 41 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 41 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.
Market14 Jan 2030
Vini Souza hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nürnberg can pretend not to have heard.
Market14 Jan 2030
Viborg come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Nürnberg did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings14 Jan 2030
Bruno Katz, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.21
A mark of 8.21 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Match12 Jan 2030
Still nobody has beaten Nürnberg
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Market14 Jan 2030
Hertha BSC pay $3.5M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Transfer targets14 Jan 2030
Everything agreed with Werder Bremen, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad14 Jan 2030
A falling-out at Nürnberg
Philipp Sander and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Jan 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kristoffer Ajer and Nürnberg agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Jan 2030
Patrik Carlgren damages knee ligaments — 48 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 48 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.
Market7 Jan 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nürnberg can pretend not to have heard.
Market7 Jan 2030
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad7 Jan 2030
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Nürnberg had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Player ratings7 Jan 2030
Tygo Land pops up at the right end — 7.83
7.83, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Match5 Jan 2030
Still nobody has beaten Nürnberg
The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Market7 Jan 2030
Tygo Land wants to know where this is going
“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 Nürnberg hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad7 Jan 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Kristoffer Ajer commits to Nürnberg for another 4 years.
Squad7 Jan 2030
At 21, Bruno Katz is already the best thing here
An average of 7.00 in a first team he is several years too young for. Nürnberg have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market10 Dec 2029
Only the photograph left for Oscar Højlund
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Oscar Højlund will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Nürnberg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings10 Dec 2029
Bruno Katz, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.10
A mark of 8.10 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The dugout10 Dec 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings10 Dec 2029
A defender's goal wins it for Nürnberg — 7.95
1 for Vini Souza, marked 7.95, 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.
Market10 Dec 2029
“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 Nürnberg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match8 Dec 2029
Nobody wants to play Nürnberg right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Words exchanged at Nürnberg
Lasse Eickel 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.
Squad10 Dec 2029
He is 21, he is averaging 7.01, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Sacha Boey 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market3 Dec 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Junior Dina Ebimbe will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Nürnberg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout3 Dec 2029
Paul Joly keeps the receipts
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Nürnberg may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market3 Dec 2029
“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.
Squad3 Dec 2029
A falling-out at Nürnberg
Lasse Eickel and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout3 Dec 2029
Justin Diehl gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad3 Dec 2029
9 goals and a season average of 7.33. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match1 Dec 2029
It finished 1‑0, and it was Bryan Zaragoza’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Nürnberg.
Player ratings3 Dec 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.37, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad3 Dec 2029
Bruno Katz is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Nürnberg will try very hard not to make too much of it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Nov 2029
21 days out for Adam Markhiev after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nürnberg will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market26 Nov 2029
Sacha Boey has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Nürnberg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings26 Nov 2029
A brace, and Bruno Katz takes the afternoon — 8.44
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Bruno Katz provided it, and the 8.44 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match26 Nov 2029
27 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Market26 Nov 2029
“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 Nov 2029
No sign of nerves from Wisdom Mike at 21 — 7.84
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Wisdom Mike did not need any: 7.84, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad26 Nov 2029
“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; Nürnberg are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Words exchanged at Nürnberg
Philipp Sander 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.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Words at Nürnberg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sacha Boey 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad5 Nov 2029
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nürnberg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Adam Markhiev breaks a bone — 47 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 47 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match3 Nov 2029
Nürnberg cannot stop winning
8 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Market5 Nov 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nürnberg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings5 Nov 2029
No sign of nerves from Bruno Katz at 21 — 8.18
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Bruno Katz did not need any: 8.18, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market5 Nov 2029
“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 Nov 2029
Philipp Sander 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.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Sacha Boey 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.
Market5 Nov 2029
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Tomás Palacios wants continental football; whether Nürnberg can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad22 Oct 2029
37 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nürnberg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad22 Oct 2029
66 days out for Adam Markhiev after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nürnberg will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match20 Oct 2029
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑1 against Eintracht Braunschweig, and it could have been more.
Market22 Oct 2029
“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 ratings22 Oct 2029
Two goals and a mark of 8.56 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match20 Oct 2029
Nürnberg make it 6 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Nürnberg have 6 straight wins of it.
Player ratings22 Oct 2029
No sign of nerves from Lasse Eickel at 21 — 8.39
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Lasse Eickel did not need any: 8.39, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad22 Oct 2029
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.
The terraces22 Oct 2029
Nürnberg supporters have found a favourite in Bruno Katz
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Bruno Katz 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout28 May 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Nürnberg may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad28 May 2029
Philipp Sander 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.
Market28 May 2029
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Nürnberg heard it as anything else.
Squad28 May 2029
Words at Nürnberg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vini Souza 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 dugout28 May 2029
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout28 May 2029
Paul Joly gets it from the manager
“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 dugout28 May 2029
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 Valgeir Lunddal is on it.
Market28 May 2029
The name of Nediljko Labrović keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Nürnberg say nothing, which says plenty.
Market28 May 2029
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Nürnberg, another week without a signature from Bruno Katz.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Feb 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Richard Herrmann
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nürnberg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market5 Feb 2029
The deal that would have taken Nediljko Labrović to RB Leipzig has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Nürnberg with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Player ratings5 Feb 2029
No sign of nerves from Bruno Katz at 20 — 7.67
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Bruno Katz did not need any: 7.67, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market5 Feb 2029
Schalke 04 come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Nürnberg did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings5 Feb 2029
Adam Markhiev goes up and wins it — 7.78
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 7.78 for the rest of it.
Transfer targets5 Feb 2029
Door shut on Pedro
Nürnberg 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.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Deadline passes with 10 signed and 5 gone
That is the business done at Nürnberg until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Market5 Feb 2029
“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 Nürnberg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market5 Feb 2029
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Nürnberg heard it as anything else.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match27 Dec 2028
Borussia Dortmund ended it 1‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad1 Jan 2029
There were 8 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.
Market1 Jan 2029
“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 Nürnberg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad1 Jan 2029
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Nürnberg will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Market1 Jan 2029
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Nürnberg heard it as anything else.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Vini Souza 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.
Match30 Dec 2028
At last: Nürnberg win one
6 matches without a win, and then this, against VfL Bochum. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad1 Jan 2029
A falling-out at Nürnberg
Josip Juranović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces1 Jan 2029
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.