A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. FC Augsburg will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 The request is on a desk at FC Augsburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tim Schnitzer will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Augsburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Eintracht Frankfurt have kept their man, and FC Augsburg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
$1.4M on the table at Eintracht Frankfurt. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The offer went to Schalke 04 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.
Ishé Samuels-Smith and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Aug 2036
A last season at home is what Nahuel Curcio is after
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
In brief
SquadWords at FC Augsburg training over how hard people work
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. FC Augsburg will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at FC Augsburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
$4.0M on the table at Eintracht Frankfurt. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FC Augsburg can pretend not to have heard.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Kabelo Moagi 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.
Ishé Samuels-Smith 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zidane Taylan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 FC Augsburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have shaken hands with Eintracht Frankfurt; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Patrik Mrkela is living that version at FC Augsburg, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
Squad21 Jul 2036
Words at FC Augsburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahuel Curcio 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at FC Augsburg can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around FC Augsburg people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tim Schnitzer will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Augsburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
$4.0M on the table at Eintracht Frankfurt. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Borussia Dortmund have kept their man, and FC Augsburg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ishé Samuels-Smith and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Jul 2036
Words at FC Augsburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zidane Taylan 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 loan enquiry to Borussia Mönchengladbach: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Hans Schmid is in the works
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“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 FC Augsburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Vojvodina for Vuk Draškić 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.
The deal with TSG Hoffenheim is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The name of Mussa Kaba has come up in conversations FC Augsburg were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Ishé Samuels-Smith 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.
Squad7 Jul 2036
Words at FC Augsburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zidane Taylan 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at FC Augsburg, another week without a signature from Tim Schnitzer.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Jacob Peter Hödl is in the works
Transfer targetsA loan move for Hans Schmid is in the works
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FC Augsburg can pretend not to have heard.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at FC Augsburg is running low.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around FC Augsburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
FC Augsburg offered $2.0M; Borussia Mönchengladbach said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Ishé Samuels-Smith 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.
FC Augsburg asked and Hamburger SV said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad30 Jun 2036
Words at FC Augsburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Montrell Culbreath 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around FC Augsburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FC Augsburg can pretend not to have heard.
The offer went to Schalke 04 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.
The deal with Hannover 96 is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Junior Mwanga and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad16 Jun 2036
Zidane Taylan 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Borussia Dortmund have kept their man, and FC Augsburg go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 FC Augsburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom2 Jun 2036
The silence upstairs is getting loud at FC Augsburg
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FC Augsburg 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 FC Augsburg 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around FC Augsburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ishé Samuels-Smith 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 Montrell Culbreath was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
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 Melvyn Gelie is on it.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 42 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
5 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.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at FC Augsburg has been clear about where Nahuel Curcio stands, which is more than many ever get.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around FC Augsburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
“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 FC Augsburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 May 2036
Zidane Taylan 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Christian Fuchs will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Augsburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FC Augsburg can pretend not to have heard.
Ishé Samuels-Smith 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 Montrell Culbreath was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 dugout21 Apr 2036
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Interim Coach was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the FC Augsburg dressing room was either.
Nobody at FC Augsburg is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
“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 FC Augsburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and FC Augsburg know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Christian Fuchs was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Preußen Münster will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. FC Augsburg were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tim Schnitzer will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Augsburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Christian Fuchs provided it, and the 8.36 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
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.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 3 times before the twentieth minute. Preußen Münster tried to reorganise, FC Augsburg did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around FC Augsburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ishé Samuels-Smith 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Zidane Taylan, and the manager let it.
Squad24 Mar 2036
Words at FC Augsburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Fuchs 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 happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 33 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
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 Vuk Draškić.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FC Augsburg can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at FC Augsburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Junior Mwanga 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Joan Puig has just signed for FC Augsburg, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
Darmstadt 98 will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Thiago Tarabay has pre-agreed a move to FC Augsburg, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Köln is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Tom Rothe 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.
3 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Clement Bischoff 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 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
8.31. 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. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FC Augsburg can pretend not to have heard.
Ishé Samuels-Smith 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.
1‑2 to Hertha BSC, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad3 Mar 2036
Words at FC Augsburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Fuchs 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at FC Augsburg, another week without a signature from Tim Schnitzer.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Montrell Culbreath was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation FC Augsburg are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Guilherme Castro will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Augsburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ishé Samuels-Smith 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lukas Čeh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.31 on the card, and the FC Augsburg support went home talking about one name.
The dugout10 Dec 2035
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 42 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mikkel Søfeldt will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Augsburg 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 FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Nov 2035
Words at FC Augsburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Montrell Culbreath 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 first defeat in 5 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Nürnberg; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
At 20 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. FC Augsburg will try not to make too much of it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason FC Augsburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two goals and a mark of 8.17 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mauricio Labranche will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Augsburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lukas Čeh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout29 Oct 2035
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 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason FC Augsburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.95 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Leon Lalić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Augsburg 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 FC Augsburg 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 Montrell Culbreath was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
FC Augsburg and Hertha BSC have settled on $2.3M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg 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.
FC Augsburg asked and Utrecht said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and FC Augsburg know it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. FC Augsburg know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at FC Augsburg 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 FC Augsburg, another week without a signature from Tom Strannegård.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. FC Augsburg have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2035
$1.2M settles it between the clubs for Gregor Thomas
Nürnberg have accepted the money. What FC Augsburg do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“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.
$1.1M was the most the club would pay and RB Leipzig 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sebastian Hartmann and FC Augsburg agree another 3 years.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason FC Augsburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. FC Augsburg have done the hard part with Nürnberg, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Ishé Samuels-Smith 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.
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. VfL Bochum have kept their man, and FC Augsburg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Bayer Leverkusen have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 112 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at FC Augsburg heard it as anything else.
Junior Mwanga 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.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
“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; FC Augsburg are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around FC Augsburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ishé Samuels-Smith 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.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Montrell Culbreath has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means FC Augsburg have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at FC Augsburg, another week without a signature from Tim Schnitzer.
Squad2 Apr 2035
9 new faces, and FC Augsburg are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sebastian Hartmann was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Fortuna Düsseldorf in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Javier Hernandez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Augsburg 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 FC Augsburg 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 Anzor Mekvabishvili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Boardroom26 Mar 2035
Nobody left the FC Augsburg dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The words a physio says slowly. 84 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. FC Augsburg will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
1 for Jon Balda, marked 7.92, 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.
“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; FC Augsburg are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout18 Dec 2034
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Interim Coach kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. FC Augsburg know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at FC Augsburg is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
112 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. FC Augsburg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and André Luiz trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Preußen Münster next, and one man in the FC Augsburg dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. FC Augsburg know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutAndrés Alarcón has become a man the manager trusts
“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 FC Augsburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and FC Augsburg know it.
Squad16 Oct 2034
Vojtěch Patka 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. FC Augsburg will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at FC Augsburg, and both men came out saying it was fine.