Marked for Samuele Inácio
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Feb 2027
A fracture rules Samuele Inácio out for 20 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Borussia Dortmund will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market1 Feb 2027
“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 ratings1 Feb 2027
Edmund Baidoo, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.95
A mark of 7.95 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.
Market1 Feb 2027
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Borussia Dortmund heard it as anything else.
Market1 Feb 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Borussia Dortmund have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Grischa Prömel 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Borussia Dortmund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Julian Ryerson 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Daley Blind
“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.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match20 Jan 2027
0‑0 against Heidenheim, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A fracture rules Samuele Inácio out for 29 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Borussia Dortmund will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market25 Jan 2027
Daley Blind 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 Borussia Dortmund can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
23 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Emre Can in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Borussia Dortmund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Grischa Prömel 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.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
The kick that got away from Edmund Baidoo
Twelve yards, a goalkeeper guessing, and it still did not go in. He will take the next one, and every soul in the ground will hold their breath.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Jan 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 37 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market18 Jan 2027
The offer from St. Pauli for Daniel Svensson 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Raphael Onyedika has just signed for Borussia Dortmund, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Julian Brandt 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
At 20, Edmund Baidoo is already the best thing here
An average of 7.01 in a first team he is several years too young for. Borussia Dortmund have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
12 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.
Match16 Jan 2027
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Werder Bremen came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Jan 2027
A fracture rules Samuele Inácio out for 45 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Borussia Dortmund will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market11 Jan 2027
The fee is $15.9M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. VfB Stuttgart drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Market11 Jan 2027
SC Freiburg pay $10.8M, 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A move Ramon Hendriks would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ramon Hendriks is living that version at Borussia Dortmund, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Serhou Guirassy 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
Igor Jesus 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.
Match9 Jan 2027
VfL Wolfsburg left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Borussia Dortmund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramy Bensebaini 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Borussia Dortmund will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.