Marked for Bautista Agostinelli
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom28 Feb 2033
Pressure builds in the Karlsruher SC boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad28 Feb 2033
There were 9 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.
Market28 Feb 2033
“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.
Squad28 Feb 2033
29 days out for Patrick Bauer after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Karlsruher SC will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout28 Feb 2033
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Karlsruher SC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad28 Feb 2033
Words at Karlsruher SC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Max Geschwill 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.
Squad28 Feb 2033
Wiktor Długosz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout28 Feb 2033
Enzo Franco 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Jan 2033
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and St. Pauli waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Karlsruher SC is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad10 Jan 2033
84 days out for Patrick Bauer after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Karlsruher SC will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market10 Jan 2033
Wisler Lazarre has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Karlsruher SC they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2033
Karlsruher SC have gone to Nürnberg with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2033
The deal with Darmstadt 98 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.
Market10 Jan 2033
“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.
Match8 Jan 2033
8 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and SV Elversberg were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Boardroom10 Jan 2033
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.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2033
Karlsruher SC have gone to Bayern Munich with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Dec 2032
Patrick Bauer breaks a bone — 112 days out
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.
Market13 Dec 2032
“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.
The dugout13 Dec 2032
Tom Bayliss: 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.” Karlsruher SC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match11 Dec 2032
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.
Squad13 Dec 2032
Mohammad Mahmoud 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.
Squad13 Dec 2032
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mike Themsen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout13 Dec 2032
The manager makes an example of Maxwell Gyamfi
“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.
Market13 Dec 2032
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad13 Dec 2032
Too much change too quickly at Karlsruher SC
8 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.
In brief
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The dugout
Mike Themsen knocks on the manager’s door
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The dugout
the manager on the point
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Match
Point won or two lost for Karlsruher SC?
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom5 Apr 2032
Karlsruher SC interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Interim Coach keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
Market5 Apr 2032
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Karlsruher SC can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings5 Apr 2032
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.
The dugout5 Apr 2032
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Karlsruher SC may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market5 Apr 2032
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Karlsruher SC they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad5 Apr 2032
Bas Evers 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 Apr 2032
Ishé Samuels-Smith 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 dugout5 Apr 2032
Bas Evers 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 Nov 2031
Only the photograph left for Wisler Lazarre
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Wisler Lazarre will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Karlsruher SC the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad17 Nov 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Henok Teklab was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad17 Nov 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Karlsruher SC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Nov 2031
Karlsruher SC are still strangers to each other
14 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.
Boardroom17 Nov 2031
Wages eat 91% of everything Karlsruher SC earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout17 Nov 2031
“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.
Market17 Nov 2031
The clock does Ville Koski’s negotiating for him
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Karlsruher SC could ask drops and the wages Ville Koski can ask rise.
The dugout17 Nov 2031
Nobody at Karlsruher SC 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.
Squad17 Nov 2031
Erhan Mašović wants to know why he earns less
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Karlsruher SC have no good answer.