“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 The request is on a desk at Bellinzona, and it is not being withdrawn.
Bellinzona have gone to Young Boys 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bellinzona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Luca Jaquenoud and Bellinzona agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Words at Bellinzona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Léon Bergsma 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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bellinzona will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
Bellinzona have gone to St. Gallen 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bellinzona 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. Jesús Montesano is living that version at Bellinzona, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Léon Bergsma was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Luzern have kept their man, and Bellinzona go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Bellinzona, another week without a signature from Jonathan de Donno.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 78 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Emmanuel Essiam 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.
Squad15 May 2028
Léon Bergsma 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.
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.
“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 dugout15 May 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Nelson Eliseche's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Bellinzona could ask drops and the wages Léon Bergsma can ask rise.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Bellinzona would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Nobody at Bellinzona 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.
Words at Bellinzona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Madyen El Jaouhari 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.
Dragan Mihajlovic 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Bellinzona can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Nelson Eliseche's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Bellinzona will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bellinzona, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bellinzona will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Orest Kuzyk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bellinzona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Bellinzona can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“I watch every Bellinzona game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Stade Lausanne-Ouchy runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Noé Boum is on 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 Bellinzona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Madyen El Jaouhari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Bellinzona, another week without a signature from Léon Bergsma.
Squad6 Mar 2028
5 new faces, and Bellinzona 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Léon Bergsma trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The dugoutMamadou Meité has become a man the manager trusts
Marco Burch 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 Léon Bergsma was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Bellinzona will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Marked 7.75 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Bellinzona had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
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.” Christian Comert kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Words at Bellinzona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Léon Bergsma 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.
Nordan Mukiele 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.
Something was said to Noha Tiehi and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
Lendrit Shala is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Nobody at Bellinzona 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.
Vaduz next, and one man in the Bellinzona dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Bellinzona would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Bellinzona close the window on a squad of their own making
24 in and 5 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Madyen El Jaouhari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 21 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Bellinzona will try not to make too much of it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Bellinzona, another week without a signature from Léon Bergsma.
11 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Nelson Eliseche's mistake
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bellinzona have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Bellinzona have gone to Wil 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Madyen El Jaouhari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bellinzona asked and Lugano said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bellinzona will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from Paralimni for Noha Tiehi 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.
Add another name to the list: Paralimni have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mamadou Meité. The answer from Bellinzona has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Léon Bergsma was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Mamadou Meité 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.
He is 19, and nobody at Bellinzona signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Bellinzona will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Bellinzona paid $220.0K and Thun took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mattias Käit was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Olivier Mambwa 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of 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 Thun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Adam Ilic is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Mattias Käit 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.
At 36, 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Cagliari keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mattias Käit 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Thun are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Thun have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Thun 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.
Thun had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at AEK, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Thun asked and Wil said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Mattias Käit 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. Thun will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Thun have done the hard part with Racing Genk, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Federico Bicoro 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 Fabio Fehr was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Schalke 04 have kept their man, and Thun go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nobody at Thun 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Furkan Dursun signs something — a contract at Thun or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.