Marked for Levin Lampert
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 May 2028
Vaduz sink to position 10
6 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad8 May 2028
Levin Lampert damages knee ligaments — 16 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 16 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.
Boardroom8 May 2028
Ruben Benito has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Vaduz can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market8 May 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Vaduz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad8 May 2028
Tempers go at Vaduz
Leon Schaffran 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.
Squad8 May 2028
A row about effort at Vaduz
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.
Squad8 May 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Vaduz can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Boardroom8 May 2028
86% of the income goes out in wages at Vaduz
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The dugout8 May 2028
Fabio Fehr without the man who signed him
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Fabio Fehr was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces1 May 2028
Supporters organise against the Vaduz board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Boardroom1 May 2028
Pressure builds in the Vaduz boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad1 May 2028
Levin Lampert damages knee ligaments — 23 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
Market1 May 2028
“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.
Squad1 May 2028
Words exchanged at Vaduz
Leon Schaffran 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.
Squad1 May 2028
A row about effort at Vaduz
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nahuel Estévez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout1 May 2028
Fabio Fehr without the man who signed him
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Fabio Fehr was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
Squad1 May 2028
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.
The dugout1 May 2028
Mattia Tirelli knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Vaduz, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Apr 2028
30 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Vaduz lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market24 Apr 2028
“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.
Squad24 Apr 2028
A falling-out at Vaduz
Nahuel Estévez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Jesper Löfgren 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.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Too much change too quickly at Vaduz
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 dugout24 Apr 2028
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.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
Mischa Beeli asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market24 Apr 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Dejan Djokic’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Apr 2028
Levin Lampert damages knee ligaments — 37 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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.
Market17 Apr 2028
“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 Vaduz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad17 Apr 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vaduz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Fabio Fehr 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 dugout17 Apr 2028
Malik Sawadogo has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Vaduz 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.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
A new face in his position, and Nahuel Estévez suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Vaduz have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
Denis Simani knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Vaduz, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market17 Apr 2028
No fee and no drama: Lorenzo Ferrari has signed at Vaduz, and the wage bill is the only line that moved.