1‑2 against São Paulo. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luciano Sábato will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around America de Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Matías Rosales 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.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Juan Duque is a America de Cali player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Juan Duque is living that version at America de Cali, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad12 Nov 2035
Guéla Doué 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around America de Cali they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 The request is on a desk at America de Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
Mateo Ponte 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Índio is living that version at America de Cali, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guéla Doué 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 is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Tobías Astorga wants continental football; whether America de Cali can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“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.
Squad15 Oct 2035
11 new faces, and America de Cali 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.
In brief
The dugoutMateo Ponte knocks on the manager's door
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at St. Pauli 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.
Aleksander Borgersen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Nov 2034
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Love Arrhov 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 2‑1 win over Holstein Kiel, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Two goals and a mark of 8.11 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at St. Pauli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Miguel João da Silva has, at St. Pauli, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Love Arrhov 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 St. Pauli, another week without a signature from Moisés Ramírez.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutLove Arrhov knocks on the manager’s door
Aleksander Borgersen 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 Índio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 7.55 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, St. Pauli had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout30 Oct 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.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at St. Pauli is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what St. Pauli can pretend not to have heard.
Aleksander Borgersen 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.
Squad23 Oct 2034
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Índio 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 needed Gustav Lindgren to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against TSG Hoffenheim, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at St. Pauli has been clear about where Luca Philipp stands, which is more than many ever get.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Índio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad16 Oct 2034
7 new faces, and St. Pauli 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.
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.
TSG Hoffenheim next, and one man in the St. Pauli dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at St. Pauli is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Yannick Sidibé is living that version at St. Pauli, and it tends to show in the first month.
Matthéo Xantippe 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at St. Pauli is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
40 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at St. Pauli heard it as anything else.
Squad2 Oct 2034
Xavi Grande 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” St. Pauli have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around St. Pauli 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 St. Pauli can pretend not to have heard.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Salem Albè has, at St. Pauli, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
A goalkeeper's career is counted in the games nobody scored in, and Moisés Ramírez now has 100 of them across 407 appearances. Nothing about that number was luck.
Matthéo Xantippe 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.
A 2‑0 win over Magdeburg, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad18 Sep 2034
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Índio 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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what St. Pauli can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around St. Pauli they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad11 Sep 2034
Jonas Rouhi 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.
Matthéo Xantippe 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.
St. Pauli asked and Hannover 96 said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
5 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
MarketThe clock does Asier Hierro’s negotiating for him
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason St. Pauli will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Asier Hierro will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around St. Pauli the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 St. Pauli, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom4 Sep 2034
Deadline passes with 21 signed and 22 gone
That is the business done at St. Pauli 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.
St. Pauli 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.
St. Pauli offered $560.0K; Nürnberg 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.
Aleksander Borgersen 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 Jonas Rouhi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Day 12 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. St. Pauli will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Position 3, 62 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at St. Pauli is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
$560.0K on the table at Nürnberg. 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 deal with RB Leipzig 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.
St. Pauli had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Borussia Mönchengladbach, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
St. Pauli offered $560.0K; Dynamo Dresden 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonas Rouhi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Matthéo Xantippe 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Eyyüb Yaşar
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Asier Hierro will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around St. Pauli the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The offer went to Nürnberg 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 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.
Squad7 Aug 2034
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Índio 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.
St. Pauli have gone to Dynamo Dresden 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. St. Pauli have done the hard part with Bayer Leverkusen, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
St. Pauli offered $620.0K; Nürnberg 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.
Squad31 Jul 2034
Jonas Rouhi 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at St. Pauli can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at St. Pauli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Position 3, 62 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around St. Pauli 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 St. Pauli can pretend not to have heard.
$620.0K on the table at Nürnberg. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
St. Pauli offered $560.0K; Dynamo Dresden 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.
Squad24 Jul 2034
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonas Rouhi 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.
Matthéo Xantippe 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.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at St. Pauli is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what St. Pauli can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” St. Pauli have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
$690.0K on the table at Nürnberg. 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 deal with Borussia Dortmund 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.
Matthéo Xantippe 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 74 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at St. Pauli is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Darmstadt 98 is saying, and nobody at St. Pauli is enjoying the guessing.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonas Rouhi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 88 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around St. Pauli they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Aleksander Borgersen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 May 2034
Jonas Rouhi 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at St. Pauli can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.