Dominik Pech damages knee ligaments — 107 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 107 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Young Boys can pretend not to have heard.
The phone has started ringing about Elias Pihlström again, and this time the name on the line is Vaduz. Young Boys are listening politely and promising nothing.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Cesare Galeotti will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Young Boys the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Young Boys this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Sep 2031
Words at Young Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darian Maleš 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 ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
136 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Young Boys lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 The request is on a desk at Young Boys, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Young Boys they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Young Boys this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Aug 2031
Words at Young Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Isaac Schmidt 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 ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Young Boys have had the benefit of it.
Alvyn Sanches 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.
Squad6 Jan 2031
Darian Maleš 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Elias Pihlström will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Young Boys 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 Young Boys, and it is not being withdrawn.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Young Boys this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad2 Dec 2030
Words at Young Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Isaac Schmidt 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 given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Young Boys know it.
Marked 8.70 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
3 behind and going nowhere, until Kastriot Imeri decided otherwise. Lugano had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Young Boys will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
1‑2 against OB. 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.83 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Elias Pihlström will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Young Boys 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 Young Boys, and it is not being withdrawn.
Alvyn Sanches 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 4‑3 win over Lugano, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad11 Nov 2030
Isaac Schmidt 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Young Boys will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Young Boys this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Nov 2030
Words at Young Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darian Maleš 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Young Boys know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Luzern? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
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.
2‑4 against PAOK. 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Young Boys heard it as anything else.
Alvyn Sanches 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Young Boys and PAOK, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad7 Oct 2030
Darian Maleš 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 95 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Young Boys, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Samuel Essende provided it, and the 7.99 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Young Boys is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Young Boys this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Young Boys and Thun, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Words at Young Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Isaac Schmidt 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.
3‑0 against HNK Vukovar 1991, and a performance that will change how the rest of the competition talks about this club. Reputations in continental football are built in single evenings and this was one.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Young Boys will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two goals and a mark of 8.32 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Samuel Essende provided it, and the 8.18 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nicholas Ammeter will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Young Boys the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Alvyn Sanches 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
SquadDarian Maleš falls out with a teammate over standards
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Young Boys will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Young Boys lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Young Boys is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Young Boys have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Young Boys this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 44 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.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Elias Pihlström is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Alvyn Sanches 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Lewin Blum wants continental football; whether Young Boys can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad12 Aug 2030
Darian Maleš 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.
Add another name to the list: Vaduz have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Cesare Galeotti. The answer from Young Boys has not changed — yet.
59 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Young Boys lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Young Boys they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
25 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Alvyn Sanches 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.
Squad29 Jul 2030
Isaac Schmidt 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 given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Young Boys know it.
21 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
66 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Young Boys lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Sam Bell is living that version at Young Boys, and it tends to show in the first month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Young Boys this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
73 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Young Boys lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Young Boys can pretend not to have heard.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Elias Pihlström is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Young Boys will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
1‑2 against Olympiacos. 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Young Boys hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Alvyn Sanches 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.
Squad25 Mar 2030
Isaac Schmidt 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 given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Young Boys know it.
In brief
Player ratingsDaniel Dappa could not find anything
$12.8M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 119 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The terraces28 Jan 2030
Supporters turn on the $12.8M sale of Daniel Dappa
He is going to Young Boys, the club has $12.8M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
“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 Hapoel Tel Aviv, and it is not being withdrawn.
Xande Silva 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.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Darlin Yongwa 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 31 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The words a physio says slowly. 46 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Young Boys can pretend not to have heard.
Every dressing room knows how to read a signing like this one. Daniel Dappa is not here to sit and wait indefinitely, and the man whose place he has been bought to take knows it better than anyone.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Daniel Dappa is living that version at Young Boys, and it tends to show in the first month.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Maccabi Netanya the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Hapoel Tel Aviv will enjoy reviewing.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hapoel Tel Aviv will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Hapoel Tel Aviv is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Victor Stînă has agreed terms with Hapoel Kiryat Shmona for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Young Boys will make the call about Daniel Dappa this week. Hapoel Tel Aviv have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darlin Yongwa 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.
Position 2, 41 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.
Add another name to the list: Young Boys have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Daniel Dappa. The answer from Hapoel Tel Aviv has not changed — yet.
Xande Silva 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.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Darlin Yongwa 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.
Maccabi Petach Tikva will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Philani Sithebe has pre-agreed a move to Hapoel Tel Aviv, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Roei Alkukin 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 had been thinking. Darlin Yongwa 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.
Marked 8.93 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings24 Dec 2029
Mor Buskila was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.62. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Marked 8.39 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Hapoel Tel Aviv are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hapoel Tel Aviv have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Darlin Yongwa 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.
9 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hapoel Tel Aviv can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darlin Yongwa 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.
Player ratings10 Dec 2029
Daniel Dappa was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.23. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kevin Akpoguma and Hapoel Tel Aviv agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Xande Silva 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.
Squad3 Dec 2029
Darlin Yongwa 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
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.
In brief
Player ratingsThe chances came and went for Daniel Dappa
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darlin Yongwa 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 watch every Hapoel Tel Aviv game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Borneo runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Kevin Akpoguma 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.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Darlin Yongwa 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 ratings19 Nov 2029
Roei Alkukin was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.57. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hapoel Tel Aviv can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darlin Yongwa 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.
Player ratings12 Nov 2029
Mor Buskila was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.48. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hapoel Tel Aviv have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darlin Yongwa 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.
Position 3, 17 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.51 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Akpoguma 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 given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Hapoel Tel Aviv know it.
Mehdi Bourabia 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 had been thinking. Darlin Yongwa 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.
There was no pressure on him and nowhere he had to be. Hapoel Tel Aviv lost a goal to a decision that took half a second and will be discussed all week.