St. Gallen had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Penarol, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Manchester United have kept their man, and St. Gallen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 St. Gallen know it.
St. Gallen have made the call to Bari. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Ghianny Kodia 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around St. Gallen people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Hearts of Oak for Stephan Ambrosius 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. St. Gallen have done the hard part with Penarol, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“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 St. Gallen know it.
Lugano will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Fotis Pseftis has pre-agreed a move to St. Gallen, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Néstor Caicedo 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AEK have kept their man, and St. Gallen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.99 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Néstor Caicedo. 2‑0 against Wil, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
5 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Breel Steffen on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
SquadLuka Ayala falls out with a teammate over standards
SquadThe division's best last weekend was a St. Gallen man
“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. Gallen 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 St. Gallen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Ayala was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and St. Gallen will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Néstor Caicedo has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
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.
“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. Gallen can pretend not to have heard.
Andrea Adorante 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at St. Gallen can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Carlo Boukhalfa was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.24. 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Lawrence Ati-Zigi is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The arithmetic ran out, and everybody could see it coming from a distance. The hard summer starts now, and next season's fixtures will be full of unfamiliar names.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Christian Schär has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Neuchâtel Xamax waiting with a shirt. Nobody at St. Gallen is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Novi Pazar for Betim Fazliji 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.
“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. Gallen heard it as anything else.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mihailo Stevanović and St. Gallen agree another 4 years.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Mihailo Stevanović is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The mood at St. Gallen has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aliou Baldé, and the manager let it.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at St. Gallen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ledjan Sahitaj 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.
“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. Gallen, and it is not being withdrawn.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. St. Gallen know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ledjan Sahitaj trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The table has started to be checked before the results are in, and that is always the tell. Nobody at St. Gallen says the word out loud, and everybody in the building is thinking it.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at St. Gallen the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
The language is arriving, the jokes are landing, and there is somebody at the next peg to talk to. None of it appears in a scouting report and all of it shows up on the pitch.
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.
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
Néstor Caicedo 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 dugout19 Apr 2027
Lukas Görtler is playing like a man with something to prove
The oldest phenomenon in the sport: a new voice in the dressing room and suddenly everybody is available for everything. Lukas Görtler is training as though the last team sheet never existed, because as far as he is concerned it does not.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. St. Gallen know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and St. Gallen will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
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 St. Gallen would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Day 42 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Luka Ayala has just signed for St. Gallen, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ledjan Sahitaj was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Aliou Baldé trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
4 goals in 27 games at Nea Salamis — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at St. Gallen updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Óliver. 2‑0 against Guadalajara, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Guadalajara tried to reorganise, Monterrey did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monterrey this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have shaken hands with Atlas; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Monterrey have gone to Pachuca 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.
Monterrey asked and Guadalajara said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Toluca made Monterrey work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Orbelín Pineda was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.09. 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Carlos Martin could afford to be generous.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Luka Ayala 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.