89 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bayer Leverkusen lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
A brace, and Patrik Schick takes the afternoon — 8.43
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Patrik Schick provided it, and the 8.43 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer from Borussia Dortmund for Janis Blaswich 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.
Patrik Schick 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 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 97 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.
Eintracht Frankfurt are out and Bayer Leverkusen go through, 4‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
A brace, and Patrik Schick takes the afternoon — 8.99
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Patrik Schick provided it, and the 8.99 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 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 Bayer Leverkusen 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 Bayer Leverkusen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 23 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefano Turati 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Ernest Poku at his very best
The fee is $10.0M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Borussia Mönchengladbach drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Antonio Nusa did not need any: 9.13, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Yukhym Konoplia is living that version at RB Leipzig, and it tends to show in the first month.
Castello Lukeba 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 21, he is averaging 7.03, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
“I watch every RB Leipzig game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Bayer Leverkusen runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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 RB Leipzig hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RB Leipzig this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at RB Leipzig, and 4 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at RB Leipzig 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 14 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Exequiel Palacios 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.
Nobody at Bayer Leverkusen 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.
“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.
Willi Orbán 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.
At 23 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RB Leipzig this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 9.24 — 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.
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 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.
Nothing has been signed and nothing has been denied. Supporters who have lived through one of these before know the quiet part lasts months and the loud part lasts a week.
Exequiel Palacios 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. Stefano Turati 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.
The chase for Christian Rodriguez ended with $6.6M changing hands and Veracruz out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The offer from Borussia Mönchengladbach for El Chadaille Bitshiabu 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.
“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 RB Leipzig, and it is not being withdrawn.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Leon Grgić has just signed for RB Leipzig, and for once the answer mattered.
He is 20, and nobody at RB Leipzig signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
5 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.
Castello Lukeba 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at RB Leipzig training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolas Seiwald 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
6 new faces, and RB Leipzig 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.
Chiapas go through and Veracruz go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 14 of the 25 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Christian Rodriguez was one of the reasons people came, and $6.6M does not replace that by itself.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Veracruz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Christian Gallardo 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.
Morelia will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Edgar Martínez has pre-agreed a move to Veracruz, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Add another name to the list: Alavés have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Hirving Montes. The answer from Veracruz has not changed — yet.