The Köln Sentinel
Market2 Aug 2027
Luca Waldschmidt asks to leave Köln
“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.
Market2 Aug 2027
Hertha BSC come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Köln did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad2 Aug 2027
9 seasons of Jan Thielmann
192 appearances across 9 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Köln know what they have.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
Door shut on Jannik Huth
Köln asked and Eintracht Frankfurt said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Jordi Paulina wants to go home
“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 Köln know it.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Köln count the cost of losing Stephan Bauer
20 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
Luca Waldschmidt gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
Saïd El Mala has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Köln 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 dugout2 Aug 2027
The manager makes Ragnar Ache a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Köln. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
- Market Talks stall between Köln and Fynn Schenten
- The dugout Ron-Robert Zieler knocks on the manager's door
- Market The shop window has Florian Kainz in it