Marked for Benjamin Sauer
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Oct 2043
There were 10 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match10 Oct 2043
Nowhere to hide for Köln
0‑7 against RB Leipzig, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad12 Oct 2043
A knee injury of the worst kind for Benjamin Sauer
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Köln lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market12 Oct 2043
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Maximilian Jung will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Köln the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 Oct 2043
The medical room confirms 47 days on the sidelines for Ibrahim Maza, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Market12 Oct 2043
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Köln heard it as anything else.
Squad12 Oct 2043
Tempers go at Köln
Jakub Zieliński 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.
Match10 Oct 2043
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Köln and RB Leipzig, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Boardroom12 Oct 2043
Doors closed at Köln
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match3 Oct 2043
Levski take Köln apart in Europe
1‑5. There is a level at which football is played every single week by clubs that have been doing it for fifty years, and an evening like this is what it feels like to arrive there without having done it.
Squad5 Oct 2043
A knee injury of the worst kind for Benjamin Sauer
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Köln lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad5 Oct 2043
595 appearances across 17 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Squad5 Oct 2043
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market5 Oct 2043
Ibrahim Maza wants to know where this is going
“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 Köln hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Player ratings5 Oct 2043
Up for the corner, and Mika Walther delivers — 7.73
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Mika Walther scored, was marked 7.73, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad5 Oct 2043
Ibrahim Maza in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Köln this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings5 Oct 2043
Beat anybody else and it is three points. Beat them and it is a story a city tells for a decade. Köln have their man.
In brief
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Match
Mika Walther among the goals in a wild afternoon
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Match
The run at home goes on for Köln
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Boardroom
Doors closed at Köln
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Sep 2043
A knee injury of the worst kind for Benjamin Sauer
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Köln lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings28 Sep 2043
Two goals and a mark of 8.59 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad28 Sep 2043
Tempers go at Köln
Jakub Zieliński 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.
Market28 Sep 2043
Toby Carrasco has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Köln they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match26 Sep 2043
Maximilian Jung among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Maximilian Jung on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Köln and Bayern Munich.
Match26 Sep 2043
Beaten 2‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad28 Sep 2043
Dani Díaz 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.
Squad28 Sep 2043
Mika Walther 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.
Market28 Sep 2043
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mick Schmetgens signs something — a contract at Köln or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Sep 2043
A European night to remember for Köln
3‑1 against Roda, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Squad21 Sep 2043
A knee injury of the worst kind for Benjamin Sauer
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Köln lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match19 Sep 2043
Köln taken apart
1‑4 to Mainz 05, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad21 Sep 2043
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market21 Sep 2043
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Köln is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings21 Sep 2043
Dani Díaz, 37, rolls back the years — 7.97
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.97 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad21 Sep 2043
Ibrahim Maza in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Köln this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2043
Jakub Zieliński 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 ratings21 Sep 2043
A hand in 2 of them from Maximilian Jung — 7.66
Marked 7.66. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 2043
A knee injury of the worst kind for Benjamin Sauer
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Köln lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market14 Sep 2043
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Köln they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad14 Sep 2043
Tempers go at Köln
Ibrahim Maza 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.
Match12 Sep 2043
4 matches without a win for Köln
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Köln are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom14 Sep 2043
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Markus Otto has agreed terms with St. Pauli for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad14 Sep 2043
Words at Köln training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakub Zieliński 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.
Match12 Sep 2043
Köln are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Player ratings14 Sep 2043
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2043
Rav van den Berg 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Sep 2043
A knee injury of the worst kind for Benjamin Sauer
51 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Köln lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad7 Sep 2043
470 appearances across 12 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Squad7 Sep 2043
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jakub Zieliński and Köln agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Sep 2043
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Köln this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings7 Sep 2043
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market7 Sep 2043
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Friedrich Pohl has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Köln.
Market7 Sep 2043
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Köln know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market7 Sep 2043
Köln have let the market know Arthur Mogo Njimfo can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Aug 2043
A knee injury of the worst kind for Benjamin Sauer
58 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Köln lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market31 Aug 2043
“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 Köln, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad31 Aug 2043
Words at Köln training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakub Zieliński 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 ratings31 Aug 2043
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match29 Aug 2043
Köln hit back inside 3 minutes
VfL Wolfsburg held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Köln answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Squad31 Aug 2043
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Paul Hoffmann and Köln agree another 4 years.
Squad31 Aug 2043
Tempers go at Köln
Alessandro Gaul Souza 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.
Market31 Aug 2043
The Anton Haas conversation is coming
Everyone has stopped pretending: Bayer Leverkusen will make the call about Anton Haas this week. Köln have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Match29 Aug 2043
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2043
A knee injury of the worst kind for Benjamin Sauer
65 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Köln lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market24 Aug 2043
Only the photograph left for Toby Carrasco
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Toby Carrasco will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Köln the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad24 Aug 2043
Jakub Zieliński 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.
Squad24 Aug 2043
Oliver Schulz is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2043
Graduation day at Köln
14 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.
Squad24 Aug 2043
Tempers go at Köln
David Hartmann 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2043
A knee injury of the worst kind for Benjamin Sauer
72 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Köln lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market17 Aug 2043
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Köln is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad17 Aug 2043
Tempers go at Köln
Ibrahim Maza 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2043
A knee injury of the worst kind for Benjamin Sauer
79 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Köln lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad10 Aug 2043
Jakub Zieliński 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.
Squad10 Aug 2043
At 21, David Hartmann is already the best thing here
An average of 7.00 in a first team he is several years too young for. Köln have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2043
A knee injury of the worst kind for Benjamin Sauer
86 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Köln lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad3 Aug 2043
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Rav van den Berg commits to Köln for another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2043
Tempers go at Köln
Ibrahim Maza 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Jul 2043
A knee injury of the worst kind for Benjamin Sauer
93 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Köln lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad27 Jul 2043
Ibrahim Maza in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Köln this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market27 Jul 2043
Toby Carrasco has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Köln they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Jul 2043
A knee injury of the worst kind for Benjamin Sauer
100 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Köln lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market20 Jul 2043
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Maximilian Jung will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Köln the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad20 Jul 2043
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Jul 2043
A knee injury of the worst kind for Benjamin Sauer
107 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Köln lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad13 Jul 2043
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market13 Jul 2043
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Köln heard it as anything else.
Squad13 Jul 2043
Jakub Zieliński 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.
Market13 Jul 2043
Only the photograph left for Raivis Vanins
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Raivis Vanins will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Köln the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad13 Jul 2043
The medical room confirms 19 days on the sidelines for Alessandro Gaul Souza, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
In brief
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Market
Napoli are about to pick up the phone
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Market
Paul Meier linked with a move away
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Boardroom
Köln keep producing them
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Jul 2043
A knee injury of the worst kind for Benjamin Sauer
114 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Köln lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market6 Jul 2043
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Köln heard it as anything else.
Squad6 Jul 2043
Tempers go at Köln
Jakub Zieliński 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.
Market6 Jul 2043
The phone has started ringing about David Hartmann again, and this time the name on the line is Napoli. Köln are listening politely and promising nothing.
Market6 Jul 2043
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Köln is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad6 Jul 2043
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Klaus Schäfer is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.