Marked for Niklas Schubert
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Jun 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Köln, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
Köln asked and TSG Hoffenheim said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market26 Jun 2028
Köln sign Jacopo Sassi with one eye on the future
Nobody at the club will say out loud who this signing is for, which is how you know exactly who it is for. Jacopo Sassi has been brought in to take a shirt somebody is still wearing.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jan Thielmann, and the manager let it.
Squad26 Jun 2028
33 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Tempers go at Köln
Emin Kujović 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.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
Eintracht Frankfurt have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Squad26 Jun 2028
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 Köln would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout20 Sep 2027
“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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
A fracture rules Niklas Schubert out for 17 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Köln will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match18 Sep 2027
The wait goes on for Köln
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match18 Sep 2027
3 matches without a goal for Köln
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The terraces20 Sep 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Badredine Bouanani has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad20 Sep 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Julian Pauli and Köln agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market20 Sep 2027
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Köln has been clear about where Alessio Castro-Montes stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match11 Sep 2027
A hiding for Köln
Beaten 0‑3 by Werder Bremen, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market13 Sep 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Köln can pretend not to have heard.
Squad13 Sep 2027
A fracture rules Niklas Schubert out for 28 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Köln will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market13 Sep 2027
“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.
Transfer targets13 Sep 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. SC Freiburg have kept their man, and Köln go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Younes Ebnoutalib, and the manager let it.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
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.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑3 Paul Wolf left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market6 Sep 2027
“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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
35 days out for Niklas Schubert after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Köln will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Window shuts: 17 in, 6 out at Köln
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 17 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market6 Sep 2027
“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 Sep 2027
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
“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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.