The words a physio says slowly. 82 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.
A season average of 7.23 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Zurich know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Leonidas Stergiou 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 words a physio says slowly. 138 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zurich this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 5.09. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zurich will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 The request is on a desk at Zurich, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Zurich have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Leonidas Stergiou 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.
Squad25 Jun 2040
Words at Zurich training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriele Indragoli 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.
6 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Zurich could ask drops and the wages Gonzalo Tapia can ask rise.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zurich will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zurich this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadDavid Vujević falls out with a teammate over standards
The words a physio says slowly. 90 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zurich 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 118 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.
Livano Comenencia 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 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.
Juan-José Perea 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 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.
Squad12 Sep 2039
Words at Zurich training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriele Indragoli 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.
16 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.
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.
14 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Zurich has been clear about where Simon Freuler stands, which is more than many ever get.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 15 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Zurich have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zurich this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Remo Rodriguez is a Zurich player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Squad10 Jan 2039
Words at Zurich training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan-José Perea 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Zurich, another week without a signature from Breel Comert.