The Bayer Leverkusen Post
Squad27 Aug 2029
Mark Flekken keeps Bayer Leverkusen in it on his own
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.
Market27 Aug 2029
Kostas Koulierakis moves on
Werder Bremen pay $17.0M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Market27 Aug 2029
Marco Sangalli puts it in writing
“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 The request is on a desk at Bayer Leverkusen, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market27 Aug 2029
Bakery Jatta has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bayer Leverkusen they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Nathan Tella 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 Bayer Leverkusen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market27 Aug 2029
Daniel Arnold comes home
The shirt still fits. Daniel Arnold is back at Bayer Leverkusen, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Player ratings27 Aug 2029
Loïc Badé in the eights
A performance of 8.91 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings27 Aug 2029
Matheus França runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings27 Aug 2029
A masterclass from Nathan Tella
Marked 8.27 — 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.
In brief
- Squad No hiding place for Ahmetcan Kaplan
- Boardroom A promise the Bayer Leverkusen board did not keep
- Loan watch Kerim Alajbegović counts the days