Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Young Boys did not have in the autumn.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Words at Young Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Julian Weigl 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Young Boys can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Marked 7.18. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Fabian Akanji was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Young Boys dressing room was either.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Can Bozdogan obliged against Stade Nyonnais. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Young Boys.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.51 for the rest of it.
“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 The request is on a desk at Young Boys, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Julian Weigl was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Dominik Pech 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.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Lausanne-Sport next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Young Boys prefer.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Young Boys this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Young Boys can pretend not to have heard.
1 for Julian Weigl, marked 7.77, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alan Virginius was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Luzern scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gregory Wüthrich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Young Boys game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Neuchâtel Xamax runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Herba Guirassy trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Young Boys would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“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 Young Boys, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Julian Weigl was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Silvan Comert and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Samuel Essende is on it.
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Young Boys can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nürnberg have kept their man, and Young Boys go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer went to Thun this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Young Boys can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $900.0K — a club that wants Federico Bicoro enough to be asked twice.
The fee is $300.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Stade Nyonnais drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Lavdrim Hajrulahu has just signed for Young Boys, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Young Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marc Oliver Kempf 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.