The Winterthur Sentinel
Squad12 Feb 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nesta Elphege
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Winterthur lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
Hadj Mahmoud frozen out at Winterthur
This is not rotation. Hadj Mahmoud has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Winterthur is pretending otherwise.
Market12 Feb 2029
Only the photograph left for Mirlind Kryeziu
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mirlind Kryeziu will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Winterthur the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom12 Feb 2029
Winterthur to lose Mirlind Kryeziu for free
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Mirlind Kryeziu has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Marc Roca 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 Winterthur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets12 Feb 2029
Stade Nyonnais tell Winterthur: Filip Frei is not for sale
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.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Nihad Mujakić 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.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Noah Gavranovic out for 25 days
The medical room confirms 25 days on the sidelines for Noah Gavranovic, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
When it matters, Marc Roca plays
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.
In brief
- The dugout Janik Bachmann asks for a word with the manager
- Market The window shut and Hadj Mahmoud is still in the building
- The dugout The manager plants his flag on Herba Guirassy