Marked for Daniel Werner
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Jun 2038
Jan Schöppner breaks a bone — 82 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 82 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market28 Jun 2038
“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 The request is on a desk at Heidenheim, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market28 Jun 2038
Lukas Hojbjerg has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Heidenheim they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Aug 2037
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 101 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad31 Aug 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Patrick Günther
81 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Werder Bremen lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad31 Aug 2037
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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2037
Age has not caught Romano Schmid yet — 8.81
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.81 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match29 Aug 2037
5 matches without a win for Werder Bremen
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Werder Bremen are no longer polite ones.
Squad31 Aug 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Werder Bremen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market31 Aug 2037
Daniel Werner has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Werder Bremen they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match29 Aug 2037
Werder Bremen are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Match29 Aug 2037
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Jul 2037
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Werder Bremen will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad27 Jul 2037
Patrick Günther damages knee ligaments — 117 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 117 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.
Squad27 Jul 2037
Samuel Mbangula 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.
Market27 Jul 2037
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Werder Bremen is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad27 Jul 2037
Felix Graf is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Market27 Jul 2037
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Werder Bremen will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces13 Jul 2037
The mood at Werder Bremen has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad13 Jul 2037
Patrick Günther damages knee ligaments — 131 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 131 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.
Match13 Jul 2037
17 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad13 Jul 2037
“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.
Squad13 Jul 2037
Felix Pohl breaks a bone — 46 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad13 Jul 2037
Afonso Moreira 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.
Market13 Jul 2037
Only the photograph left for Daniel Werner
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniel Werner will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Werder Bremen the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom13 Jul 2037
12 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Market13 Jul 2037
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Werder Bremen know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Jun 2037
Patrick Günther damages knee ligaments — 145 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 145 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.
Boardroom29 Jun 2037
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Werder Bremen
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad29 Jun 2037
Felix Pohl breaks a bone — 60 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 60 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market29 Jun 2037
“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 Werder Bremen, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad29 Jun 2037
Samuel Mbangula 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.
Market29 Jun 2037
Only the photograph left for Carlos Puga
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Carlos Puga will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Werder Bremen the goodbyes have quietly begun.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces15 Jun 2037
The mood at Werder Bremen has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match15 Jun 2037
17 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad15 Jun 2037
Felix Pohl breaks a bone — 76 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 76 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad15 Jun 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Werder Bremen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Jun 2037
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Romelu De Bruyne is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market15 Jun 2037
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Werder Bremen will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad15 Jun 2037
Words at Werder Bremen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. William Feola 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.
Market15 Jun 2037
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Werder Bremen know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market15 Jun 2037
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom8 Jun 2037
the manager has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Werder Bremen can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Squad8 Jun 2037
Felix Pohl breaks a bone — 83 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 83 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad8 Jun 2037
A move Étienne Borié would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Étienne Borié is living that version at Werder Bremen, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market8 Jun 2037
“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 Werder Bremen, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad8 Jun 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Werder Bremen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Jun 2037
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Justin Njinmah and Werder Bremen agree another 1 years.
Market8 Jun 2037
As if he never left: Étienne Borié returns
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Étienne Borié is a Werder Bremen player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Market8 Jun 2037
VfL Wolfsburg are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Werder Bremen will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
The terraces8 Jun 2037
The spotlight tightens on Jay Matete
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.