59 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Young Boys lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Young Boys 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 The request is on a desk at Young Boys, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Zurich for Albian Comert was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Markie Meade will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Young Boys the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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 want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Young Boys heard it as anything else.
20 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Daniel Evans is living that version at Young Boys, and it tends to show in the first month.
106 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Manchester City lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 35 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Carlos Baleba 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 offer from Burnley for Daniel Evans was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
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.
138 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Manchester City lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Manchester City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The offer from Burnley for Daniel Evans was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos Baleba 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.
Add another name to the list: Middlesbrough have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Thomas Bennett. The answer from Manchester City has not changed — yet.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Samuel Bell and Manchester City agree another 5 years.
“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 Manchester City, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Manchester City know it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Manchester City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos Baleba 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Manchester City they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Manchester City have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Álex Jiménez 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Manchester City they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos Baleba 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.
Abdukodir Khusanov 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.
In brief
SquadCarlos Baleba falls out with a teammate over standards