Marked for Luke Plange
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 Oct 2026
Grasshopper are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 21 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Match10 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, Grasshopper do not lose
7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Sven Köhler 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jordy Steins is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Grasshopper training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Justin Hammel 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Óscar Clemente was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.07. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Match10 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Hugo Palacios. 2‑1 against St. Gallen, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces12 Oct 2026
The crowd has taken to Luke Plange
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.48, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Grasshopper this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
22 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Match3 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, Grasshopper do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
266% of the income goes out in wages at Grasshopper
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Grasshopper training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luis Fariña 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Jonathan Asp-Jensen is the division's best young player this month
At 20 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Grasshopper will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Defensive actions: 15. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Sep 2026
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Grasshopper lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match26 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Vaduz spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Sep 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match26 Sep 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Grasshopper have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Justin Hammel 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Óscar Clemente 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Three points for Grasshopper, 1‑0 the final word against Vaduz in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Luke Plange leaves them behind him
Shots: 7. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Sep 2026
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Grasshopper lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
25 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Sven Köhler 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 Grasshopper this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A season average of 7.02 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Grasshopper know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Grasshopper training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Óscar Clemente 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 20, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
20 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Match19 Sep 2026
Three points for Grasshopper, 1‑0 the final word against Lugano in a contest settled by the finer margins.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Aug 2026
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Grasshopper lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer from Queens Park Rangers for Luke Plange 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Lovro Zvonarek at 21 — 7.64
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Lovro Zvonarek did not need any: 7.64, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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 Grasshopper, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market31 Aug 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Hugo Palacios wants continental football; whether Grasshopper can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Grasshopper training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Justin Hammel 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
A 2‑1 win over Thun, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.90 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Óscar Clemente at his very best
Marked 8.82. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Grasshopper.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2026
55 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Grasshopper lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match19 Aug 2026
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Luke Plange obliged against Vaduz. 2‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Grasshopper.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Luka Mikulić, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.81
A mark of 8.81 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 Grasshopper, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Darko Jevtić, 33, rolls back the years — 8.00
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.00 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Sven Köhler 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 Grasshopper this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Grasshopper training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lovro Zvonarek 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.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Luke Plange 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Grasshopper will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Lovro Zvonarek at 21 — 9.47
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Lovro Zvonarek did not need any: 9.47, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market17 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Grasshopper have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market17 Aug 2026
Young Boys pay $1.2M, 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Sven Köhler 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 terraces17 Aug 2026
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Justin Hammel, and the manager let it.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.40 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.