Marked for Michael Olise
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match26 Sep 2026
Köln will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Bayern Munich were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A move Jonas Urbig 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. Jonas Urbig is living that version at Bayern Munich, and it tends to show in the first month.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Harry Kane, 33, rolls back the years — 8.64
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.64 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jonas Urbig is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Harry Kane 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 Bayern Munich this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Sep 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Bayern Munich have 3 straight wins of it.
Player ratings28 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.
Market28 Sep 2026
As if he never left: Sven Ulreich returns
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Sven Ulreich is a Bayern Munich player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Market28 Sep 2026
As if he never left: Jonas Urbig returns
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Jonas Urbig is a Bayern Munich player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.53 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Harry Kane 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Bayern Munich training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guido Della Rovere 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Kim Min-Jae's mistake
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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Kim Min-Jae wants out of the spotlight
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Chances created: 5. Somebody has to open a door before anybody can walk through it, and he spent the afternoon opening doors.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
The press cannot get enough of Michael Olise
Praise is not points and never has been. It is, however, the fastest way for a valuation to move, and everybody in the game reads the same pages.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Harry Kane 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 Bayern Munich this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.76 on the card, and the Bayern Munich support went home talking about one name.
Squad31 Aug 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The plan did not have a place for Kim Min-Jae
Nobody at Bayern Munich is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
Harry Kane 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 Bayern Munich this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Bayern Munich training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dayot Upamecano 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The Jonas Urbig story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jonas Urbig signs something — a contract at Bayern Munich or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Business is business: Tom Bischof goes
Eintracht Frankfurt paid $21.5M and Bayern Munich took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Market10 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Harry Kane 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 Bayern Munich this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.