Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yannick Eduardo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Augsburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Finn Dahmen 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.
Squad2 Jun 2031
Ibrahim Maza 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Georginio Malen has, at FC Augsburg, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Every dressing room knows how to read a signing like this one. Georginio Malen is not here to sit and wait indefinitely, and the man whose place he has been bought to take knows it better than anyone.
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.
59 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. St. Pauli lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what St. Pauli can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at St. Pauli is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad16 Sep 2030
Sacha Boey 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.
87 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. St. Pauli lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what St. Pauli can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at St. Pauli is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. St. Pauli have done the hard part with TSG Hoffenheim, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Sacha Boey and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“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 St. Pauli know it.
Squad19 Aug 2030
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Pablo Gallego 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. SC Freiburg have kept their man, and St. Pauli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Michael Reindorf has come up in conversations St. Pauli were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
94 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. St. Pauli lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The offer went to Heidenheim this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. St. Pauli have done the hard part with TSG Hoffenheim, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at St. Pauli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; St. Pauli are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Benjamin Khaderi is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and RB Leipzig waiting with a shirt. Nobody at FC Augsburg is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 FC Augsburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Borussia Mönchengladbach wanted more than $950.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Giorgi Robakidze will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Augsburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
St. Pauli will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Danilo Quaranta has pre-agreed a move to FC Augsburg, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad22 Jul 2030
Words at FC Augsburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marius Wolf 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. FC Augsburg will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Elias Vali Fard is in the works
115 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. St. Pauli lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
St. Pauli interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Interim Coach keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
$14.9M on the table at Bayer Leverkusen. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“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 St. Pauli, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Danilo Quaranta will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around St. Pauli the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Danilo Quaranta has agreed terms with FC Augsburg for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at St. Pauli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadMichael Heule falls out with a teammate over standards
The words a physio says slowly. 136 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. St. Pauli will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 St. Pauli, and it is not being withdrawn.
St. Pauli offered $19.1M; Bayer Leverkusen said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around St. Pauli people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Sacha Boey 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bayern Munich have kept their man, and St. Pauli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The words a physio says slowly. 67 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.
“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 St. Pauli, and it is not being withdrawn.
Joel Chima Fujita and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad13 May 2030
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sacha Boey 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.
“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 St. Pauli know it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at St. Pauli, another week without a signature from Danilo Quaranta.
The words a physio says slowly. 74 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what St. Pauli can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around St. Pauli 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.” St. Pauli have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at St. Pauli hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Sacha Boey 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 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.