Marked for Denys Pidruchnyi
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Jan 2030
Numa Lavanchy hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Young Boys can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Jan 2030
A move David Schopper 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. David Schopper is living that version at Young Boys, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market7 Jan 2030
“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.
Transfer targets7 Jan 2030
Everything agreed with Porto, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Boardroom7 Jan 2030
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Market7 Jan 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Denys Pidruchnyi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Young Boys the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad7 Jan 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” David Schopper and Young Boys agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Jan 2030
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.
Transfer targets7 Jan 2030
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Dec 2029
“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 The request is on a desk at Young Boys, and it is not being withdrawn.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 dugout10 Dec 2029
“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.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Mathias Jensen 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.
Market10 Dec 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Denys Pidruchnyi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Young Boys the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Words at Young Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Charis Tsingaras 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 dugout10 Dec 2029
The manager makes an example of Erik Thommy
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad10 Dec 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Veljko Radosavljević and Young Boys agree another 4 years.
The dugout10 Dec 2029
news_b_reunited_with_his_manager
The dugout10 Dec 2029
When it matters, Moritz Jenz plays
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Nov 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Young Boys can pretend not to have heard.
Match10 Nov 2029
No end in sight to Young Boys's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Young Boys has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings12 Nov 2029
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market12 Nov 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Young Boys is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Cédric Zesiger 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.
Squad12 Nov 2029
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.
Player ratings12 Nov 2029
Marked 8.07 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Looking ahead12 Nov 2029
All roads lead to Basel
The fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Young Boys will be judged on one thing only.
Match10 Nov 2029
Young Boys rescue it on 91 minutes
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 91. Lugano had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Oct 2029
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings15 Oct 2029
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.
The dugout15 Oct 2029
Diego Mina: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Young Boys have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Mathias Jensen 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.
Market15 Oct 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Denys Pidruchnyi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Young Boys the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Words at Young Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cédric Zesiger 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.
Match13 Oct 2029
Zurich left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout15 Oct 2029
The manager makes an example of Armin Gigović
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout15 Oct 2029
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Sep 2029
Derby day misery for Young Boys
Losing 0‑2 is one thing; losing to Basel in a derby is a wound that takes months to close.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market17 Sep 2029
“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.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Mathias Jensen 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.
Market17 Sep 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Denys Pidruchnyi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Young Boys the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings17 Sep 2029
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Words at Young Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Charis Tsingaras 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 dugout17 Sep 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Armin Gigović, and the manager let it.
Looking ahead17 Sep 2029
Vaduz next, and both sides can do the sum. Win and the table looks different; lose and it looks the way everybody has been fearing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match1 Sep 2029
0‑3 to Luzern, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market3 Sep 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Young Boys can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout3 Sep 2029
“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.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
Young Boys close the window on a squad of their own making
25 in and 25 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Match1 Sep 2029
4 matches without a win for Young Boys
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Young Boys are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad3 Sep 2029
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.
Market3 Sep 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Young Boys they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market3 Sep 2029
Haris Tabaković wants to know where this is going
“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 Young Boys hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market2 Jul 2029
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Young Boys people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market2 Jul 2029
“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.
Market2 Jul 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Young Boys is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market2 Jul 2029
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Young Boys have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad2 Jul 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Samuel Essende commits to Young Boys for another 3 years.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Olivier Mambwa 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.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Kaly Sène 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.
Transfer targets2 Jul 2029
Young Boys asked and AS Roma said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Isaac Schmidt 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.