Marked for Bafodé Diakité
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market16 Jun 2036
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Borussia Mönchengladbach people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market16 Jun 2036
The chase for Oliver Lukić ended with $4.3M changing hands and Mainz 05 out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Transfer targets16 Jun 2036
Borussia Mönchengladbach offered $2.3M; Hamburger SV 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.
Transfer targets16 Jun 2036
Borussia Mönchengladbach have gone to RB Leipzig with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad16 Jun 2036
Jorge Cestero arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Jorge Cestero has, at Borussia Mönchengladbach, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets16 Jun 2036
The paperwork begins on Kenan Jusič
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Borussia Mönchengladbach have done the hard part with SC Freiburg, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets16 Jun 2036
Borussia Mönchengladbach asked and VfL Bochum said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad16 Jun 2036
Oskar Pietuszewski 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.
Market16 Jun 2036
The chase for Roméo Garnier ended with $300.0K changing hands and Werder Bremen out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market19 May 2036
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Borussia Mönchengladbach can pretend not to have heard.
Squad19 May 2036
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Borussia Mönchengladbach can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad19 May 2036
Luca Philipp 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.
Squad19 May 2036
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oskar Pietuszewski 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 dugout19 May 2036
The manager makes an example of Viggo Gebel
“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 dugout19 May 2036
Aaron Hickey gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Aaron Hickey is on it.
The dugout19 May 2036
Bafodé Diakité asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market19 May 2036
The clock does Luca Philipp’s negotiating for him
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Borussia Mönchengladbach could ask drops and the wages Luca Philipp can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market28 Jan 2036
“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 Borussia Mönchengladbach, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets28 Jan 2036
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Borussia Mönchengladbach have done the hard part with Mainz 05, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets28 Jan 2036
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Celta is saying, and nobody at Borussia Mönchengladbach is enjoying the guessing.
Squad28 Jan 2036
Tommy Setford 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.
Squad28 Jan 2036
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samuel Iling-Junior was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom28 Jan 2036
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Julian Oerip has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Borussia Mönchengladbach have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Transfer targets28 Jan 2036
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Dec 2035
18 days out for Bafodé Diakité after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Borussia Mönchengladbach will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market17 Dec 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Borussia Mönchengladbach is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market17 Dec 2035
“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 Borussia Mönchengladbach, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout17 Dec 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Borussia Mönchengladbach may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings17 Dec 2035
Successful dribbles: 26. 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 Dec 2035
Jack Hinshelwood and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match15 Dec 2035
10 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad17 Dec 2035
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samuel Iling-Junior was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom17 Dec 2035
VfL Bochum will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Waylon Renecke has pre-agreed a move to Borussia Mönchengladbach, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Dec 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout10 Dec 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Borussia Mönchengladbach may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market10 Dec 2035
Jastin has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Borussia Mönchengladbach they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom10 Dec 2035
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.
Squad10 Dec 2035
Tommy Setford 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.
Market10 Dec 2035
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Borussia Mönchengladbach, another week without a signature from Jack Hinshelwood.
Market10 Dec 2035
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
The dugout10 Dec 2035
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Jack Hinshelwood is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match2 Dec 2035
A derby is never about the football alone, but the football helped: 2‑0, and the away end emptied early. Bragging rights renewed for another season.
Squad3 Dec 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market3 Dec 2035
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Borussia Mönchengladbach they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market3 Dec 2035
“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 Borussia Mönchengladbach, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings3 Dec 2035
There are goals, and then there are goals against that particular opponent. The Borussia Mönchengladbach support have their bragging rights for a year and they know exactly whose name is on them.
Boardroom3 Dec 2035
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Yari Vanderhallen has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad3 Dec 2035
Tommy Setford 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.
Market3 Dec 2035
Noahkai Banks 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 Borussia Mönchengladbach hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad3 Dec 2035
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuel Iling-Junior 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Nov 2035
39 days out for Bafodé Diakité after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Borussia Mönchengladbach will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market26 Nov 2035
Musa Malik has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Borussia Mönchengladbach they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings26 Nov 2035
1 for Lamine Camara, marked 7.49, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad26 Nov 2035
Luca Philipp and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Nov 2035
Samuel Iling-Junior 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.
Match24 Nov 2035
1‑2 to Fortuna Düsseldorf, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout26 Nov 2035
Luca Philipp gets it from the manager
“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.
Looking ahead26 Nov 2035
Köln next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
The dugout26 Nov 2035
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Nov 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market19 Nov 2035
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Borussia Mönchengladbach they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market19 Nov 2035
“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 Borussia Mönchengladbach, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad19 Nov 2035
Luca Philipp 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 Borussia Mönchengladbach this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Nov 2035
“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; Borussia Mönchengladbach are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad19 Nov 2035
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javier Hernandez 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 dugout19 Nov 2035
The manager makes an example of Jeroen Hateboer
“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.
Market19 Nov 2035
2 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Borussia Mönchengladbach could get for him.
The dugout19 Nov 2035
Luiz Turatto knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luiz Turatto trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Nov 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 53 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match7 Nov 2035
A 1‑0 win over Hannover 96, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Market12 Nov 2035
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Borussia Mönchengladbach heard it as anything else.
Market12 Nov 2035
Only the photograph left for Jastin
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jastin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Borussia Mönchengladbach the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings12 Nov 2035
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Squad12 Nov 2035
Luca Philipp 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 Nov 2035
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuel Iling-Junior 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.
Match11 Nov 2035
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Nov 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 60 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market5 Nov 2035
Jack Hinshelwood 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 Borussia Mönchengladbach hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Market5 Nov 2035
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market5 Nov 2035
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad5 Nov 2035
Ibrahim Maza 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 Borussia Mönchengladbach this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout5 Nov 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Amine Adli, and the manager let it.
Squad5 Nov 2035
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Javier Hernandez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings5 Nov 2035
Both jobs done by Ibrahim Maza — 6.74
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 6.74, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Oct 2035
A fracture rules Bafodé Diakité out for 67 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Borussia Mönchengladbach will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad29 Oct 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Martin Böhm
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Borussia Mönchengladbach lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match27 Oct 2035
It had gone 14 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Market29 Oct 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Borussia Mönchengladbach is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad29 Oct 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Borussia Mönchengladbach this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom29 Oct 2035
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Matyáš Kodera has agreed terms with Kaiserslautern for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Match27 Oct 2035
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Oskar Pietuszewski. 1‑0 against Heidenheim, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings29 Oct 2035
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.00, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad29 Oct 2035
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Javier Hernandez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Nov 2034
47 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Borussia Mönchengladbach lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market27 Nov 2034
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Borussia Mönchengladbach they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match25 Nov 2034
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Borussia Mönchengladbach are no longer polite ones.
Squad27 Nov 2034
Carl Rushworth 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.
Boardroom27 Nov 2034
FC Augsburg will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Javier Hernandez has pre-agreed a move to Borussia Mönchengladbach, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Match25 Nov 2034
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad27 Nov 2034
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Noahkai Banks was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market27 Nov 2034
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Borussia Mönchengladbach can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The dugout27 Nov 2034
Ibrahim Maza has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Borussia Mönchengladbach will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.