The clubs have shaken hands with St. Pauli; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mainz 05 is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Mio Backhaus 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.
Squad9 Aug 2032
Nadiem Amiri 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.
Nobody at Mainz 05 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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Felix Uduokhai has written the date down.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mainz 05 can pretend not to have heard.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Mattia Guarneri is living that version at Mainz 05, and it tends to show in the first month.
Elye Wahi 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nadiem Amiri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Mainz 05 know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Mainz 05, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nadiem Amiri 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Elian Londoño will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mainz 05 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad31 May 2032
Words at Mainz 05 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexander Røssing-Lelesiit 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.
Nobody at Mainz 05 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mainz 05 is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Saël Kumbedi 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.
Squad3 May 2032
Words at Mainz 05 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nadiem Amiri 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 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 Mio Backhaus is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nadiem Amiri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Mainz 05 know it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Mainz 05 know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Alexander Røssing-Lelesiit is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nelson Weiper trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The terracesThe stands have heard the Wael Mohya talk too
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.83 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Victor Monthieu is living that version at Mainz 05, and it tends to show in the first month.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Elian Londoño will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mainz 05 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mainz 05 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Two goals and a mark of 9.31 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.46 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alynho Haïdara will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mainz 05 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Elye Wahi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Feb 2032
Words at Mainz 05 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nadiem Amiri 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Elye Wahi. 3‑1 against Werder Bremen, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
In brief
Player ratingsPaul Nebel was on a different afternoon to everybody else
$5.3M was the most the club would pay and VfL Wolfsburg were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Elian Londoño will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mainz 05 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leon Avdullahu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Nobody at Mainz 05 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.
The clubs have shaken hands with Union Berlin; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Felix Uduokhai has, at Mainz 05, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. RB Leipzig have kept their man, and Mainz 05 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mainz 05 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Mainz 05 have done the hard part with Köln, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 8 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Mainz 05 will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Mainz 05 they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mainz 05 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anthony Caci was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A 1‑0 win over TSG Hoffenheim, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Elye Wahi provided it, and the 8.94 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alynho Haïdara will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mainz 05 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Nadiem Amiri 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Mainz 05 heard it as anything else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anthony Caci was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A point taken on 91 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Mainz 05 will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alynho Haïdara will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mainz 05 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad3 Nov 2031
Words at Mainz 05 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nadiem Amiri 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.
7.61, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Mainz 05 had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout3 Nov 2031
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Mauro Vitale was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Mainz 05 dressing room was either.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Mainz 05 will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Hugo Colella will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mainz 05 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mainz 05 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nadiem Amiri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 97. Union Berlin had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“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; Mainz 05 are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
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 Mio Backhaus is on it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Mainz 05 will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The 85th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Paul Nebel decided nobody was going anywhere. Heidenheim had no time left to answer.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alynho Haïdara will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mainz 05 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Nadiem Amiri 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Elye Wahi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mainz 05 is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Nadiem Amiri 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Elye Wahi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Mainz 05 know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Wael Mohya’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Mainz 05 needing him to play as if none of it matters.
In brief
The dugoutLee Jae-Sung has become a man the manager trusts
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Mainz 05 lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.48, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Boardroom3 Feb 2031
Mainz 05 close the window on a squad of their own making
0 in and 2 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Elye Wahi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. William Bøving provided it, and the 8.30 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Nadiem Amiri 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Mainz 05 can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad30 Dec 2030
Kaishu Sano 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 7.40, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Player ratings30 Dec 2030
Silas was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.40. 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Mauro Vitale could afford to be generous.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Fin Stevens
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Mainz 05 scored in the 93th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad2 Dec 2030
Nadiem Amiri 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.
At 21 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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.93 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kaishu Sano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Mainz 05 who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.