Marked for Alan Virginius
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match3 Oct 2026
A derby is never about the football alone, but the football helped: 5‑1, and the away end emptied early. Bragging rights renewed for another season.
Match30 Sep 2026
A European night to remember for Young Boys
2‑0 against Ferencvaros, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
There are goals, and then there are goals against that particular opponent. The Young Boys support have their bragging rights for a year and they know exactly whose name is on them.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The match ball belongs to Samuel Essende, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Herba Guirassy is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match3 Oct 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Young Boys and Basel in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Young Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gerard Deulofeu 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 dugout5 Oct 2026
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Young Boys pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
In brief
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The dugout
Ryan Andrews gets it from the manager
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
Samuel Essende has become a man the manager trusts
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Sep 2026
“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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Samuel Essende: 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.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Young Boys asked and Zurich said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Young Boys
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gerard Deulofeu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.15, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Lewin Blum 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
It needed Christian Fassnacht to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Sion, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Alan Virginius
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Half-satisfied: Loris Mvogo on the draw
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. St. Gallen have kept their man, and Young Boys go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Romain Amalfitano, and the manager let it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Ablie Jallow 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 ratings31 Aug 2026
Marked 7.61. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Match29 Aug 2026
It needed Samuel Essende to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against St. Gallen, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The dugout31 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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Loris Mvogo chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.