Marked for Sander Tangvik
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market18 Jun 2029
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Borussia Dortmund people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Match18 Jun 2029
Position 3, 79 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market18 Jun 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 The request is on a desk at Borussia Dortmund, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout18 Jun 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.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Serhou Guirassy 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.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Nico Schlotterbeck 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.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Iwan Morgan is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The dugout18 Jun 2029
news_b_reunited_with_his_manager
The dugout18 Jun 2029
Serhou Guirassy has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Borussia Dortmund 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Feb 2029
3‑0 against Mouscron, on a night that will be replayed at this club for a generation. Continental reputations are made in single evenings and this was the evening.
Squad26 Feb 2029
The knee: Chris Ramos out for 44 days
44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Borussia Dortmund lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match26 Feb 2029
Position 3, 63 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The dugout26 Feb 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.
Player ratings26 Feb 2029
Successful dribbles: 25. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Serhou Guirassy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Words at Borussia Dortmund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nico Schlotterbeck 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.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Defences have started doubling up on Maximilian Beier
9 goals and a season average of 7.42 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings26 Feb 2029
Ninety minutes of Vinícius Júnior at his very best
Marked 8.63. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Borussia Dortmund.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match24 Jul 2028
Position 2 and 69 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market24 Jul 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Jaguares waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Borussia Dortmund is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market24 Jul 2028
“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 Dortmund can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Serhou Guirassy 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.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Market24 Jul 2028
José Martínez has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Borussia Dortmund they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
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.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Joey Veerman 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.
Squad24 Jul 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Borussia Dortmund can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match29 May 2028
Position 2, 69 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market29 May 2028
Grischa Prömel has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Borussia Dortmund they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout29 May 2028
Diant Ramaj: 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.” Borussia Dortmund have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad29 May 2028
Serhou Guirassy 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.
Squad29 May 2028
A muscle injury and 14 days out for Julian Ryerson
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Borussia Dortmund will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad29 May 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Samuele Inácio is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Borussia Dortmund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Willian Pacho 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 dugout29 May 2028
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.
The dugout29 May 2028
Silas Ostrzinski 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 Nov 2027
Mussa Kaba breaks a bone — 21 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Borussia Dortmund may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Borussia Dortmund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nico Schlotterbeck 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 terraces22 Nov 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Otto Stange has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad22 Nov 2027
A season average of 7.27 with 10 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Ninety minutes of Serhou Guirassy at his very best
Marked 8.46. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Borussia Dortmund.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Ninety minutes of Joey Veerman at his very best
Marked 8.19. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Borussia Dortmund.