Marked for Aleix García
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Nov 2026
Lucas Vázquez damages knee ligaments — 48 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 48 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.19 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Patrik Schick 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 Nov 2026
14 goals and a season average of 7.31. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match7 Nov 2026
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Patrik Schick in the middle of it, and SC Freiburg unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market9 Nov 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Bayer Leverkusen know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.03, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad2 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bayer Leverkusen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market2 Nov 2026
Aleix García 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 Bayer Leverkusen hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Patrik Schick
12 goals and a season average of 7.21 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad2 Nov 2026
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Nothing has been signed and nothing has been denied. Supporters who have lived through one of these before know the quiet part lasts months and the loud part lasts a week.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Exequiel Palacios 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 ratings5 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.41 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jonas Hofmann, and the manager let it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Oct 2026
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Loïc Badé named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Loïc Badé is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Match3 Oct 2026
A 1‑1 draw with VfL Wolfsburg leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Market5 Oct 2026
The Ibrahim Maza talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Bayer Leverkusen know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Sep 2026
Patrik Schick 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Bayer Leverkusen heard it as anything else.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Lucas Chevalier has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Match12 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Aleix García 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
Exequiel Palacios 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Bayer Leverkusen heard it as anything else.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Lucas Vázquez and Bayer Leverkusen agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Loïc Badé 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Niklas Lomb is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Bayer Leverkusen has been clear about where Niklas Lomb stands, which is more than many ever get.