Marked for Edgar
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout16 Aug 2032
“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.
Market16 Aug 2032
“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.
Market16 Aug 2032
Brandon Forbes has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Luzern they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad16 Aug 2032
Words exchanged at Luzern
Tyron Owusu 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.
Match14 Aug 2032
At last: Luzern win one
7 matches without a win, and then this, against Aarau. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad16 Aug 2032
Nikolai Rehnen 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.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2032
Luzern asked and KAA Gent said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match14 Aug 2032
Luzern get the job done against Aarau
A 2‑0 win over Aarau, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings16 Aug 2032
A performance of 8.29 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces23 Feb 2032
Anger at Luzern spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad23 Feb 2032
A fracture rules Pedro Santos out for 34 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Luzern will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market23 Feb 2032
Denilson Mena hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Luzern can pretend not to have heard.
Squad23 Feb 2032
Words exchanged at Luzern
Tyron Owusu 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.
Squad23 Feb 2032
Words at Luzern training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikolai Rehnen 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.
Squad23 Feb 2032
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Luzern can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout23 Feb 2032
Edgar 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.
The dugout23 Feb 2032
Tim Heinrich 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.
The dugout23 Feb 2032
The manager makes Romario Rösch a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Luzern. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom2 Feb 2032
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
Market2 Feb 2032
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Winterthur had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Squad2 Feb 2032
A fracture rules Anton Tanghe out for 53 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Luzern will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market2 Feb 2032
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Luzern have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market2 Feb 2032
Edgar hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Luzern can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout2 Feb 2032
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Luzern may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom2 Feb 2032
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 5 gone
That is the business done at Luzern until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Market2 Feb 2032
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Luzern heard it as anything else.
Squad2 Feb 2032
A falling-out at Luzern
Tyron Owusu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Nov 2031
A knee injury of the worst kind for Fabian Fernandes
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Luzern lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market17 Nov 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Luzern is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout17 Nov 2031
Edgar keeps the receipts
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Luzern may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad17 Nov 2031
Tyron Owusu 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 Luzern this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Nov 2031
A row about effort at Luzern
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emil Tsenov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Looking ahead17 Nov 2031
Luzern face Servette in the game that matters most
Two sides from the bottom of the table, three points, and an afternoon that will be described afterwards as a relegation decider by whoever loses it.
The dugout17 Nov 2031
The manager makes an example of Jannis Heuer
“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.
Squad17 Nov 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Dante Azaldegui and Luzern agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market17 Nov 2031
Niklas Stark is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Luzern has been clear about where Niklas Stark stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market13 Oct 2031
“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 Luzern, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market13 Oct 2031
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniel Thorstensen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Luzern the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad13 Oct 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Christian McFarlane and Luzern agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad13 Oct 2031
A falling-out at Luzern
Tyron Owusu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Oct 2031
Words at Luzern training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikolai Rehnen 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.
Market13 Oct 2031
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Luzern, another week without a signature from Shawn Adewoye.
The dugout13 Oct 2031
The manager makes an example of Edgar
“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 dugout13 Oct 2031
Melker Widell 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.
Looking ahead13 Oct 2031
A test against the best for Luzern
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Zurich.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market22 Sep 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Luzern is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match20 Sep 2031
The wait goes on for Luzern
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad22 Sep 2031
Tyron Owusu 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 Luzern this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Sep 2031
Words at Luzern training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikolai Rehnen 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.
Match20 Sep 2031
Luzern come up short against Basel
Basel left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout22 Sep 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Emil Tsenov, and the manager let it.
Squad22 Sep 2031
Too much change too quickly at Luzern
9 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.
The dugout22 Sep 2031
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Player ratings22 Sep 2031
One lapse, one goal, and ninety minutes of honest work counting for nothing. That is the job at Luzern, and it is a cruel one.
In brief
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The dugout
Emil Tsenov is still being punished for one mistake
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Squad
No place for Melker Widell in the new shape
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The dugout
Edgar knocks on the manager's door
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market4 Aug 2031
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Luzern have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Match2 Aug 2031
0‑3 to Lugano, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market4 Aug 2031
Kauan Ferreira has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Luzern they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets4 Aug 2031
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Basel keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Match2 Aug 2031
The wait goes on for Luzern
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad4 Aug 2031
Words exchanged at Luzern
Calvin Brackelmann 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.
Match2 Aug 2031
The goals have deserted Luzern
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Luzern can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad4 Aug 2031
A row about effort at Luzern
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giorgi Guliashvili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets4 Aug 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Napoli have kept their man, and Luzern go back to a list with one name crossed off it.