He is going to Porto, the club has $6.5M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
The fee is $540.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Farense drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Sergio López 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Xeka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8 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.
Penafiel have made the call to Felgueiras. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Penafiel will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Penafiel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Penafiel can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 31 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Penafiel pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Felipe Augusto 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 else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” David Tavares after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Rio Ave? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
In brief
Player ratingsThe one thing Jonas Wind could not do
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Penafiel will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 Penafiel, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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 Penafiel know it.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” David Tavares after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Penafiel, another week without a signature from Xeka.
In brief
The dugoutBryan Róchez knocks on the manager's door
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Penafiel will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Paulinho trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Gonçalo Negrão is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Pacos de Ferreira in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Position 6, 42 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Penafiel. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Penafiel will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Penafiel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 David Tavares left the room before anybody could ask which.
6 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.
In brief
The terracesEverybody has an opinion about Joan Femenías
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 60 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Marked 7.79. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
7 goals in one match, Max Svensson on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Penafiel and Leixões.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Penafiel can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Penafiel, another week without a signature from Max Svensson.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Penafiel will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two goals and a mark of 9.03 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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 Penafiel, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Penafiel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 75 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Àlex Carbonell 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Penafiel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ibrahima Ba 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 83 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Àlex Carbonell 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.
Penafiel offered $27.0K; Benfica said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Ibrahima Ba 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 91 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Ryan Carlos wants continental football; whether Penafiel can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Felipe Augusto 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.
6 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 98 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Penafiel close the window on a squad of their own making
6 in and 4 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.
Davo 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.
$27.0K on the table at Benfica. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Luis Gutiérrez has, at Penafiel, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Ibrahima Ba 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Penafiel will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Penafiel can pretend not to have heard.
$45.0K on the table at Leiria. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Leiria next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 113 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Penafiel and Moreirense have settled on $220.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Penafiel offered $27.0K; Benfica said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Pedro Santos 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Penafiel will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Penafiel had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Sporting CP, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
$27.0K on the table at Benfica. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Ibrahima Ba 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.
Penafiel asked and Sporting CP said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Darmstadt 98 can pretend not to have heard.
Marcel Schuhen 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.
Darmstadt 98 asked and Hamburger SV said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Alexis Blin 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.
A clause somebody insisted on years ago, in a negotiation nobody remembers, has just paid Darmstadt 98 $533.3K. Paul Will left a long time ago; the paperwork stayed.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Leroy Sané signs something — a contract at Darmstadt 98 or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Darmstadt 98 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Darmstadt 98 asked and RB Leipzig said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexis Blin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“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 Darmstadt 98, and it is not being withdrawn.
Maxime Estève 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.
Darmstadt 98 asked and Hamburger SV said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Darmstadt 98 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexis Blin 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 Darmstadt 98 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.
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Darmstadt 98 lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Position 3, 56 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Darmstadt 98 can pretend not to have heard.
Darmstadt 98 had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Volos NPS, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Darmstadt 98 asked and Hamburger SV said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Darmstadt 98 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marc Lorenz 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Darmstadt 98 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Jun 2027
A last season at home is what Clinton N'jie is after
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Darmstadt 98 have had the benefit of it.
“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 Darmstadt 98, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jan Reichert was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Marcel Schuhen is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Leroy Sané signs something — a contract at Darmstadt 98 or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Darmstadt 98. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
The dugoutSergio López knocks on the manager’s door
SquadLeroy Sané makes the division’s eleven — 7.26
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Darmstadt 98 can pretend not to have heard.
A 2‑0 win over Magdeburg, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Alexis Blin 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.
Defensive actions: 16, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Jan Krause kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
The dugoutKai Klefisch knocks on the manager’s door
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Alexis Blin
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Darmstadt 98 have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Darmstadt 98 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Marc Lorenz 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.
Something was said to Maxime Estève and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jan Reichert trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
SC Paderborn next, and one man in the Darmstadt 98 dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Position 4 on 42 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Darmstadt 98 will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Darmstadt 98 can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Darmstadt 98 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: André Clovis. 2‑0 against Karlsruher SC, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Alexis Blin 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Darmstadt 98 have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Patric Pfeiffer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Patric Pfeiffer, and the manager let it.
Squad22 Feb 2027
6 new faces, and Darmstadt 98 are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Sergio López has his answer from Darmstadt 98; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 62 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
$3.5M settles it between the clubs for Jan Reichert
Nürnberg have accepted the money. What Darmstadt 98 do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The fee is $3.0M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Eintracht Braunschweig drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atalanta have kept their man, and Darmstadt 98 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The deal with Eintracht Braunschweig is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
“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 Darmstadt 98, and it is not being withdrawn.
VfL Bochum paid $2.4M and Darmstadt 98 took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Darmstadt 98 had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Lazio, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Hiroki Akiyama 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.
Borussia Mönchengladbach wanted more than $22.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Darmstadt 98 will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Hiroki Akiyama 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.
Something was said to Leroy Sané and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Darmstadt 98 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patric Pfeiffer 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.
5 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 list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Alexander Brunst may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Darmstadt 98, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Darmstadt 98 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Marcel Schuhen and Darmstadt 98 agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Jan Krause on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Darmstadt 98 will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Juan Moreno is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Darmstadt 98 will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
It had gone 5 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Hiroki Akiyama was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.43. 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, Jan Krause could afford to be generous.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Niklas Schmidt was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
0‑3 to Kaiserslautern, 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 54 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Boardroom19 Oct 2026
Nobody left the Darmstadt 98 dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Darmstadt 98 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
11 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jan Krause after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Darmstadt 98 will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Darmstadt 98 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Everybody at Darmstadt 98 saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 38 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Othmane El Idrissi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Leroy Sané
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Darmstadt 98 will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Hiroki Akiyama has come out of that comparison in the side, and Darmstadt 98 have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout5 Oct 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.” Jan Krause chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Alexander Brunst has his answer from Darmstadt 98; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Darmstadt 98 will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
7.85, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Hiroki Akiyama 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.
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑3 Jan Krause left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Darmstadt 98 will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Hiroki Akiyama 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Union Berlin have kept their man, and Darmstadt 98 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 97. Nürnberg had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
11 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Successful dribbles: 46. 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 94 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Darmstadt 98 will try again when the window opens; Schalke 04 may not be selling by then.
Darmstadt 98 offered $620.0K; Bayern Munich said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Darmstadt 98 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Darmstadt 98 asked and FC Nantes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Niklas Schmidt was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Darmstadt 98 will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Everything agreed with Schalke 04, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
“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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Darmstadt 98 close the window on a squad of their own making
20 in and 8 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.
Darmstadt 98 have gone to Bayern Munich with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $640.0K — a club that wants David Santos Daiber enough to be asked twice.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bayern Munich have kept their man, and Darmstadt 98 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.