Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
6 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; VfB Stuttgart are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout5 Oct 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 1‑2 Niklas Werner 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what VfB Stuttgart can pretend not to have heard.
“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 VfB Stuttgart hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Niklas Werner after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Borussia Mönchengladbach arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
Aurélien Tchouaméni arrived with a record at a bigger club than this one, and the room has treated him accordingly. The young ones watch him train; the senior ones watch to see whether it lasts.
Real Madrid have gone to Juventus 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.
Real Madrid offered $64.1M; Paris Saint-Germain 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Athletic Bilbao have kept their man, and Real Madrid go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Real Madrid, and it is not being withdrawn.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 16 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Madrid this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
Player ratingsKylian Mbappé was on a different afternoon to everybody else
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $46.8M has been paid because Andriy Lunin is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
The chase for Josh Sargent ended with $22.0M changing hands and Toronto FC out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
“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 VfB Stuttgart, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around VfB Stuttgart people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Andriy Lunin has, at VfB Stuttgart, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kashima Antlers have kept their man, and VfB Stuttgart go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Andriy Lunin was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $46.8M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
6 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
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.
VfB Stuttgart paid $71.4M and Real Madrid took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Real Madrid asked and Villarreal said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The most awkward business a club does is signing tomorrow's answer while today's is still in the building. Mile Svilar comes from AS Roma for exactly that purpose, and the handover will not be discussed publicly by anybody.
Zaragoza paid $22.5M and Real Madrid took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Two goals and a mark of 9.44 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Real Madrid people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Mile Svilar has, at Real Madrid, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Everything agreed with Real Madrid, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Aurélien Tchouaméni has just signed for VfB Stuttgart, and for once the answer mattered.
The offer from TSG Hoffenheim for Bilal El Khannouss was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Aurélien Tchouaméni was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $71.4M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Real Madrid and AS Roma have settled on $51.1M. 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.
Real Madrid have gone to Paris Saint-Germain 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.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Marcus Thuram has, at Real Madrid, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
A squad is not eleven players and a wish. Marcus Thuram arrives from Inter to make the number up properly, and the value of that will be argued about in March rather than today.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Madrid this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: VfB Stuttgart have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Andriy Lunin. The answer from Real Madrid has not changed — yet.
VfB Stuttgart have gone to Real Madrid 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.
VfB Stuttgart have gone to Toronto FC 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mainz 05 have kept their man, and VfB Stuttgart go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer from Hamburger SV for Ermedin Demirović was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Mertcan Ayhan has, at VfB Stuttgart, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. VfB Stuttgart will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.