Marked for Grejohn Kyei
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Sep 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market13 Sep 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at AS Nancy, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Ryad Hachem gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ryad Hachem has just signed for AS Nancy, and for once the answer mattered.
Match11 Sep 2027
5 matches without a win for AS Nancy
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around AS Nancy are no longer polite ones.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nehemiah Fernandez is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Nehemiah Fernandez 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.
Transfer targets13 Sep 2027
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.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Grejohn Kyei
“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.
Match11 Sep 2027
Olympique de Marseille left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout6 Sep 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” AS Nancy may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
Clément Akpa pops up at the right end — 7.68
7.68, 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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
AS Nancy close the window on a squad of their own making
19 in and 11 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.
Match4 Sep 2027
The wait goes on for AS Nancy
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.
Market6 Sep 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AS Nancy is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad6 Sep 2027
At 22 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Antoine Joujou 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
At 28 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Apr 2027
Luke Shaw 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
A row about effort at Anderlecht
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Junya Ito was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
When it matters, Ivan Toney plays
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 dugout19 Apr 2027
Bryang Kayo 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 dugout19 Apr 2027
Junya Ito knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Junya Ito trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market19 Apr 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Mario Stroeykens’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Mar 2027
No end in sight to St. Pauli's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at St. Pauli has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad22 Mar 2027
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. St. Pauli will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market22 Mar 2027
“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.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” St. Pauli may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Joel Chima Fujita 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maurits Kjærgaard 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 dugout22 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Connor Metcalfe, and the manager let it.
Squad22 Mar 2027
“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 St. Pauli know it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
Niklas Lorenz has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at St. Pauli can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
“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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason St. Pauli will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match6 Mar 2027
No end in sight to St. Pauli's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at St. Pauli has to find a result from somewhere.
Market8 Mar 2027
Adam Taggart 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 St. Pauli can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at St. Pauli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ben Voll and St. Pauli agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market8 Mar 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Robert Böhm is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match2 Jan 2027
10 matches without a win for St. Pauli
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around St. Pauli are no longer polite ones.
Market4 Jan 2027
Karol Mets 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 St. Pauli can pretend not to have heard.
Market4 Jan 2027
The bid was some way short and St. Pauli did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Maurits Kjærgaard 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karol Mets 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 dugout4 Jan 2027
Saba Sazonov 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Borussia Dortmund have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Dec 2026
The wait goes on for St. Pauli
7 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.
Squad14 Dec 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 St. Pauli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market14 Dec 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Martin Haas is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market14 Dec 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Gabriel Albrecht is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karol Mets 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 dugout14 Dec 2026
“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 dugout14 Dec 2026
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 dugout14 Dec 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Niklas Lorenz after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 40. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match5 Dec 2026
No end in sight to St. Pauli's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at St. Pauli has to find a result from somewhere.
Match5 Dec 2026
5 matches without a goal for St. Pauli
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at St. Pauli
Joel Chima Fujita 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Maurits Kjærgaard 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.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“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.
Match5 Dec 2026
0‑2 to TSG Hoffenheim, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jannik Westphal commits to St. Pauli for another 4 years.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Grejohn Kyei is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Nov 2026
Nowhere to hide for St. Pauli
0‑3 against Borussia Mönchengladbach, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match21 Nov 2026
The wait goes on for St. Pauli
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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Maurits Kjærgaard and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match21 Nov 2026
The goals have deserted St. Pauli
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at St. Pauli can tell you which week it ends in.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karol Mets 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 dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Jordan Ferri
“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.
Boardroom23 Nov 2026
Nobody left the St. Pauli 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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” St. Pauli may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad16 Nov 2026
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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Joel Chima Fujita and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maurits Kjærgaard 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.
Match14 Nov 2026
Bayern Munich left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Connor Metcalfe
“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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
7 new faces, and St. Pauli 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
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The dugout
Somebody else is better right now than Grejohn Kyei
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Market
St. Pauli shop where it costs nothing
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Market
The Ben Voll story refuses to die
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” St. Pauli may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market2 Nov 2026
“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 St. Pauli hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at St. Pauli
Maurits Kjærgaard 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karol Mets 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
St. Pauli rescue it on 93 minutes
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 93. Bayer Leverkusen had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Saba Sazonov
“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 dugout2 Nov 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. St. Pauli told Maurits Kjærgaard something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“I want to play”: Grejohn Kyei speaks
“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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market26 Oct 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mathias Pereira Lage wants continental football; whether St. Pauli can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad26 Oct 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 St. Pauli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Maurits Kjærgaard 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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Grejohn Kyei 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Werder Bremen made St. Pauli work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Marked 8.31. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at St. Pauli.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Maurits Kjærgaard's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Grejohn Kyei dropped after a run of poor form
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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Niklas Lorenz could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 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 St. Pauli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Both jobs done by Danel Sinani — 7.04
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 13 actions, 7.04, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“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 terraces19 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Maurits Kjærgaard 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Louis Oppie 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Simon Spari 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Marked 7.96 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, St. Pauli had the best player on the pitch.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at St. Pauli
18 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 dugout19 Oct 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Grejohn Kyei
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
Joel Chima Fujita 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
At 22 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maurits Kjærgaard 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Three points for St. Pauli, 2‑1 the final word against Heidenheim in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Martijn Kaars was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.29. 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Marked 8.19 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Market5 Oct 2026
No place for Karol Mets in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Karol Mets has his answer from St. Pauli; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad5 Oct 2026
At 19 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. St. Pauli will try not to make too much of it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Karol Mets, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match23 Sep 2026
St. Pauli bow out of the cup
FC Augsburg go through and St. Pauli go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad28 Sep 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 St. Pauli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Maurits Kjærgaard 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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Grejohn Kyei
“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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Borussia Dortmund left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Andrija Maksimović, 19, is the weekend’s best young player
Measured against every other kid in the division and first among them. The senior award is where St. Pauli would like this to lead.