Marked for Adriano Grimaldi
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Adriano Grimaldi: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Nürnberg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Nürnberg
Alexander Bernhardsson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Saël Kumbedi 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
0‑1 to Magdeburg, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
Market2 Nov 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
A promise honoured at Nürnberg
Something was said to Adam Markhiev and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Loan watch2 Nov 2026
“I did not go to Altach to sit and watch. I want to come back to Nürnberg and fight for my place.” 8 appearances in 11 matches say the rest.
The dugout2 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Nürnberg
Alexander Bernhardsson 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Nürnberg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adam Markhiev 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“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 Nürnberg know it.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
A mark of 7.85, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Loan watch26 Oct 2026
“I watch every Nürnberg game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Fortuna Düsseldorf runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Match24 Oct 2026
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 dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Jürgen Krüger was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Nürnberg dressing room was either.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Nicolas Ortegel
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Oct 2026
Paris Brunner is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Alexander Bernhardsson 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 Oct 2026
Saël Kumbedi 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
0‑1 to Holstein Kiel, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Felix Platte
“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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
15 new faces, and Nürnberg 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 dugout19 Oct 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match3 Oct 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Rafael Lubach, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.01
A mark of 8.01 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad5 Oct 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Up for the corner, and Adam Markhiev delivers — 7.35
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Adam Markhiev scored, was marked 7.35, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Nürnberg can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Nürnberg
Marcus Mathisen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Adam Markhiev 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 terraces5 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Saël Kumbedi 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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Jürgen Krüger, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Nürnberg
Alexander Bernhardsson 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Saël Kumbedi 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.
Loan watch28 Sep 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Nürnberg, and 0 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A mark of 7.36, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout28 Sep 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 dugout28 Sep 2026
Half-satisfied: Jürgen Krüger on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Player of the week, judged against every other man in the division. A small award, and one most careers never collect.
Match26 Sep 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Greuther Fürth came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
The match ball belongs to Adriano Grimaldi, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.26 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Berkay Yılmaz, 21, steals the show — 7.60
Marked 7.60 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Adam Markhiev goes up and wins it — 7.91
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.91 for the rest of it.
Market21 Sep 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Nürnberg can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Alexander Bernhardsson 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
A 4‑3 win over Darmstadt 98, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Match19 Sep 2026
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Nürnberg and Darmstadt 98 in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Saël Kumbedi 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
“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 Nürnberg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 21 in, 6 out at Nürnberg
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 21 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market7 Sep 2026
Schalke 04 come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Nürnberg did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market7 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 Nürnberg heard it as anything else.
Market7 Sep 2026
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Rafael Lubach reports back to Nürnberg with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Nürnberg
Alexander Bernhardsson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Marcus Mathisen 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 targets7 Sep 2026
Nürnberg asked and Lech said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Adriano Grimaldi is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
$9.4M on the table at Burnley. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad3 Aug 2026
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Charalampos Makridis is living that version at Nürnberg, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market3 Aug 2026
Leixões come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Nürnberg did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Adriano Grimaldi and Nürnberg agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Nürnberg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adam Markhiev 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Nürnberg
Semir Telalović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Nürnberg asked and Union Berlin said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market3 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Nürnberg have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Stade Rennais 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.