Marked for Alexander Hack
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Dec 2027
The knee: Jorge Ortega out for 131 days
131 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zurich lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Tempers go at Zurich
Filip Kostić 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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
A row about effort at Zurich
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Cavaleiro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch27 Dec 2027
“I did not go to Lugano to sit and watch. I want to come back to Zurich and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 18 matches say the rest.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fabian Frei, and the manager let it.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
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.
Market27 Dec 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Bledian Krasniqi’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Damian Kelvin has written the date down.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Zurich, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Nov 2026
Every point is an argument now for Zurich
Position 8 and 15 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad9 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Zurich
Philippe Keny and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Umeh Emmanuel and Zurich agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Zurich training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikolay Komlichenko 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
1‑2 to Grasshopper, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market9 Nov 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Michel Xhaka has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market9 Nov 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Fabian Aebischer has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Oct 2026
Zurich are in real trouble now
Position 9, 8 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Zurich
Bledian Krasniqi 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.
Match10 Oct 2026
The goals have deserted Zurich
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Zurich can tell you which week it ends in.
Market12 Oct 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Albian Gavranovic has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market12 Oct 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Philipp Widmer has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Squad12 Oct 2026
75 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Match10 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“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; Zurich are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexander Hack, and the manager let it.