0‑3 against RB Leipzig, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Eric Smith 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mathias Pereira Lage, and the manager let it.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Louis Oppie 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 music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout30 Nov 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 0‑3 Ralph Wagner left the room before anybody could ask which.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation St. Pauli are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
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.
In brief
The dugoutTomoya Ando asks for a word with the manager
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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between St. Pauli and Borussia Mönchengladbach, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Martijn Kaars was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.28. 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.
8.13. 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.
A performance of 8.14 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ricky-Jade Jones 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eric Smith was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Jackson Irvine 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at St. Pauli can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ralph Wagner after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Eric Smith 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ben Wodskou is living that version at St. Pauli, and it tends to show in the first month.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Marcel Martin 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Robert Schulz 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.
Squad9 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A brace, and Martijn Kaars takes the afternoon — 8.76
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Martijn Kaars provided it, and the 8.76 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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.
Eric Smith 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about St. Pauli and Bayer Leverkusen in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Karol Mets
BoardroomNobody left the St. Pauli dressing room in a hurry
SquadWords at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eric Smith was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Jackson Irvine 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.
“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.
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Aljoscha Kemlein is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ralph Wagner after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Aljoscha Kemlein scored, was marked 7.85, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Eric Smith 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 a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Friedrich Sommer 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Friedrich Kaiser 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.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 92. Union Berlin had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Tomoya Ando
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 96th minute. Heidenheim will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Two goals and a mark of 9.23 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 St. Pauli, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eric Smith 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.
“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.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Fin Stevens 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.
0‑4 against Borussia Dortmund, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
“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.
Squad28 Sep 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.
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.
“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 dugout21 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 1‑2 Ralph Wagner left the room before anybody could ask which.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Eric Smith trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Robim Dâmaso has just signed for St. Pauli, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eric Smith 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Venezia have kept their man, and St. Pauli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Helmut Scholz has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Tobias Weiß 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.
Robim Dâmaso is 20, and St. Pauli have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mathias Pereira Lage provided it, and the 8.44 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 20 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eric Smith 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 St. Pauli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
St. Pauli asked and Alavés 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 board was up, the win was priced in, and then SC Freiburg scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Successful dribbles: 42. 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.
The name of Jackson Irvine has come up in conversations St. Pauli were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. FC Metz have kept their man, and St. Pauli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Hamburger SV scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation St. Pauli are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
10 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.
St. Pauli offered $5.7M; RB Leipzig 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. Red Bull Salzburg have kept their man, and St. Pauli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Eric Smith 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.
Jackson Irvine 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.
$21.9M was the most the club would pay and Mainz 05 were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. TSG Hoffenheim have kept their man, and St. Pauli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
FC Augsburg paid $9.2M and St. Pauli took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Joel Chima Fujita has gone, the accounts have $9.2M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Eric Smith 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.
Squad17 Aug 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. St. Pauli have lost him in all but the paperwork.
$11.8M on the table at Mainz 05. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The offer from VfB Stuttgart for Eric Smith 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.
The offer went to RB Leipzig this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. David Wagner has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Chamois Niortais have kept their man, and St. Pauli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jackson Irvine commits to St. Pauli for another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eric Smith 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.
“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.
Squad3 Aug 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at St. Pauli, and both men came out saying it was fine.