Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around St. Gallen they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Jorge Herrando 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether St. Gallen can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at St. Gallen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Finn Becker 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. Empoli have kept their man, and St. Gallen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lawrence Ati-Zigi signs something — a contract at St. Gallen or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Mihailo Stevanović had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
St. Gallen asked and Vaduz said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
St. Gallen and Aarau have settled on $300.0K. 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.
The fee is $2.2M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Lausanne-Sport drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Everything was agreed with Étoile Carouge and then the doctor spoke. St. Gallen have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Jasper van der Werff is a St. Gallen player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Jorge Herrando 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.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Finn Becker 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Stade Nyonnais will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Calum Chambers 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.
$120.0K on the table at Rapperswil-Jona. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Stade Lausanne-Ouchy have kept their man, and Stade Nyonnais go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Nicola Sutter 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.
Stade Nyonnais have made the call to Luzern. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
St. Gallen had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Young Boys, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. St. Gallen have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The clubs have shaken hands with Lausanne-Sport; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $620.0K has been paid because Julius Kade is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
The offer went to Stade Nyonnais 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.
Jorge Herrando 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 phone has started ringing about Mihailo Stevanović again, and this time the name on the line is Wil. St. Gallen are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at St. Gallen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jozo Stanić 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. Rapperswil-Jona have kept their man, and St. Gallen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
$13.5M settles it between the clubs for Alvyn Sanches
Young Boys have accepted the money. What St. Gallen do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“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. Gallen can pretend not to have heard.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Rafael Lubach is living that version at St. Gallen, and it tends to show in the first month.
“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.
Elias Havel 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 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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Finn Becker 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Hugo Vandermersch has his answer from St. Gallen; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The name of Konrad Faber has come up in conversations St. Gallen were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Stade Nyonnais will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Stade Nyonnais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Stade Nyonnais asked and Luzern said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Stade Nyonnais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adulai Embaló 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Stade Nyonnais has been clear about where Breston Malula stands, which is more than many ever get.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Calum Chambers has moved up it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Stade Nyonnais will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicola Sutter was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The dugout29 May 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Fabio Polinari'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.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Stade Nyonnais could ask drops and the wages Jasper van der Werff can ask rise.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jasper van der Werff will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Stade Nyonnais the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stade Nyonnais can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stade Nyonnais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mihailo Stevanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Stade Nyonnais would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“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.
Nicola Sutter 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mihailo Stevanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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; Stade Nyonnais are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Stade Nyonnais, another week without a signature from Jasper van der Werff.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Jiří Piroch is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Stade Nyonnais could ask drops and the wages Jasper van der Werff can ask rise.
Adulai Embaló and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Stade Nyonnais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mihailo Stevanović 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.
8 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.
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 Yannick Marchand has written the date down.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Stade Nyonnais they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stade Nyonnais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Stan Henderikx is living that version at Stade Nyonnais, and it tends to show in the first month.
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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Stade Nyonnais, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stade Nyonnais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Something was said to Patrick Sutter and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Stade Nyonnais have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
In brief
The dugoutJarell Simo knocks on the manager’s door
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jasper van der Werff will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Stade Nyonnais the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Jasper van der Werff has agreed terms with Vaduz for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Nicola Sutter 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Jiří Piroch has just signed for Stade Nyonnais, and for once the answer mattered.
“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; Stade Nyonnais are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Stade Nyonnais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrija Janjić 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 Stade Nyonnais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Edin Omeragic and Stade Nyonnais agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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 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.
3 appearances and 0 goals is not a season, it is a year somebody has lost. Whether that is his fault, the borrowing club's or the people who arranged it is the argument the next few weeks will have.
Calum Chambers is 33 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Stade Nyonnais until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Nicola Sutter 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 watch every Stade Nyonnais game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Stade Lausanne-Ouchy runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
6 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Stade Nyonnais could ask drops and the wages Jasper van der Werff can ask rise.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gerrit Gohlke trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Stade Nyonnais spent the window trying to move Yannick Marchand on and nobody came. He trains with a squad that has already told him he is not part of it, and both sides now wait for the next one.
The offer from St. Gallen for Jasper van der Werff 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.
Nicola Sutter 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.
“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; Stade Nyonnais are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Stade Nyonnais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Basil Stillhart 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.
“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 Stade Nyonnais, and it is not being withdrawn.
Andrija Janjić 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 watch every Stade Nyonnais game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Stade Lausanne-Ouchy runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Edin Omeragic has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stade Nyonnais can pretend not to have heard.
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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Stade Nyonnais can tell you which week it ends in.
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 a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
1 for Jasper van der Werff, marked 7.73, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stade Nyonnais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Stade Nyonnais know it.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Marked 8.16 — 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.
Minute 90, against Yverdon, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
The bid was some way short and Stade Nyonnais did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 20 signed and 9 gone
That is the business done at Stade Nyonnais until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stade Nyonnais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mihailo Stevanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Stade Nyonnais will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Gerrit Gohlke is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Stade Nyonnais have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Add another name to the list: Carrarese have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Fabio Polinari. The answer from Stade Nyonnais has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fabio Polinari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Stade Nyonnais has been clear about where Gerrit Gohlke stands, which is more than many ever get.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Joris Manquant was one of the reasons people came, and $1.8M does not replace that by itself.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Servette keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Stade Nyonnais asked and Corvinul Hunedoara said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Burak Alili 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 Stade Nyonnais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Mauro Bogado has just signed for Stade Nyonnais, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Stade Nyonnais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrick Sutter 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 watch every Stade Nyonnais game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Zurich runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Stade Nyonnais, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Stade Nyonnais will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Felipe Borges will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Stade Nyonnais the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Patrick Sutter and Stade Nyonnais agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Nicola Sutter and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Stade Nyonnais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrick Sutter 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Stade Nyonnais will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Nicola Sutter 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.
“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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Felipe Borges 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.
“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 Stade Nyonnais know it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Stade Nyonnais have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The offer from Bellinzona for Leorat Bega 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.
Nicola Sutter 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Patrick Sutter was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Stade Nyonnais can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Stade Nyonnais, another week without a signature from Jasper van der Werff.
10 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Vaduz were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stade Nyonnais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Patrick Sutter was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Marked 8.06 — 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Nils de Mol will call it something else in private.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Patrick Sutter was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Stade Nyonnais, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Edin Omeragic signs something — a contract at Stade Nyonnais or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 6 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Patrick Sutter was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stade Nyonnais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Stade Nyonnais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Felipe Borges 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.
Marked 7.26. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Simon Steffen was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Stade Nyonnais dressing room was either.
Joris Manquant is 20, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Étoile Carouge defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
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 Stade Nyonnais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Stade Lausanne-Ouchy next, and one man in the Stade Nyonnais dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Stade Nyonnais will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Stade Nyonnais close the window on a squad of their own making
32 in and 26 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.
Stade Nyonnais asked and Dynamo Dresden 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
Felipe Borges 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.
20 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Joris Manquant is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Yannick Marchand’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Stade Nyonnais needing him to play as if none of it matters.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
In brief
The dugoutLeorat Bega knocks on the manager's door