10 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.
Alexis Claude-Maurice 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at FC Augsburg, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 14 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 9.05 — 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.
Marked 8.00 — 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.
8 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FC Augsburg can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Alexis Claude-Maurice 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.
Marked 8.57 — 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.
“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; FC Augsburg are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Chrislain Matsima 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.
6 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FC Augsburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Alexis Claude-Maurice 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 easiest signature of my career.” Thomas Kastanaras and FC Augsburg agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.70 — 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.
Alexis Claude-Maurice 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.
Marked 8.79 — 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.
Marked 8.25 — 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.
It needed Alexis Claude-Maurice to find the net to bring anything home at all: 4‑4 against Bayer Leverkusen, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Finn Dahmen knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FC Augsburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.34 — 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.
Alexis Claude-Maurice 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Marked 10.00 — 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Yusuf Kabadayı. 3‑1 against Borussia Mönchengladbach, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.70 — 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.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. FC Augsburg have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
The shirt still fits. Marco Müller is back at FC Augsburg, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Philipp Wolf is a FC Augsburg player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
FC Augsburg interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Interim Coach keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
The offer from Cardiff City for Manuel Simões 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Noahkai Banks has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Chrislain Matsima and FC Augsburg agree another 5 years.
Alexis Claude-Maurice 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.
Finn Dahmen has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tom Trybull will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Augsburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
36 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Chrislain Matsima 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at FC Augsburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Alexis Claude-Maurice 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Alexis Claude-Maurice 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.
Hamburger SV paid $360.0K and FC Augsburg took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at FC Augsburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Day 8 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Kacey Wooster arrives from Ipswich Town with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FC Augsburg can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around FC Augsburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Alexis Claude-Maurice 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.
“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 FC Augsburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Víctor Guzmán arrives from Pachuca with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
The chase for Jessic Ngankam ended with $15.5M changing hands and Eintracht Frankfurt out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
“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 FC Augsburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at FC Augsburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FC Augsburg can pretend not to have heard.
The chase for Fernando Medrano ended with $2.0M changing hands and TSG Hoffenheim out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Boardroom4 Jun 2029
the manager has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at FC Augsburg can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tom Trybull will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Augsburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Alexis Claude-Maurice 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at FC Augsburg has been clear about where Keven Schlotterbeck stands, which is more than many ever get.
He is 20, and nobody at FC Augsburg signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at FC Augsburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Alexis Claude-Maurice 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 have watched this squad. There is more in it than the table says.” First press conference, first promise — the manager made the one every new manager makes, and now comes the part where it gets checked.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FC Augsburg can pretend not to have heard.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and FC Augsburg have had the benefit of it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around FC Augsburg 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 FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Alexis Claude-Maurice 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FC Augsburg can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around FC Augsburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Day 36 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A season average of 7.05 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. FC Augsburg know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. FC Augsburg have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FC Augsburg can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around FC Augsburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Alexis Claude-Maurice 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sonny Kittel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Augsburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 FC Augsburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Alexis Claude-Maurice 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.
Marked 9.04 — 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.
“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 FC Augsburg know it.
“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 FC Augsburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tom Trybull will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Augsburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Noahkai Banks. 5‑3 against St. Pauli, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
A season average of 7.08 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. FC Augsburg know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
8 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Interim Coach clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.
“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 FC Augsburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FC Augsburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mats Seuntjens will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Augsburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
9 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sonny Kittel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Augsburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 15 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
8 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.
“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 FC Augsburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Alexis Claude-Maurice 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.
Marked 8.63 — 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.
Marked 8.05 — 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FC Augsburg can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tom Trybull will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Augsburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Chrislain Matsima 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.
Marked 9.16 — 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.
Marked 8.23 — 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at FC Augsburg can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 FC Augsburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around FC Augsburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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.
Finn Dahmen 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.
“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 FC Augsburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around FC Augsburg 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 FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It needed Rodrigo Ribeiro to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Eintracht Frankfurt, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“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 FC Augsburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FC Augsburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Alexis Claude-Maurice 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 afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Day 42 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 9.05 — 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.
It needed Alexis Claude-Maurice to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against SC Freiburg, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Shots: 7. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Noahkai Banks signs something — a contract at FC Augsburg or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Position 17 and 17 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FC Augsburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Alexis Claude-Maurice 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.
Marked 9.31 — 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.
Marked 8.35 — 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.
“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 FC Augsburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FC Augsburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.98 — 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.
“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; FC Augsburg are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The offer from VfB Stuttgart for Noahkai Banks 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FC Augsburg can pretend not to have heard.
Keven Schlotterbeck 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.
Marked 9.43 — 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.
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.
“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 FC Augsburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Day 14 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
“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 FC Augsburg know it.
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Interim Coach clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.
“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 FC Augsburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Alexis Claude-Maurice 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FC Augsburg can pretend not to have heard.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and FC Augsburg have had the benefit of 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 FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Alexis Claude-Maurice 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ruggero Frosinini and FC Augsburg agree another 4 years.
Shots: 6. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Position 16 and 9 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.
Alexis Claude-Maurice 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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at FC Augsburg is running low.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“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.
Chrislain Matsima 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.
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Noahkai Banks obliged against Bayern Munich. 1‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is FC Augsburg.
Finn Dahmen 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.
Marked 8.94 — 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.
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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 30 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FC Augsburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 9.56 — 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.
“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 FC Augsburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Alexis Claude-Maurice 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 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 FC Augsburg know it.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at FC Augsburg is running low.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Shots: 7. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.47 — 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.
Shots: 10. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. FC Augsburg know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
It needed Kristijan Jakić to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Hamburger SV, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Alexis Claude-Maurice 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.
Marked 8.93 — 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.
Marked 8.52 — 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 defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FC Augsburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FC Augsburg can pretend not to have heard.
Alexis Claude-Maurice 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. FC Augsburg know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Day 41 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Alexis Claude-Maurice 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.
Sacha Farruggia is 20, and FC Augsburg 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. FC Augsburg know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FC Augsburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at FC Augsburg heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
The shirt still fits. Marc Brandt is back at FC Augsburg, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Ralph Bauer is a FC Augsburg player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mats Seuntjens has his answer from FC Augsburg; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Noahkai Banks signs something — a contract at FC Augsburg or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The speculation has reached the stands, and the stands have answered. FC Augsburg would like this settled before it becomes the only thing anybody asks about.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at FC Augsburg, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at FC Augsburg that is a harder question to answer.
Alexis Claude-Maurice 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.
13 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at FC Augsburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The offer from VfB Stuttgart for Yusuf Kabadayı 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.
Alexis Claude-Maurice 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.
Chrislain Matsima 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 name of Yusuf Kabadayı has come up in conversations FC Augsburg were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yusuf Kabadayı trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Santiago Sandoval arrives from Guadalajara with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
Alexis Claude-Maurice 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Noahkai Banks trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Finn Dahmen signs something — a contract at FC Augsburg or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around FC Augsburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Chrislain Matsima 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 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 FC Augsburg know it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at FC Augsburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Finn Dahmen 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 offer from VfB Stuttgart for Keven Schlotterbeck 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 20, and nobody at FC Augsburg signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Sonny Kittel has his answer from FC Augsburg; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The fee is $4.1M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. St. Pauli drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Alexis Claude-Maurice 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at FC Augsburg, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Finn Dahmen signs something — a contract at FC Augsburg or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around FC Augsburg 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 FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The offer from Eintracht Frankfurt for Han-Noah Massengo 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at FC Augsburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at FC Augsburg heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Noahkai Banks trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FC Augsburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at FC Augsburg, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FC Augsburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at FC Augsburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
399 appearances across 12 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jeffrey Gouweleeuw will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Augsburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Alexis Claude-Maurice 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.
Alexis Claude-Maurice 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 25 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lukas Scherff will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Augsburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Chrislain Matsima 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.
Marked 9.09 — 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.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jeffrey Gouweleeuw will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Augsburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
40 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Alexis Claude-Maurice 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Keven Schlotterbeck. 2‑1 against St. Pauli, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Chrislain Matsima 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.
Shots: 11. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Robin Fellhauer trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 FC Augsburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Finn Dahmen 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 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 FC Augsburg, and 5 appearances in 29 say he has earned the hearing.
Alexis Claude-Maurice 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.
Marked 9.54 — 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.
12 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Marked 9.19 — 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.
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Sebastian Fuchs clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Stephan Franke recited it perfectly.
“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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The phone has started ringing about Mateo Benegas again, and this time the name on the line is AIK. FC Augsburg are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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 FC Augsburg 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 FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.65 — 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at FC Augsburg pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“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 FC Augsburg, and 5 appearances in 25 say he has earned the hearing.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Dinamo Minsk have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mateo Benegas. The answer from FC Augsburg has not changed — yet.
12 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.
“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 FC Augsburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Köln paid $6.2M and FC Augsburg took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
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.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Hamburger SV moved on, Steve Mounié reports back to FC Augsburg, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
11 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.
Alexis Claude-Maurice 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.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Finn Dahmen knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FC Augsburg can pretend not to have heard.
The fee is $3.4M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Eintracht Frankfurt drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The offer from NK Maribor for Mateo Benegas 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.80 — 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.
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.
“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 FC Augsburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Borussia Dortmund for Marcel Łubik 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.
Alexis Claude-Maurice 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FC Augsburg can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Hamburger SV for Luca Martínez Dupuy 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.
Chrislain Matsima 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; FC Augsburg are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at FC Augsburg is running low.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. FC Augsburg will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
“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 FC Augsburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FC Augsburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
2‑5 against Bayern Munich, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FC Augsburg 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 FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Finn Dahmen knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Marked 9.01 — 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FC Augsburg 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 FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 FC Augsburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Alexis Claude-Maurice 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.