From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The offer went to Bayern Munich 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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 11 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Bayer Leverkusen 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Bayer Leverkusen heard it as anything else.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Patrik Schick 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Carlos Robles arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Carlos Robles has, at Bayer Leverkusen, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Match5 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Malik Tillman. 1‑0 against Heidenheim, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.49, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Jonas Peters on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Bayer Leverkusen offered $25.5M; Bayern Munich said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Match29 Aug 2026
Patrik Schick had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and RB Leipzig were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.01, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Patrik Schick and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match29 Aug 2026
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
The cruellest goal, and it is Afonso Moreira's
A touch he did not want, a bounce he could not have read, and his name in the wrong column. There is no consoling a man after one of these, and Bayer Leverkusen will not try tonight.
Squad31 Aug 2026
6 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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Jonas Peters chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Bayer Leverkusen offered $112.1M; Real Madrid said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market24 Aug 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Bayer Leverkusen, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bayer Leverkusen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
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.
Market24 Aug 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Bayer Leverkusen can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
Work is signed off on a capacity of 41757. It is the sort of decision a club is judged on twenty years later, by people who were not there when it was taken.
Market24 Aug 2026
The Aleix García talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Bayer Leverkusen know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Looking ahead24 Aug 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Patrik Schick’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Bayer Leverkusen needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$112.1M settles it between the clubs for Jude Bellingham
Real Madrid have accepted the money. What Bayer Leverkusen do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Bayern Munich wanted more than $25.4M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Bayer Leverkusen asked and Eintracht Frankfurt said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market17 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Bayer Leverkusen did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Patrik Schick 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Bayern Munich pay $1.2M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Malik Tillman has seen what the next man earns
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 Bayer Leverkusen that is a harder question to answer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Bayer Leverkusen offered $102.6M; Manchester United said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer from Werder Bremen for Nathan Tella 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Loïc Badé and Bayer Leverkusen agree another 5 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Patrik Schick and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market10 Aug 2026
The name of Ibrahim Maza has come up in conversations Bayer Leverkusen were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Edmond Tapsoba
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Frank Hofmann has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
$81.0M on the table at Manchester United. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market3 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Bayer Leverkusen did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Burnley have kept their man, and Bayer Leverkusen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Bayer Leverkusen heard it as anything else.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Patrik Schick 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Lucas Vázquez and Bayer Leverkusen agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miguel Gutiérrez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Eintracht Frankfurt have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Bayer Leverkusen are still strangers to each other
6 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.