“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Borussia Dortmund have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Felix Nmecha 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 had been thinking. Fisnik Asllani is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Borussia Dortmund are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Nobody at Borussia Dortmund will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
0‑1 against Universitatea Craiova. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Borussia Dortmund has to find a result from somewhere.
11 combined actions and 7.35. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 6 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Borussia Dortmund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cyriaque Irié was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Borussia Dortmund game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Luzern runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Something was said to Giannis Konstantelias and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
0‑0 against Universitatea Craiova, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
A brace, and Joey Veerman takes the afternoon — 8.16
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Joey Veerman provided it, and the 8.16 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Felix Nmecha 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 goals in one match, Joey Veerman on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich.
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.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Borussia Dortmund can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Gregor Kobel 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.
A performance of 8.28 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Yan Couto was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Bayern Munich next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
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.
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.
Nobody at Borussia Dortmund will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Borussia Dortmund can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Waldemar Anton 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 James Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Borussia Dortmund game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Köln runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nico Schlotterbeck signs something — a contract at Borussia Dortmund or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Borussia Dortmund will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Borussia Dortmund has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
In brief
The dugoutAyman Azhil asks for a word with the manager
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Borussia Dortmund can pretend not to have heard.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.85 for the rest of it.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
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.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
“I watch every Borussia Dortmund game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Luzern runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Felix Nmecha 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 had been thinking. James Rodríguez 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 is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Borussia Dortmund can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Borussia Dortmund can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Felix Nmecha is on it.
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.
1‑0 against PSV, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Strahinja Pavlović has just signed for Borussia Dortmund, and for once the answer mattered.
Felix Nmecha 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 15 actions, 7.22, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Yan Couto wants continental football; whether Borussia Dortmund can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Joey Veerman has his answer from Borussia Dortmund; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. James Rodríguez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Preußen Münster moved on, Carney Chukwuemeka reports back to Borussia Dortmund, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Borussia Dortmund heard it as anything else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fisnik Asllani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kevin Engel and Borussia Dortmund agree another 3 years.
“I watch every Borussia Dortmund game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Köln runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Ralph Winkler was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Borussia Dortmund dressing room was either.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gregor Kobel signs something — a contract at Borussia Dortmund or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutJoey Veerman asks for a word with the manager
The dugoutCyriaque Irié dropped after a run of poor form
“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 Borussia Dortmund, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Fábio Silva reports back to Borussia Dortmund with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
The offer from Mainz 05 for Diant Ramaj 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.
13 in and 14 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.
“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 Borussia Dortmund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ignacio de Arruabarrena is living that version at Borussia Dortmund, and it tends to show in the first month.
“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 Borussia Dortmund know it.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
A brace, and Fábio Silva takes the afternoon — 8.35
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Fábio Silva provided it, and the 8.35 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Nico 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.
The name of Carney Chukwuemeka has come up in conversations Borussia Dortmund were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. RB Leipzig have kept their man, and Borussia Dortmund go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Borussia Dortmund can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fisnik Asllani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Borussia Dortmund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
12 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
TSG Hoffenheim next, and one man in the Borussia Dortmund dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Borussia Dortmund. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ayman Azhil trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cyriaque Irié 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Borussia Dortmund, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gregor Kobel signs something — a contract at Borussia Dortmund or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Borussia Dortmund people have started saying his name 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 Borussia Dortmund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Borussia Dortmund can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and James Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Borussia Dortmund, and 2 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and James Rodríguez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Borussia Dortmund people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Borussia Dortmund can pretend not to have heard.
Felix Nmecha 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 want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Borussia Dortmund heard it as anything else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and James Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Borussia Dortmund will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“I will know when it is time. I am not there yet.” James Rodríguez is 36, with 412 appearances behind him, and Borussia Dortmund will have to plan for whichever answer comes.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. SC Freiburg have kept their man, and Borussia Dortmund go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer from Bayer Leverkusen for Alexander Meyer 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.
Felix Nmecha 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 Fisnik Asllani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
12 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.
Bayer Leverkusen wanted more than $160.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fisnik Asllani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Borussia Dortmund, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Borussia Dortmund know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Daniel Svensson trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Borussia Dortmund asked and Hertha BSC said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Borussia Dortmund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. James Rodríguez 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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Borussia Dortmund has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Still no offer on the table, and Cole Campbell’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
The offer went to SC Freiburg 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Borussia Dortmund heard it as anything else.
Borussia Dortmund have gone to Bayer Leverkusen with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fisnik Asllani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
34 games, 1 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Borussia Dortmund now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Cole Campbell and Borussia Dortmund agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“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; Borussia Dortmund are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. VfB Stuttgart have kept their man, and Borussia Dortmund go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Borussia Dortmund, and it is not being withdrawn.
Felix Nmecha 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 Fisnik Asllani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Borussia Dortmund will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
In brief
The dugoutAyman Azhil knocks on the manager’s door
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $14.1M has been paid because Leopold Querfeld is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Raków Częstochowa had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Borussia Dortmund 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. Leopold Querfeld is living that version at Borussia Dortmund, and it tends to show in the first month.
TSG Hoffenheim did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $57.1M for Fisnik Asllani, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Paris Saint-Germain have kept their man, and Borussia Dortmund go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The shirt still fits. Justin Njinmah is back at Borussia Dortmund, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Borussia Dortmund offered $13.4M; Eintracht Frankfurt 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Kaiserslautern waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Borussia Dortmund is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The fee is $8.7M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Heidenheim drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Borussia Dortmund have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Fisnik Asllani has just signed for Borussia Dortmund, and for once the answer mattered.
VfB Stuttgart have accepted the money. What Borussia Dortmund do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Borussia Dortmund have gone to TSG Hoffenheim with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. TSG Hoffenheim have kept their man, and Borussia Dortmund go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Borussia Dortmund have gone to Union Berlin with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“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 Borussia Dortmund, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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.
Add another name to the list: Köln have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jobe Bellingham. The answer from Borussia Dortmund has not changed — yet.
Felix Nmecha 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.
18 appearances and 0 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
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 squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Daniel Svensson trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Borussia Dortmund would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Alexander Meyer is on it.
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
Squad24 May 2027
A season's verdict on Ethan Nwaneri: the best of his age
Borussia Dortmund have a 20-year-old the division has just voted its finest young footballer. The club's next problem is that everybody else now knows it too.
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. Borussia Dortmund will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
“I did not go to Hannover 96 to sit and watch. I want to come back to Borussia Dortmund and fight for my place.” 9 appearances in 37 matches say the rest.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gregor Kobel signs something — a contract at Borussia Dortmund or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say James Rodríguez is on it.
20 appearances at FC Copenhagen and the goals have stopped going in. Borussia Dortmund lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 75 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Position 2 and 75 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings17 May 2027
Cyriaque Irié, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.77
A mark of 7.77 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
A season average of 7.31 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Borussia Dortmund know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere 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 Borussia Dortmund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Cyriaque Irié has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Felix Nmecha 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 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ethan Nwaneri is on it.
A season average of 7.28 with 3 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
The dugout10 May 2027
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.” Ralph Winkler chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Borussia Dortmund know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Two goals and a mark of 8.37 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Borussia Dortmund have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Cyriaque Irié 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 Borussia Dortmund know it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Borussia Dortmund told Gregor Kobel something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. James Rodríguez 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.
0‑3 to SC Freiburg, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
500 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrej Kramarić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Ethan Nwaneri is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Position 2, 68 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Ramy Bensebaini scored, was marked 7.96, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Maximilian Beier. 2‑0 against Hamburger SV, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Ethan Nwaneri, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.77
A mark of 7.77 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Felix Nmecha 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.
At 20 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and James Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Bitello and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Nobody at Borussia Dortmund will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Ralph Winkler was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Borussia Dortmund dressing room was either.
Nico 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Marcel Sabitzer in the middle of it, and FC Augsburg unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Maximilian Beier and Borussia Dortmund agree another 5 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Borussia Dortmund 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.
Nobody at Borussia Dortmund will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against FC Augsburg in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
20 appearances at FC Copenhagen and the goals have stopped going in. Borussia Dortmund lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Position 3, 61 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Borussia Dortmund have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Ethan Nwaneri, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.74
A mark of 7.74 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Maximilian Beier. 1‑0 against TSG Hoffenheim, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
7 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
“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; Borussia Dortmund are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Felix Nmecha and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I have 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 Borussia Dortmund know it.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
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.
Nobody at Borussia Dortmund will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The unglamorous genius of a well-written contract. Jobe Bellingham is somebody else's player now, and $570.0K has arrived because the people who sold him thought further ahead than the transfer window.
Nothing signed, nothing denied, and a lot of people suddenly very careful about their wording. Supporters who have been through one of these know the quiet part lasts months.
7.88, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Felix Nmecha 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 want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Borussia Dortmund heard it as anything else.
“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 Borussia Dortmund know it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Fábio Silva. 3‑1 against Borussia Mönchengladbach, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Fábio Silva was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.24. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Beaten 2‑3 by Bayern Munich in the one fixture that is never just a fixture. Work, school, the corner shop — there will be no getting away from this one.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Borussia Dortmund hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Borussia Dortmund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Borussia Dortmund can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Borussia Dortmund know now that the thought has arrived.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and James Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
Gregor Kobel is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Two goals and a mark of 8.40 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
A season average of 7.33 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Borussia Dortmund know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Marcel Sabitzer. 2‑0 against Mainz 05, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Bayern Munich next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
Two goals and a mark of 8.28 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Borussia Dortmund heard it as anything else.
Nico Schlotterbeck 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 James Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Borussia Dortmund asked and TSG Hoffenheim said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Borussia Dortmund can pretend not to have heard.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Borussia Dortmund hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gregor Kobel and Borussia Dortmund agree another 4 years.
The deal that would have taken Alexander Meyer to RB Leipzig has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Borussia Dortmund with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. TSG Hoffenheim have kept their man, and Borussia Dortmund go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Borussia Dortmund have lost him in all but the paperwork.
TSG Hoffenheim have accepted the money. What Borussia Dortmund do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“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 Borussia Dortmund, and it is not being withdrawn.
$7.1M was the most the club would pay and VfL Wolfsburg were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
3 in and 4 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.
“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.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Braga have kept their man, and Borussia Dortmund go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Position 2, 44 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
He is 19, he is averaging 7.28, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Cyriaque Irié has, at Borussia Dortmund, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
He is 21 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.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Borussia Dortmund have paid $41.3M for Bitello, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Heidenheim will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Borussia Dortmund were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Borussia Dortmund have done the hard part with SC Freiburg, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
7.79, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
7.96, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Bitello has just signed for Borussia Dortmund, and for once the answer mattered.
Felix Nmecha 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.
$42.0M was the most the club would pay and TSG Hoffenheim were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
VfL Wolfsburg paid $28.0M and Borussia Dortmund took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The offer from Heidenheim for Giannis Konstantelias 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.
Borussia Dortmund asked and VfL Wolfsburg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Borussia Dortmund, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Andrej Kramarić is living that version at Borussia Dortmund, and it tends to show in the first month.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $47.3M — a club that wants Fisnik Asllani enough to be asked twice.
Felix Nmecha 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.
Borussia Dortmund have gone to TSG Hoffenheim with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The offer went to Dinamo Moscow 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.
Borussia Dortmund have gone to Bayer Leverkusen with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. TSG Hoffenheim have kept their man, and Borussia Dortmund go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Borussia Dortmund, and it is not being withdrawn.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Borussia Dortmund had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Position 3, 35 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
A season average of 7.19 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Borussia Dortmund know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Borussia Dortmund have 4 straight wins of it.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Up for the corner, and Joey Veerman delivers — 7.91
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Joey Veerman scored, was marked 7.91, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Serhou Guirassy 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.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Joey Veerman. 1‑0 against Köln, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Ralph Winkler kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugoutFábio Silva knocks on the manager’s door
21Edition
The Borussia Dortmund Chronicle
21 Dec 2026
From our football correspondentUpbeat
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Ethan Nwaneri, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.61
A mark of 7.61 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ethan Nwaneri is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 7.41, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Borussia Dortmund, and 4 appearances in 15 say he has earned the hearing.
In brief
The dugoutEthan Nwaneri has become a man the manager trusts
Two goals and a mark of 8.21 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Ethan Nwaneri, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.72
A mark of 7.72 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Felix Nmecha 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 want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Borussia Dortmund hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
He is 19 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and James Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Ralph Winkler kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
7.73, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
“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 Borussia Dortmund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Matthias Lorenz is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Lars Schmitt 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Gregor Werner is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 7.50, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Position 3, 23 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
A season average of 7.12 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Borussia Dortmund know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Borussia Dortmund has to find a result from somewhere.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Noan Géraux has just signed for Borussia Dortmund, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and James Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Borussia Dortmund told Gregor Kobel something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Holstein Kiel go through and Borussia Dortmund go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ethan Nwaneri did not need any: 7.73, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
1 for Joey Veerman, marked 7.85, 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.
Felix Nmecha 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.
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 watch every Borussia Dortmund game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hannover 96 runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Felix Nmecha 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. Borussia Dortmund know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against TSG Hoffenheim in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
4 clean sheets from 10 appearances at Lechia. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
3 goals in 9 games at Lyngby — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Borussia Dortmund updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Ethan Nwaneri, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.60
A mark of 7.60 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
1 for Joey Veerman, marked 7.91, 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.
“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.
Serhou Guirassy 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.
With 7 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Ethan Nwaneri, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.58
A mark of 8.58 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.97 for the rest of it.
1 for Joey Veerman, marked 7.72, 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.
He is 19, he is averaging 7.06, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Borussia Dortmund heard it as anything else.
4 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Felix Nmecha 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.
The first defeat in 6 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Bayern Munich; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Match24 Oct 2026
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Borussia Dortmund. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
“I did not go to Hannover 96 to sit and watch. I want to come back to Borussia Dortmund and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 7 matches say the rest.
“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.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
Nobody at Borussia Dortmund will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Lucas Pérez
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Mainz 05 will want this one forgotten quickly: 6‑2, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Borussia Dortmund were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 8.44 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
6 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Ethan Nwaneri, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.53
A mark of 8.53 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Felix Nmecha 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jobe Bellingham is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Borussia Dortmund and Mainz 05 in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Serhou Guirassy was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.59. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ethan Nwaneri is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Borussia Dortmund 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 James Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
3 goals in 5 games at Lyngby — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Borussia Dortmund updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Borussia Dortmund have no good answer.
Two goals and a mark of 8.12 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Borussia Dortmund have 5 straight wins of it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Up for the corner, and Joey Veerman delivers — 7.79
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Joey Veerman scored, was marked 7.79, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
With 8 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Maximilian Beier has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
At 19 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Borussia Dortmund will try not to make too much of it.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ethan Nwaneri did not need any: 7.64, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
1 for Marcel Sabitzer, marked 7.90, 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.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Felix Nmecha 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Marcel Sabitzer. 1‑0 against Werder Bremen, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Ralph Winkler, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Shots: 8, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Lucas Pérez
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jobe Bellingham is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
A 2‑0 win over VfL Wolfsburg, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Marked 8.20 — 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 8.15 — 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. James Rodríguez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The 89th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Fábio Silva decided nobody was going anywhere. Union Berlin had no time left to answer.
The offer from Schalke 04 for Marcel Sabitzer 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 want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Borussia Dortmund heard it as anything else.
Borussia Dortmund asked and VfB Stuttgart said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is 19 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Fábio Silva. 1‑0 against Union Berlin, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. James Rodríguez 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.
Borussia Dortmund asked and FC Augsburg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 11 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“131 caps was 131 more than the boy who started ever expected.” At 35 he has stepped away from the national side and has not stepped away from Borussia Dortmund.
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Serhou Guirassy was the best thing in any of them.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Borussia Dortmund can pretend not to have heard.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Serhou Guirassy provided it, and the 8.72 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Borussia Dortmund people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Schalke 04 paid $8.2M and Borussia Dortmund took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
$4.0M was the most the club would pay and Arminia Bielefeld were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Jobe Bellingham did not need any: 7.62, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.59 for the rest of it.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $15.0M — a club that wants Aljoscha Kemlein enough to be asked twice.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. RB Leipzig have kept their man, and Borussia Dortmund go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Felix Nmecha 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 morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Add another name to the list: Hannover 96 have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Filippo Mané. The answer from Borussia Dortmund has not changed — yet.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Hans Sommer is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Serhou Guirassy signs something — a contract at Borussia Dortmund or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Arsenal have kept their man, and Borussia Dortmund go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer went to PSV 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.
Borussia Dortmund offered $9.7M; VfL Wolfsburg 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.
Borussia Dortmund have gone to Arminia Bielefeld with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Silas Ostrzinski had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The offer from SV Ried for Konstantinos Karetsas 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $4.3M — a club that wants Jonas Kersken enough to be asked twice.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Borussia Dortmund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Borussia Dortmund have gone to RB Leipzig with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The offer went to VfL Wolfsburg 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.
“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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Maximilian Beier and Borussia Dortmund agree another 5 years.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $33.9M — a club that wants Christoph Baumgartner enough to be asked twice.
Felix Nmecha 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Gabriel Hoffmann has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Jan Lorenz has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Lucas Pérez has just signed for Borussia Dortmund, and for once the answer mattered.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Borussia Dortmund hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nico Schlotterbeck and Borussia Dortmund agree another 4 years.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Fulham have kept their man, and Borussia Dortmund go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Silas Ostrzinski has come up in conversations Borussia Dortmund were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.