“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.
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 20 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcel Sabitzer 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Oliver Horn is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Tim Busch is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Frank Schuster is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Klaus Walter is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Borussia Dortmund will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
$8.3M on the table at VfB Stuttgart. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
VfL Wolfsburg paid $7.0M 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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 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.
Giannis Konstantelias 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.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Borussia Dortmund will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nico Schlotterbeck 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. VfL Wolfsburg 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 Maximilian Beier 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Borussia Dortmund told Badredine Bouanani something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
In brief
The dugoutEmre Can asks for a word with the manager
Borussia Dortmund asked and Union Berlin 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Nico Schlotterbeck 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.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
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.
In brief
The dugoutFilippo Mané knocks on the manager’s door
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Kento Shiogai has, at Borussia Dortmund, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The phone has started ringing about Lucas Pérez again, and this time the name on the line is RB Leipzig. Borussia Dortmund are listening politely and promising nothing.
14 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.
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 Serhou Guirassy is on 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.
$6.5M on the table at VfL Wolfsburg. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maximilian Beier 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Florian Müller has improved at 29, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Diant Ramaj and Borussia Dortmund agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The fee is $12.8M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Eintracht Frankfurt drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The chase for Jonas Adjetey ended with $9.1M changing hands and VfL Wolfsburg out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Elias Baum has just signed for Borussia Dortmund, and for once the answer mattered.
At 22 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.
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.
10 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
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 offer went to Eintracht Frankfurt this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The 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.
Position 3, 69 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.
“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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Leo Sauer has, at Borussia Dortmund, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The offer from Köln for Jobe Bellingham 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.
In brief
SquadAt 20, Ethan Nwaneri is already the best thing here
The offer went to VfB Stuttgart 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ethan Nwaneri is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Alexander Meyer reports back to Borussia Dortmund with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
SC Freiburg paid $1.0M 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 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.
Borussia Dortmund asked and Paris Saint-Germain 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 shirt still fits. Patrick Osterhage 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.
The fee is $12.8M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. VfB Stuttgart drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The chase for Hugo Bolin ended with $10.9M changing hands and Borussia Mönchengladbach out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
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.
“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. Patrick Osterhage has just signed for Borussia Dortmund, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Fabio Chiarodia is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Borussia Dortmund asked and Barcelona 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 deal with VfB Stuttgart is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The offer went to Borussia Mönchengladbach 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.
At 19 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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Giannis Konstantelias and Borussia Dortmund agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Borussia Dortmund will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
32 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.
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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Borussia Dortmund, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Borussia Dortmund will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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.
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.
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.
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.
18 appearances at Diosgyor and the goals have stopped going in. Borussia Dortmund lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
20 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Borussia Dortmund will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Ramy Bensebaini will call it something else in private.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 44 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maximilian Beier 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.
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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Borussia Dortmund, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Ramy Bensebaini has written the date down.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 54 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcel Sabitzer is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Borussia Dortmund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maximilian Beier was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Martin Winkler and Borussia Dortmund agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
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.
7 clean sheets from 18 appearances at Diosgyor. 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.
Loan watch26 Apr 2027
Diant Ramaj’s loan is measured in nothing happening
5 clean sheets from 13 appearances at FC Copenhagen. 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.
Position 3 on 69 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
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.
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 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.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Serhou Guirassy was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.32. 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.
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. Marcel Sabitzer 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.
19 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Borussia Dortmund lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A season average of 7.15 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.
29 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Borussia Dortmund lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maximilian Beier 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.
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.
18 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcel Sabitzer 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.
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.
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.
Mert Kömür 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.
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.
16 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.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Marcel Sabitzer and Borussia Dortmund agree another 3 years.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Serhou Guirassy. 2‑1 against FC Augsburg, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Ethan Nwaneri, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.79
A mark of 7.79 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.
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.
“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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marcel Sabitzer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
15 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maximilian Beier was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Borussia Dortmund pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
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.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Borussia Dortmund lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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 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 Maximilian Beier was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
RB Leipzig next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The words a physio says slowly. 23 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Borussia Dortmund will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The first defeat in 16 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.
“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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Mathis Albert
The words a physio says slowly. 30 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bayer Leverkusen have kept their man, and Borussia Dortmund go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Borussia Dortmund ran out of time with Fulham. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Borussia Dortmund will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
$8.4M was the most the club would pay and SC Freiburg 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.
13 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.
3 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Borussia Dortmund have gone to Fulham 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 words a physio says slowly. 39 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atlético Madrid have kept their man, and Borussia Dortmund go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
VfL Wolfsburg are out and Borussia Dortmund go through, 1‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
St. Pauli will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Borussia Dortmund were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
$8.4M on the table at SC Freiburg. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The words a physio says slowly. 48 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Athletic Bilbao have kept their man, and Borussia Dortmund go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Borussia Dortmund will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The chase for Fabio Chiarodia ended with $6.3M changing hands and Borussia Mönchengladbach out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Fabio Chiarodia has, at Borussia Dortmund, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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.
57 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Borussia Dortmund lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Borussia Dortmund offered $31.8M; Cruz Azul 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.
The deal with Borussia Mönchengladbach is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
FC Augsburg did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $8.8M for Mert Kömür, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
The chase for Lukas Klostermann ended with $7.0M changing hands and RB Leipzig out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Position 3, 40 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.
The chase for Florian Müller ended with $5.7M changing hands and SC Freiburg out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
64 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Borussia Dortmund lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The offer went to Cruz Azul 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.
$8.8M on the table at FC Augsburg. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$7.0M on the table at RB Leipzig. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The 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.
“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.
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.
74 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Borussia Dortmund lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ethan Nwaneri did not need any: 7.91, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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 words a physio says slowly. 82 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
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. Maximilian Beier 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Nelson Lung has just signed for Borussia Dortmund, and for once the answer mattered.
A 2‑1 win over Bayer Leverkusen, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
91 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Borussia Dortmund lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ethan Nwaneri did not need any: 8.27, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
A season average of 7.02 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.
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.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Filippo Mané damages knee ligaments — 101 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 101 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Joey Veerman falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The first defeat in 5 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Köln; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Diego Mascardi 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.
Filippo Mané damages knee ligaments — 112 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 112 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
5 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.
Felix Nmecha and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Serhou Guirassy was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.71. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joey Veerman is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
8 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.
120 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Borussia Dortmund lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Jobe Bellingham did not need any: 7.94, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.31 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
4 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.
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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Borussia Dortmund and FC Augsburg in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
8 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.
At 23 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 had been thinking. Joey Veerman 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 hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ethan Nwaneri did not need any: 7.66, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
“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.
6 goals in one match, Felix Nmecha on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Borussia Dortmund and FC Augsburg.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramy Bensebaini 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Felix Nmecha was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.34. 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.
Ethan Nwaneri, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.35
A mark of 8.35 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.
“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.
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.
Diego Mascardi 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 board was up, the win was priced in, and then TSG Hoffenheim scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
A touch he did not mean and a goal that goes in the book with his name against it. Borussia Dortmund will not blame him tonight and he will not need them to.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Borussia Dortmund told Emre Can something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Joey Veerman falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
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 Niklas Süle is on it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Gregor Kobel’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Borussia Dortmund needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“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.
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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Joey Veerman falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A 1‑0 win over Borussia Mönchengladbach, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Borussia Dortmund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout19 Oct 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.” Kevin Schmitt kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
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.
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.
Marked 8.22 — 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.
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.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Kevin Schmitt after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Successful dribbles: 40. 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Joey Veerman was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Borussia Dortmund are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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 door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Kevin Schmitt to a room that had heard them before.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ethan Nwaneri did not need any: 7.63, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Diego Mascardi is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramy Bensebaini is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A performance of 8.24 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Serhou Guirassy was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.23. 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Kevin Schmitt could afford to be generous.
A 2‑1 win over Werder Bremen, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
8.32. 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.
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.
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.
In brief
Loan watchDiant Ramaj’s loan is measured in nothing happening
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Joey Veerman was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Christian Schröder 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. Klaus Huber 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.
17 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
5 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The offer from Werder Bremen for Julian Ryerson 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 deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 19 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 8 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramy Bensebaini 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.
Diego Mascardi 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Giannis Konstantelias has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“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.
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.
Julian Ryerson was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Kevin Schmitt could afford to be generous.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Joey Veerman
VfB Stuttgart did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $35.6M for Bilal El Khannouss, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Borussia Dortmund asked and Köln 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 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Bilal El Khannouss has just signed for Borussia Dortmund, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Frank Walter and Borussia Dortmund agree another 3 years.
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.
The offer went to Atalanta 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 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Diego Mascardi has just signed for Borussia Dortmund, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
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.
In brief
Squad5 new faces, and Borussia Dortmund are still learning each other
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.
The clubs have shaken hands with Spezia; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Joey Veerman and Borussia Dortmund agree another 4 years.
The name of Konstantinos Karetsas has come up in conversations Borussia Dortmund were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Benjamin Winkler 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. René Peters is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The offer from Eintracht Frankfurt for Waldemar Anton 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 have gone to Spezia 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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutJoey Veerman knocks on the manager's door