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 Mönchengladbach this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Borussia Mönchengladbach is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
9 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Philipp Brandt 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. Marc 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. Gregor Schröder 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 official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shuto Machino 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 new manager did not pick last season’s side and does not care what it looked like. Pedro has taken that personally, in the best sense, and Borussia Mönchengladbach are seeing a version of him the last regime had stopped seeing.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shuto Machino 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.
Something was said to Pedro and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Karim Onisiwo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 33 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Borussia Mönchengladbach has to find a result from somewhere.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Kevin Stöger.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
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 is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Borussia Mönchengladbach can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Borussia Mönchengladbach is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Shuto Machino 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.
200 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.
Level with 95 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Borussia Mönchengladbach had all but put away. Bayer Leverkusen will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
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.
1‑4 against Bayern Munich, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
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 Mönchengladbach this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shuto Machino 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.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Nobody at Borussia Mönchengladbach 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Mainz 05 the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Borussia Mönchengladbach will enjoy reviewing.
Pedro 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.
Successful dribbles: 31. 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.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 89th, and St. Pauli spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
“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 Mönchengladbach are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
At 18 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.
Shuto Machino 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tobias Sippel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Borussia Mönchengladbach the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shuto Machino 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 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.
VfL Wolfsburg will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Borussia Mönchengladbach were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Borussia Mönchengladbach can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kevin Stöger and Borussia Mönchengladbach agree another 2 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 Mönchengladbach this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Borussia Mönchengladbach and VfL Wolfsburg, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Pedro was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Borussia Mönchengladbach can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Pedro was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.71. 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.
Level with 90 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Borussia Mönchengladbach had all but put away. Union Berlin will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Pedro provided it, and the 8.90 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Pedro 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Shuto Machino 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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Patrick Seidel was not hiding it after 2‑2, and nobody in the Borussia Mönchengladbach dressing room was either.
In brief
The dugoutShuto Machino has become a man the manager trusts
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Borussia Mönchengladbach they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Mönchengladbach heard it as anything else.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Florian Neuhaus.
“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 dugout15 Feb 2027
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.” Patrick Seidel kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Nobody at Borussia Mönchengladbach 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.
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.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Borussia Mönchengladbach may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
“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 Mönchengladbach this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Shuto Machino was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.82. 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Shuto Machino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.05 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
A point taken on 96 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Hamburger SV paid $11.7M and Borussia Mönchengladbach took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Borussia Mönchengladbach asked and SC Freiburg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Borussia Mönchengladbach until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
“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 Mönchengladbach hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Flamengo did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $37.6M for Pedro, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to SC Freiburg; Borussia Mönchengladbach go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Heidenheim have kept their man, and Borussia Mönchengladbach go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Cyriaque Irié, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.69
A mark of 7.69 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.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.07 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Borussia Mönchengladbach and Werder Bremen in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
The name of Joe Scally has come up in conversations Borussia Mönchengladbach were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The clubs have shaken hands with Flamengo; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Position 17 and 15 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Eintracht Frankfurt have kept their man, and Borussia Mönchengladbach go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Franck Honorat was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tobias Sippel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Borussia Mönchengladbach the goodbyes have quietly begun.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Nicolas Kühn at his very best
The offer went to Union Berlin 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.
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.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Tobias Sippel has agreed terms with Union Berlin for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Franck Honorat 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Robin Hack and Borussia Mönchengladbach agree another 4 years.
$26.0M on the table at Trabzonspor. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Borussia Mönchengladbach asked and Trabzonspor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
$3.5M settles it between the clubs for Nathan De Cat
TSG Hoffenheim have accepted the money. What Borussia Mönchengladbach do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Borussia Mönchengladbach has to find a result from somewhere.
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Borussia Mönchengladbach has to find a result from somewhere.
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 Mönchengladbach this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shuto Machino 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 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 dugout28 Dec 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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Patrick Seidel to a room that had heard them before.
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 Mönchengladbach this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Nnamdi Collins wants continental football; whether Borussia Mönchengladbach can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
A point taken on 93 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Position 17, 11 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jan Olschowsky and Borussia Mönchengladbach agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hugo Bolin 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.
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.
Franck Honorat 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 music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑4 Patrick Seidel left the room before anybody could ask which.
There was no pressure on him and nowhere he had to be. Borussia Mönchengladbach lost a goal to a decision that took half a second and will be discussed all week.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
1‑5 to Bayern Munich, 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.
“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 Mönchengladbach, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Borussia Mönchengladbach and Bayern Munich in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shuto Machino 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 Mönchengladbach this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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 Moritz Nicolas is on it.
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Patrick Seidel was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Borussia Mönchengladbach dressing room was either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wael Mohya was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Bayern Munich.
Position 16 and 9 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Franck Honorat 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Robin Hack was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.20. 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 dugout23 Nov 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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Patrick Seidel to a room that had heard them before.
Something was said to Cyriaque Irié and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Franck Honorat 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. Shuto Machino 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑3 Patrick Seidel left the room before anybody could ask which.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Borussia Mönchengladbach have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
He came on with the match going nowhere and left it settled. Borussia Mönchengladbach had the right man on the bench, and for once the timing was right too.
In brief
Player ratingsThe pass was always on for Cyriaque Irié
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Borussia Mönchengladbach have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Borussia Mönchengladbach heard it as anything else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hugo Bolin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Patrick Seidel left the room before anybody could ask which.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Cyriaque Irié did not need any: 7.81, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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 Mönchengladbach hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Kevin Stöger was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Joe Scally wants continental football; whether Borussia Mönchengladbach can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Karim Onisiwo, and the manager let it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Cyriaque Irié
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Cyriaque Irié has come out of that comparison in the side, and Borussia Mönchengladbach have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Nobody at Borussia Mönchengladbach 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.
7.98, 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.
Franck Honorat was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Philipp Sander wants continental football; whether Borussia Mönchengladbach can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Shuto Machino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout26 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.” Patrick Seidel kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Borussia Mönchengladbach has to find a result from somewhere.
Franck Honorat 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 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Patrick Seidel after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Wael Mohya 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.
5 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.
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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Marc Friedrich 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.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Patrick Seidel after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nnamdi Collins is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
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 Mönchengladbach this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Shuto Machino 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Patrick Seidel after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Franck Honorat 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 fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Borussia Mönchengladbach will be judged on one thing only.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Patrick Seidel chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Wael Mohya 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 squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Jens Castrop’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Borussia Mönchengladbach needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
0‑3 against Hamburger SV, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Franck Honorat 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 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Borussia Mönchengladbach will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
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 dugout21 Sep 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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Patrick Seidel to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Borussia Mönchengladbach asked and Eintracht Frankfurt said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Kevin Stöger 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. Shuto Machino 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 point taken on 85 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Patrick Seidel after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
In brief
Player ratingsNicolas Kühn beats them one at a time
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Jens Castrop
Player ratingsHalf an hour was enough for Cyriaque Irié
Borussia Mönchengladbach have gone to Heidenheim 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. Heidenheim have kept their man, and Borussia Mönchengladbach go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 18 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed 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 Mönchengladbach this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Hugo Bolin 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.
Eintracht Frankfurt did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $23.9M for Nnamdi Collins, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Franck Honorat 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.
Nnamdi Collins was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $23.9M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Patrick Seidel left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Eintracht Frankfurt have accepted the money. What Borussia Mönchengladbach do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. VfL Wolfsburg have kept their man, and Borussia Mönchengladbach go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nobody at the club will say out loud who this signing is for, which is how you know exactly who it is for. Cyriaque Irié has been brought in to take a shirt somebody is still wearing.
“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 Mönchengladbach can pretend not to have heard.
Franck Honorat 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 phone has started ringing about Wael Mohya again, and this time the name on the line is Leixões. Borussia Mönchengladbach are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shuto Machino 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 plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.
$21.3M on the table at Eintracht Frankfurt. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Everything agreed with SC Freiburg, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Bayern Munich pay $24.6M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
$7.8M was the most the club would pay and St. Pauli 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.
He is going to Bayern Munich, the club has $24.6M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
$8.2M on the table at Bayern Munich. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Borussia Mönchengladbach have gone to St. Pauli 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 most awkward business a club does is signing tomorrow's answer while today's is still in the building. Frans Krätzig comes from Red Bull Salzburg for exactly that purpose, and the handover will not be discussed publicly by anybody.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Franck Honorat and Borussia Mönchengladbach agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Franck Honorat 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 no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Maximilian Fuchs 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. Michael Sauer is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ralf Lang 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.
In brief
SquadKevin Diks falls out with a teammate over standards
$24.9M was the most the club would pay and Bayern Munich 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 offer went to Red Bull Salzburg 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.
242 appearances across 10 seasons in one shirt. Careers like that are not built on purpose any more, and Borussia Mönchengladbach know exactly what they have.
“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 Mönchengladbach 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.” Kevin Stöger and Borussia Mönchengladbach agree another 2 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 Mönchengladbach this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Karim Onisiwo has just signed for Borussia Mönchengladbach, and for once the answer mattered.