Hiroki Akiyama 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 Luca Sirch was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 88. Nürnberg had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
10 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
In brief
Looking aheadThe leaders are next for Darmstadt 98
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Luca Sirch 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.
Sanoussy Ba 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.
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout14 Sep 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.” Jan Fuchs kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Darmstadt 98 are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“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 The request is on a desk at Darmstadt 98, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 20 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The offer from Baltika for Leon Klassen 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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Darmstadt 98 will try again when the window opens; Fortuna Düsseldorf may not be selling by then.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Mainz 05 moved on, Fynn Lakenmacher reports back to Darmstadt 98, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
The deal with Union Berlin 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.
Darmstadt 98 offered $270.0K; Magdeburg 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.
Sanoussy Ba was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Darmstadt 98, and it is not being withdrawn.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $19.5M — a club that wants Kaishu Sano enough to be asked twice.
The deal with RB Leipzig 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.
Darmstadt 98 had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Villarreal, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
$270.0K on the table at Magdeburg. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Hiroki Akiyama 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 Luca Sirch was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Eintracht Braunschweig arrived with $16.9M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Darmstadt 98 have gone to Mainz 05 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.
Isac Lidberg has gone, the accounts have $16.9M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Darmstadt 98 can pretend not to have heard.
Eintracht Braunschweig did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $1.1M for Sanoussy Ba, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Darmstadt 98 have done the hard part with Villarreal, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Darmstadt 98 offered $580.0K; Köln 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.
Hiroki Akiyama 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.
Sanoussy Ba was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $1.1M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
$12.2M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
Darmstadt 98 offered $5.2M; Basaksehir 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.
He is going to Cardiff City, the club has $12.2M 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.
Darmstadt 98 asked and Greuther Fürth said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$1.1M on the table at Eintracht Braunschweig. 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 offer went to Köln 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $600.0K — a club that wants Luca Kilian enough to be asked twice.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Luca Sirch has just signed for Darmstadt 98, and for once the answer mattered.
$4.6M on the table at Basaksehir. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Hiroki Akiyama 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Luca Sirch 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Anton Lehmann has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Andreas Krüger 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. Jürgen Schuster is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“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 Darmstadt 98, and it is not being withdrawn.
The phone has started ringing about Fraser Hornby again, and this time the name on the line is BK Hacken. Darmstadt 98 are listening politely and promising nothing.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Fraser Hornby and Darmstadt 98 agree another 5 years.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Darmstadt 98 can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.