“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 The request is on a desk at Basel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Basel they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Basel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Elia Caprile 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.
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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Basel, and 0 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
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 Silvan Aebischer left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Žan Celar
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Basel is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Elia Caprile 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 Metinho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Basel, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
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 year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Basel would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Basel. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of 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 Basel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Elia Caprile 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.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Basel know which stage they are at.
Nobody at Basel 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 Basel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Basel would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Cagliari did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $25.9M for Elia Caprile, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
33 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Basel offered $9.5M; Lugano 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Grasshopper have kept their man, and Basel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Basel 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.
Bećir Omeragić 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 Elia Caprile was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Elia Caprile was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $25.9M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
The offer went to Cagliari 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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Basel can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Vaduz waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Basel is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Young Boys for Metinho 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.
Basel have gone to Lugano 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jonas Harder will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Basel the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Metinho 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.
Roberto Villamarín 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.
In brief
The dugoutXherdan Shaqiri has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Mirko Salvi
The chase for Tim Meyer ended with $1.9M changing hands and Grasshopper out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Metinho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Basel have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer went to Grasshopper 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.
Basel offered $2.1M; Grasshopper 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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Mirko Salvi has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Xherdan Shaqiri and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Basel know it.
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.
33 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Basel have had the benefit of it.
$1.9M on the table at Grasshopper. 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 from Thun for Mirko Salvi 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Metinho 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 phone has started ringing about Marvin Akahomen again, and this time the name on the line is Grasshopper. Basel are listening politely and promising nothing.
Kazeem Olaigbe was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Basel has been clear about where Metinho stands, which is more than many ever get.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Roberto Villamarín wants continental football; whether Basel can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Metinho 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Ibrahim Salah 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.
Nobody at Basel 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Basel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Basel 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Basel. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
1‑0 against NK Maribor, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.10 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Basel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Remo Shaqiri 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.
33 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Metinho 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.
Roberto Villamarín 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Benji Siegrist 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 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 13 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
0‑5. Liverpool play this football every year and it showed in every part of the pitch. The lesson is expensive and, for a club at this stage, probably necessary.
Bećir Omeragić 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 dugout30 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 0‑5 defeat, delivered by Silvan Aebischer to a room that had heard them before.
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 Junior Onana.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Benji Siegrist
“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 Basel, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Xherdan Shaqiri 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 Metinho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
In brief
SquadA muscle injury sidelines Ruben Elvedi for 14 days
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pascal Stenzel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
30 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Marked 7.97. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
“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; Basel are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Malamine Efekele 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 most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Basel will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Metinho 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.
Luzern 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Nicolas Vouilloz will call it something else in private.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Pascal Stenzel is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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.
1‑0 against Astra, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Karim Onisiwo was at the centre of the description.
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.
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.
Kevin Rüegg and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces26 Oct 2026
Basel supporters have found a favourite in Metinho
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Metinho 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Xherdan Shaqiri. 1‑0 against Grasshopper, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.32 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Michel Rieder 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 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.
Nobody at Basel 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.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 95th minute. Lugano will replay every second of the added time for a week.
20 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Bećir Omeragić 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Kazeem Olaigbe 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Remo Kobel 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. Edimilson Xhaka is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Metinho at his very best
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Kazeem Olaigbe at his very best
2‑3 away to the standard of NK Maribor. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
Two goals and a mark of 8.84 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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 Basel 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 Pascal Stenzel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Minute 93, against Sion, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Basel pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Philip Otele
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Metinho
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Basel can pretend not to have heard.
Successful dribbles: 24. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Xherdan Shaqiri 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.
12 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout28 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Silvan Aebischer to a room that had heard them before.
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
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 Xherdan Shaqiri is on it.
0‑9. Liverpool play this football every year and it showed in every part of the pitch. The lesson is expensive and, for a club at this stage, probably necessary.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Metinho provided it, and the 8.35 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
The stands have turned
“Enough is enough. We have watched this for months.” 7 of the 27 senior players walked off to it, and the message was not aimed at any one of them.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Julien Duranville did not need any: 7.67, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Xherdan Shaqiri 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 9 goals between Basel and Liverpool, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Junior Onana has just signed for Basel, and for once the answer mattered.
There are goals, and then there are goals against that particular opponent. The Basel support have their bragging rights for a year and they know exactly whose name is on them.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Steven Seferovic 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Kevin Comert 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pascal Stenzel 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.
Successful dribbles: 25. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Basel close the window on a squad of their own making
25 in and 3 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Nicolas Vouilloz 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.
100 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.
Young Boys 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Kevin Rüegg
Two goals and a mark of 8.87 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $3.9M has been paid because Pascal Stenzel is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Successful dribbles: 25. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Basel asked and Luzern said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Metinho 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ibrahim Salah. 2‑0 against St. Gallen, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
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.
Keigo Tsunemoto has gone, the accounts have $5.9M 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.
7.27, 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.
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.
In brief
SquadWords at Basel training over how hard people work
The offer from Grasshopper for Metinho 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Basel people have started saying his name in the past tense.
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.
Basel offered $11.4M; VfB Stuttgart 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 offer from Lugano for Keigo Tsunemoto 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 phone has started ringing about Metinho again, and this time the name on the line is Grasshopper. Basel are listening politely and promising nothing.
Basel asked and Napoli 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 chase for Malamine Efekele ended with $1.1M changing hands and St. Gallen out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Basel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Alphadjo Cissé is living that version at Basel, and it tends to show in the first month.
Basel asked and Napoli said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Successful dribbles: 30. 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 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.
“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 Basel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Karim Onisiwo has just signed for Basel, and for once the answer mattered.
Market3 Aug 2026
Basel may not be able to give Metinho what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Metinho wants continental football; whether Basel can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Metinho 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.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
In brief
Squad7 new faces, and Basel are still learning each other