A 3‑2 win over Rapperswil-Jona, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Žan Celar provided it, and the 8.64 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Basel may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Keyan Varela, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.67
A mark of 7.67 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.
“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.
Jonas Harder and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Dion Kacuri 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 7.00, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The first defeat in 9 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Bellinzona; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Jean-Baptiste Gorby 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. Ibrahim Salah 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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Basel will not use the word title this week and will not stop 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 Basel can pretend not to have heard.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 9 matches without defeat is a foundation Basel did not have in the autumn.
Squad18 Oct 2027
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.
Marked 8.15 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Half the programme played, position 2, 24 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
“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 6 appearances in 18 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Flavius Daniliuc is on 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 fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Basel will be judged on one thing only.
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 Jean-Baptiste Gorby is on 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Young Boys in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ibrahim Salah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
9 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.
Jamie Roche 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 young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Basel who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
6 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.
Score against anybody else and it is a goal. Score against them and it is a story with your name in it for a decade, and Basel supporters have already started telling 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ibrahim Salah is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 13 combined actions and a mark of 6.99, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Match25 Sep 2027
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Basel. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
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.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Damian Kelvin 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 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.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Marked 8.27 — 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.
Position 2, 16 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.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
A brace, and Ibrahim Salah takes the afternoon — 8.35
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ibrahim Salah provided it, and the 8.35 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
“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.
Basel ran out of time with Wil. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ibrahim Salah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Jonas Harder was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Jean-Baptiste Gorby has, at Basel, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lausanne-Sport have kept their man, and Basel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 13 arrived, 13 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Servette moved on, Mirko Salvi reports back to Basel, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Jean-Baptiste Gorby and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Sep 2027
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.
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Basel will try very hard not to make too much of it.
The clubs have shaken hands with Venezia; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The fee is $4.7M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Lausanne-Sport drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Kévin Mouanga is living that version at Basel, and it tends to show in the first month.
The offer went to Wil 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 $1.0M — a club that wants Julius Kade enough to be asked twice.
3 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.
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $4.7M for Kévin Mouanga, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
The terracesBasel supporters have found a favourite in Dion Kacuri
Player ratingsIbrahim Salah was on a different afternoon to everybody else
56Edition
The Basel Courier
23 Aug 2027
From our football correspondentUpbeat
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
$31.8M settles it between the clubs for Mojmír Chytil
Bournemouth have accepted the money. What Basel do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“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.
“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.
Jonas Omlin 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
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.
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.
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.
Corsin Konietzke, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.34
A mark of 8.34 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.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ibrahim Salah 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 Basel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“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.
Add another name to the list: Aarau have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Joshua Mees. The answer from Basel has not changed — yet.
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.
“I watch every Basel game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Pafos runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Basel has been clear about where Jan Sýkora stands, which is more than many ever get.
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 Flavius Daniliuc is on it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Grenoble Foot 38 had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The fee is $1.0M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Grasshopper drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Basel heard it as anything else.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Bujar Pllana is living that version at Basel, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ibrahim Salah 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.
Damian Kelvin 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. 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Basel will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Basel can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Nobody at the club will say out loud who this signing is for, which is how you know exactly who it is for. Antonio Gomis has been brought in to take a shirt somebody is still wearing.
Basel have gone to Grasshopper 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.
Add another name to the list: Blau-Weiß Linz have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Gabriel Sigua. The answer from Basel has not changed — yet.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.1M — a club that wants Bujar Pllana enough to be asked twice.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Antonio Gomis has just signed for Basel, and for once the answer mattered.
Basel and Vizela have settled on $4.8M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Basel will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Metinho was one of the reasons people came, and $16.9M does not replace that by itself.
A new deal for the man in the dugout, and the clearest thing a board can say without calling a press conference about it. Stability is cheap to promise and expensive to deliver.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Xherdan Mvogo 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. Kevin Rieder 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 words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Basel will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Basel offered $1.3M; Yverdon 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.4M — a club that wants Elias Pasche enough to be asked twice.
The enquiry everybody at Basel was hoping would not arrive has arrived. He has never pretended he did not want to go back, and now there is somewhere to go back to.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Basel can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 49 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Basel heard it as anything else.
Basel asked and Yverdon said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
31 games, 7 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Basel now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Something was said to Bećir Omeragić and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Basel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
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.
7 goals in 31 games at Karlsruher SC — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Basel updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Flavius Daniliuc signs something — a contract at Basel or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Kevin Rüegg has written the date down.
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Jordi Quintillà arrives from St. Gallen with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Basel has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
In brief
The dugoutNoah Akanji knocks on the manager’s door
The words a physio says slowly. 44 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.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Philip Otele was one of the reasons people came, and $17.9M does not replace that by itself.
Basel offered $2.7M; Lausanne-Sport 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.
A season average of 7.18 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Basel know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Julien Duranville 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 Basel 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 Julien Duranville is on it.
51 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Basel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
$2.7M on the table at Lausanne-Sport. 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.9M — a club that wants Theo Bergvall enough to be asked twice.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Lausanne-Sport will make the call about Philip Otele this week. Basel have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
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 words a physio says slowly. 59 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.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
$2.6M settles it between the clubs for Damian Kelvin
Lugano have accepted the money. What Basel do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Basel have gone to Étoile Carouge 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.9M — a club that wants Théo Bouchlarhem enough to be asked twice.
“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.
Andrej Bačanin 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.
66 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Basel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
Not a month, not a run of form — a whole season of being the best 21-year-old anybody in this division could put on a pitch. This is the honour that gets mentioned for the rest of his career.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Basel will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Basel had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
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 Flavius Daniliuc is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Flavius Daniliuc signs something — a contract at Basel or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
74 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Basel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Basel will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Beat anybody else and it is three points. Beat them, with his name on it, and it is a year of bragging rights for Basel and a story that will outlast his contract.
3 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.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.18, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Giacomo Koloto is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
At 21 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.
82 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Basel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 37 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Basel have no good answer.
The words a physio says slowly. 91 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 Basel will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Julien Duranville is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is 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. Basel know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutJonas Harder asks for a word with the manager
The words a physio says slowly. 99 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 55 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Julien Duranville 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.
Mirko Salvi 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 never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bećir Omeragić signs something — a contract at Basel or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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.
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Basel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 62 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.18, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
11 goals in 28 games at Austria Lustenau — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Basel updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“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 2 appearances in 14 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.
7 goals in 30 games at Karlsruher SC — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Basel updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Basel will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Position 2, 42 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ibrahim Salah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Basel game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Yverdon runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ibrahim Salah trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Basel know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Basel have no good answer.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Basel will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Bećir Omeragić and Basel agree another 5 years.
Squad12 Apr 2027
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.
Keigo Tsunemoto 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.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 88 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Basel can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
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 Kevin Rüegg has written the date down.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Joshua Mees trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Basel will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
A season average of 7.18 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Basel know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ibrahim Salah 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 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.
7 goals in 27 games at Karlsruher SC — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Basel updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Keigo Tsunemoto trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Basel know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Kazeem Olaigbe has written the date down.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Basel will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ibrahim Salah 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 9 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Philip Otele is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Keigo Tsunemoto trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Beyatt Lekoueiry obliged against Luzern. 2‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Basel.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Basel have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Beyatt Lekoueiry did not need any: 7.88, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.80 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Beyatt Lekoueiry and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Beyatt Lekoueiry 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Basel can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.05, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Basel can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad8 Mar 2027
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.
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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Basel have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A season average of 7.18 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Basel know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ibrahim Salah 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 Basel 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 Beyatt Lekoueiry is on it.
“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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Basel know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
6 goals in 23 games at Karlsruher SC — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Basel updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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 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. Ibrahim Salah is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Basel, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Philip Otele is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ibrahim Salah signs something — a contract at Basel or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
Basel opened the door and nobody walked through it. So Metinho stays — listed, trained, and available — while both sides mark the days to January on the same calendar.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“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.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. St. Gallen moved on, Philip Otele reports back to Basel, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.05, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ibrahim Salah 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.
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 Julien Duranville is on 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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Basel has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
“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.
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.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Basel have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 2 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.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.18, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
“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.
11 goals in 23 games at Austria Lustenau — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Basel updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Something was said to Julien Duranville and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“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.
Position 2, 42 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.
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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
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.
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.
10 goals in 19 games at Akritas Chlorakas — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Basel updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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. Basel know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The offer from Sheffield Wednesday for Philip Otele 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 shaken hands with Servette; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
$2.0M was the most the club would pay and Aarau 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.
Keigo Tsunemoto 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.
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.
A 3‑0 win over Rapperswil-Jona, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
$41.8M was the most the club would pay and Dinamo Moscow 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 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.47 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 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Asane Sow did not need any: 7.80, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $49.8M — a club that wants Bitello enough to be asked twice.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.05, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
The offer went to Dinamo Moscow this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
“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.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Basel will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.18, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
$930.0K on the table at St. Gallen. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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.
Position 2, 42 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.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Beyatt Lekoueiry, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.77
A mark of 7.77 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Julien Duranville was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Young Boys on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Basel have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Beyatt Lekoueiry, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.77
A mark of 7.77 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
10 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Beyatt Lekoueiry. 1‑0 against St. Gallen, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Renato Vargas could afford to be generous.
Player ratingsThe one thing Ibrahim Salah could not do
20Edition
The Basel Courier
14 Dec 2026
From our football correspondentUpbeat
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Beyatt Lekoueiry, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.24
A mark of 8.24 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
A season average of 7.00 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Basel know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
At 21 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 Julien Duranville was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Keigo Tsunemoto will call it something else in private.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Renato Vargas kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
The dugoutPhilip Otele has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutKevin Rüegg dropped after a run of poor form
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.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Beyatt Lekoueiry did not need any: 7.64, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
A season average of 7.17 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Basel know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ibrahim Salah. 2‑0 against Servette, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Julien Duranville was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Position 2, 30 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 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.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Renato Vargas after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Julien Duranville did not need any: 8.61, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Julien Duranville was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
In brief
The dugoutŽan Celar has become a man the manager trusts
Keigo Tsunemoto 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 Beyatt Lekoueiry was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Metinho signs something — a contract at Basel or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Lugano in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Basel have no good answer.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.07, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Renato Vargas could afford to be generous.
Position 2, 23 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.40 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Julien Duranville 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Beyatt Lekoueiry was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Sion 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.
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. Beyatt Lekoueiry 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.
Zurich 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.
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout26 Oct 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.” Renato Vargas chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
14 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
21 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.
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.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Renato Vargas could afford to be generous.
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.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
At 20 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Beyatt Lekoueiry was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
11 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.
“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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Basel know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
4 goals in 9 games at Austria Lustenau — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Basel updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
3 goals in 5 games at Akritas Chlorakas — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Basel updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 8 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Beyatt Lekoueiry 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; Basel are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Basel have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“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.
Keigo Tsunemoto 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 goal that put Luzern ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Basel equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Young Boys on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Renato Vargas after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Kevin Rüegg
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.
17 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.
1 for Sekou Fofana, marked 7.37, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Beyatt Lekoueiry was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Metinho was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.29. 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.
“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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Beyatt Lekoueiry 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Metinho at his very best
“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 Ascoli waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Basel is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Kaio Eduardo had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The offer from Prostějov for Jan Sýkora 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 20 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.
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.
At 20 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Basel will try very hard not to make too much of it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Basel, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
A mark of 8.11 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The fee is $2.9M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Lausanne-Sport drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The chase for Marquinhos Cipriano ended with $2.6M changing hands and Sion out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
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.
Sion have accepted the money. What Basel do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Sassuolo had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
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 offer from Luzern for Ibrahim Salah 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 deal with Lausanne-Sport 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.
“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.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Julien Duranville did not need any: 7.64, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.7M — a club that wants Marquinhos Cipriano enough to be asked twice.
“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.
The offer went to Lausanne-Sport 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 $3.0M — a club that wants Beyatt Lekoueiry enough to be asked twice.
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.
The terraces17 Aug 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.
Philip Otele had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Sion were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Julien Duranville did not need any: 8.20, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Basel have gone to Grasshopper with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The offer from Sassuolo for Žan Celar 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.
Red Bull Salzburg wanted more than $2.8M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $3.0M — a club that wants Nikolas Muci enough to be asked twice.
The phone has started ringing about Giacomo Koloto again, and this time the name on the line is Akritas Chlorakas. Basel are listening politely and promising nothing.
Derby days make names, and Philip Otele made his against Zurich. 1‑0, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Coventry City have kept their man, and Basel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Basel have gone to Red Bull Salzburg 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Joshua Mees is living that version at Basel, and it tends to show in the first month.
Score against anybody else and it is a goal. Score against them and it is a story with your name in it for a decade, and Basel supporters have already started telling it.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Basel heard it as anything else.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Basel can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.