Brighton Labeau 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 Fabio Fehr was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Philipp Aebischer is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Thun will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
In brief
The dugoutMatteo Soncin knocks on the manager’s door
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Thun can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Thun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Paublo Jara has just signed for Thun, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Fabio Fehr 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 Thun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Genís Montolio 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Furkan Dursun signs something — a contract at Thun or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
Mattias Käit 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 Fabio Fehr was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Zakaria Bengueddoudj is on 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 words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Brighton Labeau provided it, and the 9.05 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
9 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Luzern were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Mattias Käit 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. Fabio Fehr 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.
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Thun lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
9 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Thun can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabio Fehr is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Renato Fassnacht is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Thun lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
7 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Thun can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fabio Fehr was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Thun know it.
Matteo Soncin 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.
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Thun can tell you which week it ends in.
Brighton Labeau 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Fabio Fehr falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Granit Widmer after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
The dugoutMergim Qarri dropped after a run of poor form
The dugoutFelix Platte asks for a word with the manager
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Fabio Fehr 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Riccardo Braschi is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Genís Montolio is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad19 Oct 2026
14 new faces, and Thun are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Fabio Fehr falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Granit Ndoye 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Silvan Ndoye 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.
Successful dribbles: 31. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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 Thun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Fabio Fehr falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“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 Thun, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Mattias Käit 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 6 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Mattias Käit 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.
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 dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Granit Widmer left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Mateo Matic
3 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Luzern the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Thun will enjoy reviewing.
Two goals and a mark of 9.27 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fabio Fehr was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Thun asked and Flamengo 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Kevin Freuler 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Simon Rieder 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.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Thun can pretend not to have heard.
Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 23 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Thun 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.
Thun had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Rodina, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The deal that would have taken Ashvin Balaruban to Basel has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Thun with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Brighton Labeau will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Thun escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
The offer from Basel for Justin Roth 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.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
7.41, 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.
Thun had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Udinese, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Brighton Labeau 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.
Thun offered $290.0K; 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 a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Zakaria Bengueddoudj provided it, and the 8.56 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Thun people have started saying his name in the past tense.
1 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Thun offered $3.3M; 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.
Thun 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.
Thun 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Genís Montolio 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: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Granit Widmer was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Thun dressing room was either.
The offer from Basel for Fabio Fehr 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 offer went to Basel 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.
Mattias Käit 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.
Add another name to the list: St. Gallen have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ashvin Balaruban. The answer from Thun has not changed — yet.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Djibril Widmer 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.
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Thun 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 Fabio Fehr was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Thun asked and Wrexham said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Still no offer on the table, and Mattias Käit’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
8 new faces, and Thun are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Nick Oyekunle is in the works