Fee agreed, wages agreed, and FC Annecy waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Thun is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
The offer went to Young Boys 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.
Thun offered $29.0K; Zurich 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.
William Mikelbrencis 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.
Squad18 Aug 2036
Amine Mahroug 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 first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against St. Gallen; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Andrej Bačanin
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Matvii Ponomarenko had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Thun they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Thun have done the hard part with Borussia Dortmund, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
$29.0K on the table at Zurich. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ralf Lorenz has, at Thun, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
“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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.62 for the rest of it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Thun they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
$900.00 on the table at Young Boys. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad4 Aug 2036
Amine Mahroug 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.
Thun asked and Bayer Leverkusen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Yverdon had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.91 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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.
Thun had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Eintracht Frankfurt, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amine Mahroug 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bayer Leverkusen have kept their man, and Thun go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Thun have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Thun will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.34 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“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 Thun, and it is not being withdrawn.
Miguel Figueiredo 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 morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Thun will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Thun is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Lars Villiger and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Jul 2036
Amine Mahroug 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.
“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.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Thun will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Thun is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Thun have done the hard part with Racing Genk, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
The offer went to Young Boys 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Daeley Naber has just signed for Thun, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad7 Jul 2036
Amine Mahroug 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Thun they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Lugano is saying, and nobody at Thun is enjoying the guessing.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Mamadou Balde has agreed terms with Aarau for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Tim Hoffmann 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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lionel Voufack was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Thun asked and Borussia Dortmund said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Thun, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Thun have paid $360.0K for William Mikelbrencis, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Thiago Juritsch wants continental football; whether Thun can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Giorgio Congdon has, at Thun, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amine Mahroug 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 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.
The clubs have shaken hands with Basel; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The offer from Shirak for Nicholas Kaloukian 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Miguel Figueiredo wants continental football; whether Thun can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $407.6K — a club that wants William Mikelbrencis enough to be asked twice.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Zurich keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Erik Cuero has agreed terms with Aarau for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Thun have gone to Young Boys 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 $407.2K — a club that wants Wesley Adeh enough to be asked twice.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Basel is saying, and nobody at Thun is enjoying the guessing.
$360.0K on the table at Grasshopper. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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 Lionel Voufack was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Young Boys have kept their man, and Thun go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Nicholas Kaloukian has come up in conversations Thun were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Thun is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The name of Matvii Ponomarenko has come up in conversations Thun were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Thun heard it as anything else.
The offer went to Sion 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.
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. Amine Mahroug 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Christian Frangella has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Thun have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Borussia Dortmund have kept their man, and Thun go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Sven Lesjak
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Thun is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Lars Villiger 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Thun can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad26 May 2036
Amine Mahroug 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Miguel Galinho has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Thun have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
“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 Thun, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Thun is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Tim Hoffmann 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.
“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; Thun are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matvii Ponomarenko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
“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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Thun is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Miguel Figueiredo 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.
Squad12 May 2036
Amine Mahroug 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.
“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.
Nobody at Thun 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 Tim Hoffmann trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Jeremy van der Berg has written the date down.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Thun can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
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 May 2036
Amine Mahroug 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 keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Thun, another week without a signature from Tim Hoffmann.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Noah Streit's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
44 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jeremy van der Berg will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Thun the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Thun can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Jacen Russell-Rowe 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Thun, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Thun 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 words a physio says slowly. 51 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.
“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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Thun is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Thun can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amine Mahroug 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 Thun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mathias Klausen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
58 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.
“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 Thun, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Thun can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Soufian Sayeb will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Thun the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amine Mahroug was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8 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.
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 Jahnoah Markelo is on it.
The words a physio says slowly. 65 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Thun they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Thun, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Thun is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matvii Ponomarenko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Ulises Delgado is on it.
72 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.
“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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jeremy van der Berg will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Thun the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Tim Hoffmann 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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amine Mahroug was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matvii Ponomarenko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
79 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.
“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.
“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; Thun are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad24 Mar 2036
Amine Mahroug 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Thun, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 86 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Thun they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lionel Voufack 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 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.
Nobody at Thun 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.
In brief
The dugoutTim Hoffmann knocks on the manager's door
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Mamadou Koné
The words a physio says slowly. 93 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.
“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.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Tim Hoffmann has agreed terms with Zurich for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Thun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Mar 2036
Amine Mahroug 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 keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Thun, another week without a signature from Tim Hoffmann.
“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.
100 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.
“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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Thun heard it as anything else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jeremy van der Berg will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Thun the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amine Mahroug was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Thun, another week without a signature from Amine Mahroug.
107 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Thun lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Thun they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Lars Villiger 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. Lionel Voufack 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Thun, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Thun would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
114 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.
“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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Thun they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Dai Baldé has agreed terms with Lugano for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Thiago Juritsch wants continental football; whether Thun can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amine Mahroug 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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Thun is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
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.
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.
Thun asked and Bayer Leverkusen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
14 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.
In brief
Boardroom88% of the income goes out in wages at Thun
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.
“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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 12 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Thun they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The deal with Servette 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.
“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; Thun are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
“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 Thun, and it is not being withdrawn.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Thun will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
Tim Hoffmann 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.
Squad28 Jan 2036
Mario García 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.
“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.
Thun asked and Eintracht Frankfurt said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Thun have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Thun they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Thun will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Mario García has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mario García 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.
“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; Thun are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Thun asked and Bayer Leverkusen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Thun, and it is not being withdrawn.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Thun will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Matvii Ponomarenko wants continental football; whether Thun can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Bayer Leverkusen keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Rafael Montero has just signed for Thun, and for once the answer mattered.
Sven Lesjak 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Thun will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
The deal with Bayer Leverkusen 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mario García 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.
0‑3 to Zurich, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 69 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jeremy van der Berg will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Thun the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad31 Dec 2035
Mario García 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.
Abdallah Sima and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
The dugoutThe team sheet said everything about Mattéo Anselme
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Thun will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Thun they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody at Thun 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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Thun will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Thun have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Thun hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Thun can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mario García 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 first defeat in 5 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Wil; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Thun will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Tim Hoffmann was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Mamadou Balde is living that version at Thun, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mario García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Thun will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Ulises Delgado scored in the 87th minute, Lugano had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Thun took the lot.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Thun have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
4 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Thun hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Thun is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Tim Hoffmann 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Thun will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Thun they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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.
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.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Mika Khadr has agreed terms with Wil for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Mario Fassnacht is living that version at Thun, and it tends to show in the first month.
“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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Thun will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lionel Voufack 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 club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried 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 Thun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Nov 2035
9 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Thun will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings12 Nov 2035
A brace, and Vadim Kiselev takes the afternoon — 8.49
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vadim Kiselev provided it, and the 8.49 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.94 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
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.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Vadim Kiselev in the middle of it, and Grasshopper unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Abdallah Sima 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Thun 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 Thun can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Thun they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Tim Hoffmann 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.
Lugano will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Tiago Pereira Cardoso has pre-agreed a move to Thun, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
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. 19 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.
Position 11 and 10 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 132 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.03 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Thun they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Stenn de Mol has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Thun have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
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.
26 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.
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.
4 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Thun can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lionel Voufack 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 club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Thun has been clear about where Kyle Fitzgerald stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Mattéo Anselme
Squad10 new faces, and Thun are still learning each other
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Thun lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Tim Hoffmann 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 had been thinking. Lionel Voufack 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 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.
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 Jahnoah Markelo is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Basel in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
40 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Michel Vargas has, at Thun, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lionel Voufack 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.
3 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.
Position 10 and 10 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
330 appearances across 13 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
“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 Thun, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sigurd Prestmo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Thun the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lionel Voufack was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Thun, another week without a signature from Mario García.
0‑3 to Lausanne-Sport, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lúkas Petersson will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Thun the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Lúkas Petersson has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lionel Voufack was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
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.
1 for Lionel Voufack, marked 7.95, 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.
Tim Hoffmann 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Erik Cuero has just signed for Thun, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuele Pirola 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Lionel Voufack. 1‑0 against Wil, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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.
22 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.
“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 Thun, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Thun is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Young Boys is saying, and nobody at Thun is enjoying the guessing.
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.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Demir Xhemalija has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Thun have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Thun asked and Rapid Wien said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucien Dähler was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Thun and Young Boys have settled on $39.0K. 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.
“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 Thun, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom3 Sep 2035
Deadline passes with 25 signed and 29 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.
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 Lionel Voufack was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Largie Ramazani. 1‑0 against Winterthur, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Thun they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lionel Voufack was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Thun asked and Racing Genk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Add another name to the list: Wil have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Elio Trochen. The answer from Thun has not changed — yet.
The words a physio says slowly. 43 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jerayson Hoepel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Thun the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Thun, and it is not being withdrawn.
$36.0K on the table at Young Boys. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Thun asked and Servette said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Harvey White was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 50 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 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Largie Ramazani decided nobody was going anywhere. Grasshopper had no time left to answer.
The clubs have shaken hands with Sion; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.87 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Thun they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
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.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Young Boys have kept their man, and Thun go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
57 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Thun lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Thun will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The instruction came from the boardroom and the dugout did not agree with it. Somebody will go, the fee will be called good business, and the manager will spend the season rebuilding around the space.
The deal with Zurich 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.
4 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.
$36.0K on the table at Young Boys. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
0‑3 to Young Boys, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Thun will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Grasshopper waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Thun is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Thun they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Thun have done the hard part with Basel, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Samuele Pirola 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 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.
Add another name to the list: Wil have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Elio Trochen. The answer from Thun has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucien Dähler 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 30 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Thun is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Thun have done the hard part with Zurich, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Jerayson Hoepel has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Thun hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Thun will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Thun they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at 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 Jerayson Hoepel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 44 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Mario García was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Matvii Ponomarenko wants continental football; whether Thun can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Lugano will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Philip Holseter-Karlsen has pre-agreed a move to Thun, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad9 Jul 2035
Lucien Dähler 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 happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 34 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Thun will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Thun they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Thun can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Thun, another week without a signature from Samuele Pirola.
The dugout2 Jul 2035
Diogo Spencer is still being punished for one mistake
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Thun will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Thun is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Zurich keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Jeremy van der Berg has, at Thun, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried 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 Thun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Thun will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Thun is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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. Lionel Voufack is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Thun will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Thun have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Thun hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The deal with Zurich 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.
Mario García 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 Lionel Voufack was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Mathematically certain, and nobody in this town is going to bed early. Whatever else happened this season, it finishes a division above where it started.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Thun will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Thun they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Tomás Márquez has agreed terms with Lausanne-Sport for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bayer Leverkusen have kept their man, and Thun go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jerayson Hoepel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Lucien Dähler is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Thun will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Thun had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Soufian Sayeb has just signed for Thun, and for once the answer mattered.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Thun, another week without a signature from Samuele Pirola.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Thun will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
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.
Squad21 May 2035
Lucien Dähler 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 keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Thun, another week without a signature from Pierre Dwomoh.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Thun will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Thun hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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. Jerayson Hoepel 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 Thun 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Thun will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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.
“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.
Jerayson Hoepel 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Dai Baldé has just signed for Thun, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad7 May 2035
Lucien Dähler 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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout7 May 2035
Diogo Spencer is still being punished for one mistake
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Thun will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lionel Voufack was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Mamadou Koné 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Thun will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Thun, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Thun has been clear about where Elio Trochen stands, which is more than many ever get.
Nobody at Thun 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 Jerayson Hoepel has written the date down.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Samuele Pirola’s negotiating for him
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Thun will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Jerayson Hoepel 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 34, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lionel Voufack 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.
6 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Thun could ask drops and the wages Lúkas Petersson can ask rise.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Thun 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Lionel Voufack 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; Thun are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuele Pirola 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 club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Largie Ramazani has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kyle Fitzgerald trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Thun will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Thun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lionel Voufack 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Samuele Pirola trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Thun 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 call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Thun would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
39 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lionel Voufack 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 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.
Kian Spence 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.
5 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Largie Ramazani trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Jahnoah Markelo is on it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Gonzalo Rubert
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuele Pirola 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 the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Tomás Márquez wants continental football; whether Thun can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout12 Mar 2035
The manager has not finished forgetting Diogo Spencer's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Thun has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
382 appearances across 10 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lionel Voufack was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Fabio Fehr is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Lionel Voufack was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Thun, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Thun could ask drops and the wages Samuele Pirola can ask rise.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Thun has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Thun that is a harder question to answer.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Thun. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Thun have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samuele Pirola 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 Thun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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; Thun are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
5 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.
“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 Thun, and it is not being withdrawn.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Mika Khadr has, at Thun, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lionel Voufack was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout12 Feb 2035
The manager has not finished forgetting Diogo Spencer's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 3 arrived, 7 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Thun hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Zurich is saying, and nobody at Thun is enjoying the guessing.
Fabio Fehr 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. Lionel Voufack 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 club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Largie Ramazani trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Raul Mariţa is on 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 Thun have no good answer.
“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.
Jerayson Hoepel 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Thun, another week without a signature from Samuele Pirola.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Thun can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
5 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.
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 Jahnoah Markelo is on it.
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lionel Voufack was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Thun, another week without a signature from Anthony Patterson.
The dugout15 Jan 2035
The manager has not finished forgetting Diogo Spencer's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The offer from Andranik for Nicholas Kaloukian 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 terraces8 Jan 2035
A cup hiding at Zurich leaves Thun explaining themselves
0-4, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
“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.
11 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.
The deal with Zurich 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.
Jerayson Hoepel 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.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Thun had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Thun heard it as anything else.
Jerayson Hoepel 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 Samuele Pirola was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Jahnoah Markelo has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
39 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.
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.
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.
8 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 Thun, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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
MarketThe clock does Fabio Fehr’s negotiating for him
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samuele Pirola was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nicholas Kaloukian and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Thun are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Nobody at Thun will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Thun, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Stade Lausanne-Ouchy will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Thun were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Thun is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.98 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“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 Thun, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Thun have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Jerayson Hoepel 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.72 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.05 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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 Lionel Voufack was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The first defeat in 6 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Rapperswil-Jona; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 94. Rapperswil-Jona had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.20 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
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.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Thun pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lionel Voufack 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.
Squad20 Nov 2034
16 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Thun can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Thun, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Pau Sans scored in the 85th minute, Servette had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Thun took the lot.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Thun they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
5 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.
7.99, 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.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 33 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Thun is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lionel Voufack was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A 2‑0 win over Lugano, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings6 Nov 2034
A brace, and Jorge De Asis takes the afternoon — 8.67
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jorge De Asis provided it, and the 8.67 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
4 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.
“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.
Jerayson Hoepel 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.
90 minutes played. Matvii Ponomarenko found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Stade Nyonnais went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Thun have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Pierre Dwomoh 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 had been thinking. Lionel Voufack is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A 1‑0 win over Stade Nyonnais, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Thun have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fabio Fehr 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 34, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lionel Voufack was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Thun is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Enrique Aguilar has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Jerayson Hoepel 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. Samuele Pirola 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 club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
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.
Jerayson Hoepel 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 had been thinking. Lionel Voufack 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.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
13 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 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 Thun heard it as anything else.
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. Lionel Voufack 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.
Yverdon held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Thun answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Thun know which stage they are at.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Thun will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Nicholas Kaloukian 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Samuele Pirola has, at Thun, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Position 3, 18 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.