Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Heidenheim is running low.
“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 The request is on a desk at Heidenheim, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Heidenheim 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 Heidenheim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Words at Heidenheim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robert Andrich 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 afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 15 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The terraces22 Jan 2029
The mood at Heidenheim has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Heidenheim can pretend not to have heard.
Everything was agreed with RB Leipzig and then the doctor spoke. Heidenheim have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
The deal with FC Augsburg 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.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Heidenheim is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Florian Micheler and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
In brief
SquadWords at Heidenheim training over how hard people work
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Heidenheim have done the hard part with RB Leipzig, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Patrick Mainka and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Robert Andrich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Heidenheim had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Bayern Munich, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Budu Zivzivadze 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Boardroom1 Jan 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Heidenheim
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
0‑5 against Bayer Leverkusen, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Heidenheim can pretend not to have heard.
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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Heidenheim has been clear about where Robert Andrich stands, which is more than many ever get.
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Heidenheim lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
0‑6 to Borussia Dortmund, 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.
“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 Heidenheim, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Leart Paçarada will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Heidenheim the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Budu Zivzivadze and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match23 Dec 2028
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Heidenheim and Borussia Dortmund in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
30 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Heidenheim 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 Heidenheim 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.” Heidenheim have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Florian Micheler and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Words at Heidenheim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robert Andrich 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 not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Heidenheim can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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.
11 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Köln were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Heidenheim can pretend not to have heard.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Heidenheim have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
1 for Florian Micheler, marked 7.41, 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Heidenheim is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Jan Schöppner 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Heidenheim can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 Heidenheim, 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.” Heidenheim have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Florian Micheler 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.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Words at Heidenheim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robert Andrich 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 bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Heidenheim can pretend not to have heard.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Heidenheim have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Heidenheim is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“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 Heidenheim, and it is not being withdrawn.
Budu Zivzivadze and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Robert Andrich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom20 Nov 2028
Nobody left the Heidenheim dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“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 Heidenheim, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Heidenheim is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Patrick Mainka 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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words at Heidenheim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robert Andrich 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 here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
Position 18 and 2 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.
“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 Heidenheim, and it is not being withdrawn.
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
“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 Heidenheim 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 Heidenheim 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 Robert Andrich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Heidenheim have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Heidenheim is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Florian Micheler and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
In brief
SquadWords at Heidenheim training over how hard people work
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Heidenheim 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 Heidenheim can pretend not to have heard.
Budu Zivzivadze 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Heidenheim can tell you which week it ends in.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 12 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“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 Heidenheim, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Leopold Zingerle will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Heidenheim the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heidenheim 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 Robert Andrich 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; Heidenheim are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Heidenheim lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heidenheim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Robert Andrich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
The words a physio says slowly. 24 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
A 4‑3 win over Borussia Mönchengladbach, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 122th minute. Borussia Mönchengladbach will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Two goals and a mark of 9.10 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Heidenheim, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings2 Oct 2028
Maximilian Braun could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.64
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.64, 0 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Heidenheim lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
1 for Jan Schöppner, marked 7.80, 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.
Patrick Mainka 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words at Heidenheim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robert Andrich 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.
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Heidenheim lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
1‑4 against VfL Wolfsburg, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“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 Heidenheim, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Leopold Zingerle will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Heidenheim the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Budu Zivzivadze 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.
47 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Heidenheim lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Florian Micheler and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Robert Andrich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.29, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
Sirlord Conteh was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.03. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
13 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The terraces4 Sep 2028
The mood at Heidenheim has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Heidenheim can pretend not to have heard.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.83 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Heidenheim close the window on a squad of their own making
20 in and 13 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Heidenheim they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
0‑4 to Borussia Dortmund, 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.
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.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Patrick Mainka 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 Robert Andrich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom28 Aug 2028
4 academy players handed senior numbers at Heidenheim
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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Ricardo Santos has improved at 33, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Leon Schulze has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ángel Tecpanécatl will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Heidenheim the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Patrick Mainka 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.
$230.0K was the most the club would pay and VfL Wolfsburg were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The 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 Heidenheim know it.
Position 17 and 22 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Heidenheim people have started saying his name in the past tense.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heidenheim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 17 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
At 30 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Omiya Ardija will make the call about Ryota Onoda this week. Heidenheim have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Still no offer on the table, and Leart Paçarada’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Heidenheim. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The mood at Heidenheim has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Heidenheim lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Heidenheim is running low.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Heidenheim heard it as anything else.
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.
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Heidenheim lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Patrick Mainka 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.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Leopold Zingerle trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Heidenheim lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Heidenheim have gone to Hamburger SV 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.
Eintracht Frankfurt wanted more than $9.2M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Ryota Onoda had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Heidenheim they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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 phone has started ringing about Mikkel Kaufmann again, and this time the name on the line is Hamburger SV. Heidenheim are listening politely and promising nothing.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Sirlord Conteh
Heidenheim interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Interim Coach keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
Heidenheim have gone to Eintracht Frankfurt 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.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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 phone has started ringing about Ryota Onoda again, and this time the name on the line is Giresunspor. Heidenheim are listening politely and promising nothing.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Heidenheim have done the hard part with Hamburger SV, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Day 39 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Florian Micheler was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jayden Tammes is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Heidenheim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robert Andrich 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.
Everything agreed with Eintracht Frankfurt, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
“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.
Patrick Mainka 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.
The phone has started ringing about Nico Mantl again, and this time the name on the line is Köln. Heidenheim are listening politely and promising nothing.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Heidenheim, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 20 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 Heidenheim they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Ángel Tecpanécatl 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.
Patrick Mainka 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.
VfL Wolfsburg wanted more than $110.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Heidenheim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robert Andrich 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. Tim Siersleben wants continental football; whether Heidenheim can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Heidenheim are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Heidenheim lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Heidenheim and Hamburger SV have settled on $23.2M. 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.
Everything agreed with Eintracht Frankfurt, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ricardo Santos has, at Heidenheim, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Budu Zivzivadze and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at Heidenheim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robert Andrich 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.
Heidenheim asked and Pachuca said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Dominik Ludwig is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Heidenheim lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
$1.7M on the table at Eintracht Frankfurt. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$720.0K was the most the club would pay and VfL Wolfsburg were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heidenheim 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.
11 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Heidenheim asked and Köln said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
The clubs have shaken hands with Eintracht Frankfurt; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
The offer went to Eintracht Frankfurt 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Zain Silcott-Duberry has, at Heidenheim, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Ignacio Pereira wants continental football; whether Heidenheim can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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 upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Heidenheim is running low.
Budu Zivzivadze and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Robert Andrich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Heidenheim, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Position 17 and 22 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Heidenheim have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heidenheim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Heidenheim can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Heidenheim lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Heidenheim 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 Heidenheim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Heidenheim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robert Andrich 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; Heidenheim are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Heidenheim lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Patrick Mainka 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.
“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.
Patrick Mainka 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.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Heidenheim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robert Andrich 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.
Patrick Mainka and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Heidenheim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robert Andrich 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 not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Heidenheim can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Heidenheim can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
The mood at Heidenheim has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
11 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 22 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.80 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Robert Andrich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Lars Ritzka 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.
Budu Zivzivadze 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.
“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; Heidenheim are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jan Winter after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Patrick Mainka
9 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I 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 Heidenheim 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 Heidenheim can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Heidenheim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robert Andrich 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 Heidenheim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Tim Siersleben
The dugoutRobert Andrich loses the manager who believed in him
The dugoutSirlord Conteh dropped after a run of poor form
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
1 for Jan Schöppner, marked 7.89, 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.
Patrick Mainka and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Heidenheim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robert Andrich 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.
“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 dugout27 Mar 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Jan Winter left the room before anybody could ask which.
The mood at Heidenheim has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Heidenheim interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Jan Winter keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Heidenheim 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 Heidenheim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Heidenheim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robert Andrich 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.85 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Day 41 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Budu Zivzivadze 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 Robert Andrich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Patrick Mainka 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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Heidenheim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robert Andrich 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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
5 new faces, and Heidenheim 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Heidenheim are no longer polite ones.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Heidenheim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robert Andrich 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 Heidenheim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The mood at Heidenheim has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heidenheim 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 Robert Andrich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Tim Siersleben wants continental football; whether Heidenheim can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Heidenheim can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
The offer from Dibba for Ryota Onoda 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Robert Andrich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Day 13 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 5 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at Heidenheim 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Heidenheim heard it as anything else.
Patrick Mainka 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 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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Heidenheim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robert Andrich 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 Heidenheim can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Robert Andrich 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: Jan Schöppner. 1‑0 against St. Pauli, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The mood at Heidenheim has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Heidenheim can pretend not to have heard.
The deal with RB Leipzig is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marvin Pieringer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Heidenheim asked and Köln said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$65.3M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
9 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
The terraces17 Jan 2028
Supporters turn on the $65.3M sale of Tim Lemperle
He is going to VfL Wolfsburg, the club has $65.3M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Patrick Mainka 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.
8 goals in one match, Marvin Pieringer on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Heidenheim and VfL Wolfsburg.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heidenheim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A season average of 7.24 with 16 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Heidenheim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robert Andrich 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. Leeds United have kept their man, and Heidenheim go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Heidenheim can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Two goals and a mark of 8.92 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Heidenheim 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Budu Zivzivadze 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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at Heidenheim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tim Lemperle 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Nobody at Heidenheim is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Tim Lemperle and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Robert Andrich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Tim Siersleben wants continental football; whether Heidenheim can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Position 16, 14 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Robert Andrich trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heidenheim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Heidenheim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tim Lemperle 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.
Marked 8.10 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 6 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Budu Zivzivadze 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Heidenheim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tim Lemperle 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; Heidenheim are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
In brief
The dugoutLuca Philipp is still being punished for one mistake
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Heidenheim will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marvin Pieringer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑5 defeat, delivered by Marcel Fischer to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Robert Andrich and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Tim Lemperle 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 most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Heidenheim will quote 17 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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 7.75 for the rest of it.
Budu Zivzivadze and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Tim Lemperle 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Minute 95, against FC Augsburg, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
“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 Heidenheim know it.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
1‑5 against TSG Hoffenheim, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heidenheim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Heidenheim and TSG Hoffenheim, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Heidenheim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marvin Pieringer 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 will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
The mood at Heidenheim has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“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 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 manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Marcel Fischer to a room that had heard them before.
A brace, and Tim Lemperle takes the afternoon — 9.49
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tim Lemperle provided it, and the 9.49 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heidenheim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Tim Lemperle 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.
A 3‑1 win over Borussia Mönchengladbach, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Heidenheim can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Robert Andrich trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Heidenheim have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Tim Lemperle 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 Oct 2027
Words at Heidenheim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marvin Pieringer 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.
“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 dugout18 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Marcel Fischer to a room that had heard them before.
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Heidenheim know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutAdrian Beck asks for a word with the manager
Robert Andrich 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Heidenheim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tim Lemperle 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Heidenheim can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Marcel Fischer after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. Heidenheim deserved better, and so did he.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.11 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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 Heidenheim hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tim Lemperle was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Adrian Beck 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.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. David Schopper is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marvin Pieringer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
1‑9 against VfL Wolfsburg, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heidenheim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Mathias Honsak has improved at 30, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 10 goals between Heidenheim and VfL Wolfsburg, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Mathias Honsak'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.
Budu Zivzivadze and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tim Lemperle was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The mood at Heidenheim has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
There were 88 minutes on the clock and Bayer Leverkusen had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Heidenheim did not stop to explain themselves.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.82, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Heidenheim close the window on a squad of their own making
19 in and 2 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Heidenheim can pretend not to have heard.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Heidenheim can pretend not to have heard.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
5 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Heidenheim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tim Lemperle 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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
At 31 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Kimberly Ezekwem has just signed for Heidenheim, and for once the answer mattered.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Mathias Honsak has improved at 30, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Tim Siersleben wants continental football; whether Heidenheim can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
A new manager did not pick last season’s side and does not care what it looked like. Tim Lemperle has taken that personally, in the best sense, and Heidenheim are seeing a version of him the last regime had stopped seeing.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Julian Niehues trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Heidenheim interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Marcel Fischer keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
Position 18 and 21 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heidenheim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Heidenheim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marvin Pieringer 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Julian Niehues has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
A new manager did not pick last season’s side and does not care what it looked like. Tim Lemperle has taken that personally, in the best sense, and Heidenheim are seeing a version of him the last regime had stopped seeing.
The dugoutNicolás Brun knocks on the manager’s door
54Edition
The Heidenheim Chronicle
9 Aug 2027
From our football correspondentUneasy
The terraces9 Aug 2027
The mood at Heidenheim has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. David Schopper has, at Heidenheim, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
39 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Robert Andrich 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 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tim Lemperle 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 Heidenheim, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Heidenheim has been clear about where Leopold Zingerle stands, which is more than many ever get.
“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 Heidenheim 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 Heidenheim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Heidenheim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tim Lemperle 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 Heidenheim know it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Heidenheim have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Tim Lemperle 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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Heidenheim can pretend not to have heard.
Robert Andrich 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 Tim Lemperle was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The phone has started ringing about Ryota Onoda again, and this time the name on the line is Zlin. Heidenheim are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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 Heidenheim know it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mikkel Kaufmann trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Heidenheim. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Matthias Köbbing may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“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 Heidenheim, and it is not being withdrawn.
Budu Zivzivadze 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 Jul 2027
Tim Lemperle 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.
11 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
“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; Heidenheim are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Heidenheim, another week without a signature from Lars Ritzka.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Heidenheim, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Robert Schmid clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Heidenheim 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 Heidenheim heard it as anything else.
Tim Lemperle 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 transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Matthias Köbbing is a Heidenheim player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Robert Andrich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
Boardroomnews_h_severance_paid
The dugoutA fresh start for Tim Lemperle under the new man
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Heidenheim can pretend not to have heard.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Tim Lemperle falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heidenheim 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 Alessandro Vogt trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Heidenheim have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Robert Andrich is a Heidenheim player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Budu Zivzivadze 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Paul Hennrich is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Luca Philipp has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Tim Lemperle 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 has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Heidenheim offered $48.0M; Eintracht Frankfurt 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.
Heidenheim and Bayer Leverkusen have settled on $3.9M. 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.
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.
Heidenheim asked and Köln said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Dominik Böhm has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Heidenheim have gone to Eintracht Frankfurt 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heidenheim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Heidenheim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tim Lemperle 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.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Heidenheim, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Heidenheim know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
BoardroomOpen for business: Heidenheim enter the window
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Heidenheim is running low.
Patrick Mainka and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Heidenheim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tim Lemperle 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; Heidenheim are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Heidenheim will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Budu Zivzivadze and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marvin Pieringer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The mood at Heidenheim has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Heidenheim have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Budu Zivzivadze 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 Tim Lemperle was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
23 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout17 May 2027
Omar Traoré 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.
Words at Heidenheim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tim Lemperle 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; Heidenheim are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Heidenheim is running low.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Tim Lemperle 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.
“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 Heidenheim know it.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Tim Lemperle was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
Position 18 and 21 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.
Budu Zivzivadze and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tim Lemperle was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Matthias Köbbing has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Heidenheim have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Adrian Beck trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
0‑6 against Eintracht Frankfurt, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Budu Zivzivadze 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.
Match17 Apr 2027
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Heidenheim and Eintracht Frankfurt in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tim Lemperle was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Day 42 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Tim Lemperle 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 Marvin Pieringer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Heidenheim know it.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heidenheim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Heidenheim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tim Lemperle 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.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Position 18 and 20 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.22 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Heidenheim have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Budu Zivzivadze 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The mood at Heidenheim has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Two goals and a mark of 8.92 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heidenheim 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 Marvin Pieringer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A 2‑0 win over VfB Stuttgart, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
20 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Beaten 8 times, 4 saves, and an afternoon that will go on his record whether it was his fault or the defence’s. It is the quiet unfairness of the position.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 9 goals between Heidenheim and FC Augsburg, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Robert Cook is living that version at Heidenheim, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tim Lemperle was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
14 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
7 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.
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Heidenheim have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heidenheim 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 Tim Lemperle was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.