Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Toulouse FC have kept their man, and Holstein Kiel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Marko Tolić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Matyáš Vojta 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.
8 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Position 3, 58 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Holstein Kiel 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Udinese have kept their man, and Holstein Kiel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Yordan Osorio is on it.
The deal with Borussia Dortmund 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Porto is saying, and nobody at Holstein Kiel is enjoying the guessing.
Marko Tolić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Holstein Kiel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adrián Kaprálik 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. Eintracht Frankfurt have kept their man, and Holstein Kiel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Holstein Kiel have done the hard part with Porto, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“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 Holstein Kiel know it.
Marko Tolić 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 Matyáš Vojta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Köln have kept their man, and Holstein Kiel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Fabian Schleusener and Holstein Kiel agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Borussia Dortmund have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Holstein Kiel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 Holstein Kiel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Marko Tolić 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Holstein Kiel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adrián Kaprálik 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. RB Leipzig have kept their man, and Holstein Kiel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“I watch every Holstein Kiel game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Arminia Bielefeld runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Holstein Kiel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Rogério 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 Adrián Kaprálik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Holstein Kiel, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Holstein Kiel will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Holstein Kiel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jonas Therkelsen and Holstein Kiel agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Holstein Kiel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matyáš Vojta is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jonas Therkelsen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Max Geschwill is on it.
His past walked in ahead of him. Players who have been where he has been get a hearing in a dressing room before they have earned one, and he has it for as long as his form does.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Holstein Kiel that is a harder question to answer.
“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 Holstein Kiel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Marko Tolić 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 Adrián Kaprálik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Holstein Kiel asked and Bayer Leverkusen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Holstein Kiel have made the call to Monza. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
5 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jonas Therkelsen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Holstein Kiel offered $5.6M; Borussia Dortmund 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.
Marko Tolić 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.
Holstein Kiel 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.
8 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.
Holstein Kiel have made the call to SC Paderborn. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The offer went to Borussia Dortmund this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Holstein Kiel 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 Matyáš Vojta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Holstein Kiel will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Everything agreed with Sparta Prague, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jordan Amavi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Holstein Kiel asked and Bayer Leverkusen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 4 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
TSG Hoffenheim have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Holstein Kiel 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.” Holstein Kiel have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Holstein Kiel hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Marko Tolić 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 name of John Tolkin has come up in conversations Holstein Kiel were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
Holstein Kiel asked and Basaksehir said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Marko Tolić 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.
15 appearances and 3 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Luca Prasse is on it.
58 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Holstein Kiel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adrián Kaprálik is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Yordan Osorio is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Holstein Kiel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Andu Kelati’s exile
Marko Tolić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Holstein Kiel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adrián Kaprálik 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 watch every Holstein Kiel game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Vaduz runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout17 May 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 Philipp Peters to a room that had heard them before.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Jonas Meffert will call it something else in private.
Marko Tolić 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 decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jonas Therkelsen and Holstein Kiel agree another 5 years.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Kaiserslautern tried to reorganise, Holstein Kiel did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
“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; Holstein Kiel are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.21, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Rogério was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.16. 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 18 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and John Tolkin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Louey Ben Farhat did not need any: 8.25, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.47 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Budu Zivzivadze and Holstein Kiel agree another 2 years.
Marko Tolić 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Budu Zivzivadze. 2‑0 against Eintracht Braunschweig, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
15 appearances at Stockport County and the goals have stopped going in. Holstein Kiel lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Successful dribbles: 33. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.81 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Holstein Kiel 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 Adrián Kaprálik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Holstein Kiel will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Successful dribbles: 32. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Holstein Kiel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Hertha BSC next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
“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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
John Tolkin 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.
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.
“I did not go to Vaduz to sit and watch. I want to come back to Holstein Kiel and fight for my place.” 11 appearances in 33 matches say the rest.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Philipp Peters left the room before anybody could ask which.
Successful dribbles: 36. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Louey Ben Farhat, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.08
A mark of 8.08 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Marko Tolić 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.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Holstein Kiel pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
16 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.
The offer from Falkenberg for Aldin Jakupović 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.02 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adrián Kaprálik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marko Ivezić 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Jonas Meffert.
Add another name to the list: Falkenberg have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Aldin Jakupović. The answer from Holstein Kiel has not changed — yet.
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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Holstein Kiel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. John Tolkin 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
A Holstein Kiel teenager takes the young player award
Aldin Jakupović is 20, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
Nobody at Holstein Kiel will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Holstein Kiel 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.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
5 new faces, and Holstein Kiel are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutYordan Osorio has become a man the manager trusts
Loan watchJonas Krumrey’s loan is measured in nothing happening
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Aldin Jakupović and Holstein Kiel agree another 4 years.
Marko Tolić 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 Adrián Kaprálik 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; Holstein Kiel are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Holstein Kiel told Equi Fernández something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.82 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Marko Tolić 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.
A 2‑0 win over Preußen Münster, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Holstein Kiel can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and John Tolkin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Philipp Peters could afford to be generous.
Two goals and a mark of 8.69 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Position 3, 41 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Holstein Kiel know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adrián Kaprálik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Holstein Kiel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Holstein Kiel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adrián Kaprálik 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Philipp Peters after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Magdeburg in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Successful dribbles: 11. 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for David Zec
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Holstein Kiel have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bayer Leverkusen have kept their man, and Holstein Kiel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Marked 8.02 — 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and John Tolkin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marko Ivezić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A touch he did not mean and a goal that goes in the book with his name against it. Holstein Kiel will not blame him tonight and he will not need them to.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Holstein Kiel have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Adrián Kaprálik and Holstein Kiel agree another 4 years.
Marko Tolić 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 Adrián Kaprálik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Heidenheim have kept their man, and Holstein Kiel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Louey Ben Farhat provided it, and the 8.85 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 Holstein Kiel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Holstein Kiel close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 4 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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Estoril Praia have kept their man, and Holstein Kiel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Holstein Kiel 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 Holstein Kiel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A goal on 95 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Holstein Kiel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. John Tolkin 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 watch every Holstein Kiel game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at SV Elversberg runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Werder Bremen paid $18.6M and Holstein Kiel took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Stockport County waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Holstein Kiel is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Holstein Kiel have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Marko Tolić 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Holstein Kiel people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Holstein Kiel had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at RB Leipzig, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Marko Tolić 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. Tim Ottilinger is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Two goals and a mark of 8.76 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Fabio Chiarodia did not need any: 7.73, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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. Holstein Kiel will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
The deal with Bayer Leverkusen is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonas Meffert was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Philipp Peters kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Phil Harres has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
1‑4 to Hertha BSC, 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.
Marko Tolić 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.
“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.
Boardroom21 Dec 2026
Nobody left the Holstein Kiel 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Holstein Kiel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Niklas Niehoff 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 dugout21 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑4 defeat, delivered by Philipp Peters to a room that had heard them before.
Something was said to Budu Zivzivadze and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
3 saves does not settle the argument about whose fault it was, and the argument will run all week. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines whoever caused them.
Marko Tolić 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Timon Weiner and Holstein Kiel agree another 3 years.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Holstein Kiel, and 0 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Holstein Kiel will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Holstein Kiel have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Jonas Meffert 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.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Holstein Kiel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Holstein Kiel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonas Meffert 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 8.21 — 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.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Philipp Peters was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Holstein Kiel dressing room was either.
Out, 0‑1 to Bayer Leverkusen, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Marko Tolić 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ikem Ugoh and Holstein Kiel agree another 3 years.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Philipp Peters to a room that had heard them before.
Marko Tolić 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Jordan Amavi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I did not go to SV Elversberg to sit and watch. I want to come back to Holstein Kiel and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Schalke 04 in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Fabio Chiarodia has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Holstein Kiel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Holstein Kiel know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
Looking aheadLooking ahead: the trip to Schalke 04
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Holstein Kiel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Phil Harres and Holstein Kiel agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Holstein Kiel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adrián Kaprálik 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Philipp Peters after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
Nobody at Holstein Kiel 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.
Successful dribbles: 32. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Holstein Kiel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.24 — 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.
Level with 86 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Holstein Kiel had all but put away. Preußen Münster will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Squad2 Nov 2026
John Tolkin 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 needed Alexander Bernhardsson to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Preußen Münster, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The captaincy has been taken off Jordan Amavi. Holstein Kiel will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Philipp Peters chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Successful dribbles: 40. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Holstein Kiel can pretend not to have heard.
Marko Tolić 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 Jonas Meffert was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Philipp Peters left the room before anybody could ask which.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
Nobody at Holstein Kiel will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alexander Bernhardsson provided it, and the 8.82 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Marko Tolić 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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonas Meffert was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Tim Ottilinger is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
11 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Nürnberg in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Fabio Chiarodia signs something — a contract at Holstein Kiel or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jonas Krumrey trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Rogério 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Budu Zivzivadze and Holstein Kiel agree another 2 years.
A 1‑0 win over Greuther Fürth, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Holstein Kiel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonas Meffert 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 a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.10, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Timon Weiner
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Timon Weiner has come out of that comparison in the side, and Holstein Kiel have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A brace, and Marcus Müller takes the afternoon — 9.01
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marcus Müller provided it, and the 9.01 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Marko Tolić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Luca Prasse has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adrián Kaprálik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Marko Tolić
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.
Jonas Meffert 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alexander Bernhardsson. 1‑0 against Arminia Bielefeld, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I watch every Holstein Kiel game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at SV Elversberg runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Holstein Kiel can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonas Meffert was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.02 — 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.
11 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Philipp Peters kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Lindsay Gutaj
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Holstein Kiel will try again when the window opens; VfL Bochum may not be selling by then.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 21 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at Holstein Kiel 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.
“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 Holstein Kiel, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal that would have taken Alexander Bernhardsson to Hertha BSC has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Holstein Kiel with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Holstein Kiel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. SV Elversberg have kept their man, and Holstein Kiel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Holstein Kiel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonas Meffert 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 most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Holstein Kiel will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Holstein Kiel have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Holstein Kiel have gone to VfL Bochum 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.
“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 Holstein Kiel, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Heidenheim for John Tolkin 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $238.9K — a club that wants Ayoub Chaikhoun enough to be asked twice.
Marko Tolić 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 clubs have shaken hands with Nürnberg; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Heidenheim did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $1.6M for Budu Zivzivadze, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Holstein Kiel have gone to Nürnberg 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.
Marko Tolić 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.
$220.0K was the most the club would pay and SV Elversberg 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonas Meffert was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have shaken hands with Al Ahly; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Holstein Kiel have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer went to Heidenheim this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The offer from Sivasspor for Jonas Krumrey 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $17.5M — a club that wants Wouter Burger enough to be asked twice.
Holstein Kiel have gone to SV Elversberg 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.
Words at Holstein Kiel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonas Meffert 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 offer went to TSG Hoffenheim 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. Marko Tolić has, at Holstein Kiel, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Trabzonspor keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jonas Meffert and Holstein Kiel agree another 4 years.
Marko Tolić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Add another name to the list: Rudar Velenje have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Aldin Jakupović. The answer from Holstein Kiel has not changed — yet.
Fabio Chiarodia was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $3.6M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
In brief
SquadJordan Amavi falls out with a teammate over standards
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Jonas Meffert 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.
Jonas Therkelsen and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I 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 Holstein Kiel hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Younes Zöllner and Holstein Kiel agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Holstein Kiel have made the call to VfL Wolfsburg. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
In brief
The dugoutJonas Meffert asks for a word with the manager