Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Víctor Pérez scored in the 88th minute, FC Augsburg had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Köln took the lot.
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 Köln 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 Tom Krauß was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
FC Augsburg made Köln work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Thijs Dallinga was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.67. 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.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Víctor Pérez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.61. 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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 6 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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 want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Köln heard it as anything else.
Thijs Dallinga 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Marcel Ruiz 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.
19 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Köln have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Köln can tell you which week it ends in.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Köln heard it as anything else.
Thijs Dallinga 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Marcel Ruiz 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: 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.
Beaten 0‑1 by Borussia Mönchengladbach in the one fixture that is never just a fixture. Work, school, the corner shop — there will be no getting away from this one.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Köln 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 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.
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.
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.
0‑3 to Bayern Munich, 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.
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 Köln this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Marcel Ruiz 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.
3 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.
The phone has started ringing about Rav van den Berg again, and this time the name on the line is RB Leipzig. Köln are listening politely and promising nothing.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
The fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Köln will be judged on one thing only.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Köln can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Thijs Dallinga 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 Marcel Ruiz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ísak Jóhannesson has his answer from Köln; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Stefan Peters is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Thijs Dallinga 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.
Add another name to the list: Hamburger SV have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Joël Schmied. The answer from Köln has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ísak Jóhannesson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nathan De Cat is 18, and Köln have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Club America have kept their man, and Köln go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
$2.8M settles it between the clubs for Nathan De Cat
TSG Hoffenheim have accepted the money. What Köln do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marcel Ruiz 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: Tom Krauß. 2‑1 against Werder Bremen, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Köln this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Marcel Ruiz falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Köln told Thijs Dallinga something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Getting past Marvin Schwäbe has become the hardest job in the division
9 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.
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 Marvin Schwäbe is on it.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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 is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Köln can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Thijs Dallinga 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.
Marked 8.01 — 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.
18 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Half the programme played, position 11, 21 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
In brief
SquadGetting past Marvin Schwäbe has become the hardest job in the division
Thijs Dallinga 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Marcel Ruiz 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.
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 Sebastian Sebulonsen is on it.
The dugout14 Dec 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.” Anton Keller chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marcel Ruiz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Víctor Pérez had Köln level again within 3 minutes, and Borussia Dortmund never got to play with a lead at all.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Anton Keller after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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 Köln this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Eintracht Frankfurt left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Timo Hübers 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Anton Keller after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at Köln 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.
Eintracht Frankfurt go through and Köln go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Bayer Leverkusen will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Köln were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Thijs Dallinga 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 Marcel Ruiz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Köln lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Thijs Dallinga 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Köln can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Marcel Ruiz 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Thijs Dallinga. 1‑0 against SC Freiburg, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.23 — 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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Marcel Ruiz's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The 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.
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Köln lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Saïd El Mala 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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Hamburger SV tried to reorganise, Köln did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
The words a physio says slowly. 35 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.
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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Köln heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Köln 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 Marcel Ruiz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Köln lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
Thijs Dallinga was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcel Ruiz 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 midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 7.11, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
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 Anton Keller left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
The dugoutVíctor Pérez asks for a word with the manager
54 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Köln lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Köln this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Timo Hübers 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.
10 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.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Anton Keller after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
62 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Köln lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Thijs Dallinga and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Marcel Ruiz falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Anton Keller after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Marius Bülter’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Köln needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The words a physio says slowly. 69 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.
Beat anybody else and it is three points. Beat them, with his name on it, and it is a year of bragging rights for Köln and a story that will outlast his contract.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Köln this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcel Ruiz 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 dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Anton Keller, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutMarvin Schwäbe has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutMarius Bülter knocks on the manager's door
78 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Köln lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
0‑4 against Bayern Munich, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Thijs Dallinga 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Borussia Mönchengladbach on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
The words a physio says slowly. 86 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Thijs Dallinga 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 Marcel Ruiz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
10 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Anton Keller after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
95 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Köln lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Jahmai Simpson-Pusey reports back to Köln with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Thijs Dallinga and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Marcel Ruiz 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Daniel Otto 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. René Mayer is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
103 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Köln lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 22 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Köln until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Köln this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Köln are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Köln have paid $18.9M for Marcel Ruiz, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
The offer from VfB Stuttgart for Tom Krauß was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Köln will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Thijs Dallinga 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Marcel Ruiz 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.
“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 dugout31 Aug 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.” Anton Keller chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The clubs have shaken hands with Toluca; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Thijs Dallinga 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 Ellyes Skhiri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The phone has started ringing about Malek El Mala again, and this time the name on the line is Javor-Matis. Köln are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad24 Aug 2026
8 new faces, and Köln 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.
VfL Wolfsburg next, and one man in the Köln dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The chase for Ameen Al-Dakhil ended with $9.7M changing hands and VfB Stuttgart out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
$5.4M was the most the club would pay and St. Pauli 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Lars Ritzka has just signed for Köln, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ellyes Skhiri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 clubs have shaken hands with VfB Stuttgart; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mainz 05 have kept their man, and Köln go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $10.8M has been paid because Víctor Pérez is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Köln have gone to St. Pauli with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Víctor Pérez is living that version at Köln, and it tends to show in the first month.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Köln heard it as anything else.
Thijs Dallinga 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.
$10.8M on the table at La Equidad. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The offer went to Austria Wien this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
“I 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 Köln 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 Köln this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ellyes Skhiri 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.
36 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Köln, another week without a signature from Gideon Mensah.
In brief
The dugoutSaïd El Mala knocks on the manager's door