A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. St. Pauli will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
St. Pauli have gone to Schalke 04 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.
St. Pauli offered $7.9M; Schalke 04 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.
The offer from Werder Bremen for Ricky-Jade Jones 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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at St. Pauli is running low.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what St. Pauli can pretend not to have heard.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Tim Oberdorf is living that version at St. Pauli, and it tends to show in the first month.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around St. Pauli people have started saying his name in the past tense.
$7.9M on the table at Schalke 04. 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 phone has started ringing about Ricky-Jade Jones again, and this time the name on the line is Werder Bremen. St. Pauli are listening politely and promising nothing.
St. Pauli asked and SC Paderborn said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mathias Pereira Lage 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.
Jeff Chabot 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.
7 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what St. Pauli can pretend not to have heard.
Everything agreed with VfL Wolfsburg, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Martijn Kaars 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.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jean-Mattéo Bahoya is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and St. Pauli know it.
42 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Everything agreed with Darmstadt 98, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
St. Pauli offered $310.0K; Köln 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.
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.
St. Pauli asked and Borussia Dortmund said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Marius Gersbeck 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 phone has started ringing about Martijn Kaars again, and this time the name on the line is Preußen Münster. St. Pauli are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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 St. Pauli hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Everything agreed with Borussia Dortmund, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two 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 St. Pauli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
St. Pauli offered $310.0K; Hertha BSC 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mathias Pereira Lage was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The mood at St. Pauli has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
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.
22 appearances and 2 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and David Nemeth trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around St. Pauli they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jean-Mattéo Bahoya 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 Farid Alfa-Ruprecht trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Karol Mets has written the date down.
Position 15 on 34 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
14 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mathias Pereira Lage was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Arkadiusz Pyrka was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
In brief
SquadA St. Pauli teenager takes the young player award
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
Player ratings8 May 2028
Lennart Karl, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.09
A mark of 8.09 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether St. Pauli can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“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.
Joel Chima Fujita 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 Jean-Mattéo Bahoya was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Position 16 and 30 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what St. Pauli can pretend not to have heard.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Joel Chima Fujita 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.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jean-Mattéo Bahoya 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 particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Jean-Mattéo Bahoya 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Benjamin Goller will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around St. Pauli the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Martijn Kaars 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 Mathias Pereira Lage was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. St. Pauli told Jean-Mattéo Bahoya something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Jackson Irvine will call it something else in private.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Lukas Schröder after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Martijn Kaars was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at St. Pauli can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. St. Pauli told Lennart Karl 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.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at St. Pauli, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jean-Mattéo Bahoya was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 6.86, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Lukas Schröder has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
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 was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. St. Pauli will try not to make too much of it.
Marwin Schmitz 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around St. Pauli they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Arkadiusz Pyrka and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Anthony Racioppi’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and St. Pauli needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Jonathan Macaulay has his answer from St. Pauli; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jean-Mattéo Bahoya provided it, and the 8.27 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether St. Pauli can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between St. Pauli and Schalke 04, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He is 22 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.
Joel Chima Fujita 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mathias Pereira Lage 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.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Muhammad Dahaba and St. Pauli agree another 4 years.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Lukas Schröder to a room that had heard them before.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at St. Pauli has been clear about where Benjamin Goller stands, which is more than many ever get.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at St. Pauli heard it as anything else.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Benjamin Goller has agreed terms with Werder Bremen for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around St. Pauli they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Martijn Kaars 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 Jean-Mattéo Bahoya was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Scott Banks has his answer from St. Pauli; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at St. Pauli, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what St. Pauli can pretend not to have heard.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. TSG Hoffenheim have kept their man, and St. Pauli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
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.” Lukas Schröder, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Jannik Robatsch scored, was marked 6.91, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“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.
17 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jean-Mattéo Bahoya is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and St. Pauli know it.
St. Pauli 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 4 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at St. Pauli until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at St. Pauli hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
St. Pauli asked and VfL Wolfsburg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is 19 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.
A 1‑0 win over Borussia Mönchengladbach, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“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 St. Pauli, and it is not being withdrawn.
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
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.
St. Pauli 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at St. Pauli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The chase for Jean-Mattéo Bahoya ended with $37.3M changing hands and Eintracht Frankfurt out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at St. Pauli can tell you which week it ends in.
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.
Jean-Mattéo Bahoya was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $37.3M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Borussia Dortmund have kept their man, and St. Pauli 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. St. Pauli have done the hard part with Eintracht Frankfurt, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Lennart Karl is 19, and St. Pauli 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at St. Pauli 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 Raphael Obermair was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces17 Jan 2028
St. Pauli spend $30.9M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $30.9M for Lennart Karl, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. St. Pauli have done the hard part with Bayern Munich, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“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 St. Pauli, and it is not being withdrawn.
Martijn Kaars and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mathias Pereira Lage 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.
St. Pauli asked and SC Paderborn said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
0‑6 against VfB Stuttgart, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what St. Pauli can pretend not to have heard.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether St. Pauli can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Match1 Jan 2028
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about St. Pauli and VfB Stuttgart in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
5 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Louis Oppie has his answer from St. Pauli; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
Nobody left the St. Pauli 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.
A brace, and Martijn Kaars takes the afternoon — 8.93
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Martijn Kaars provided it, and the 8.93 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raphael Obermair 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: Martijn Kaars. 2‑0 against Hertha BSC, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
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.” Lukas Schröder kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Anthony Racioppi signs something — a contract at St. Pauli or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
VfB Stuttgart next, and one man in the St. Pauli dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A performance of 8.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
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.” Lukas Schröder, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Mats Pannewig
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.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. St. Pauli have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Hertha BSC in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and St. Pauli know it.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
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.” Lukas Schröder chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Borussia Dortmund? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“I 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 St. Pauli hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphael Obermair 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 combined actions and 6.99. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Karol Mets 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.
9 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Köln were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
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: Joel Chima Fujita. 1‑0 against Köln, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at St. Pauli has been clear about where Taichi Hara stands, which is more than many ever get.
Marius Gersbeck and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
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.” Lukas Schröder, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
SC Freiburg go through and St. Pauli go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
6 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.
Martijn Kaars was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Lukas Schröder after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at St. Pauli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at St. Pauli would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at St. Pauli. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at St. Pauli can tell you which week it ends in.
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mathias Pereira Lage is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and St. Pauli know it.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Lukas Schröder to a room that had heard them before.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at St. Pauli, another week without a signature from Arkadiusz Pyrka.
“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 St. Pauli hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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 6.87 on 13 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at St. Pauli, another week without a signature from Raphael Obermair.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Karol Mets has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether St. Pauli can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raphael Obermair 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 dugout25 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Lukas Schröder to a room that had heard them before.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Werder Bremen in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
In brief
Player ratingsFran Villalba beats them one at a time
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at St. Pauli has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mathias Pereira Lage is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at St. Pauli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Arkadiusz Pyrka has written the date down.
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mathias Pereira Lage is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; St. Pauli are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at St. Pauli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mathias Pereira Lage signs something — a contract at St. Pauli or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Erik Ahlstrand has written the date down.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at St. Pauli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jackson Irvine and St. Pauli agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphael Obermair 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Erik Ahlstrand has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” St. Pauli have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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. 11 actions, 7.11, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Lukas Schröder after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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.
6 goals in one match, Martijn Kaars on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of St. Pauli and Bayern Munich.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mathias Pereira Lage 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.
St. Pauli asked and Bayern Munich said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphael Obermair 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.
St. Pauli asked and Bayern Munich said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mathias Pereira Lage signs something — a contract at St. Pauli or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at St. Pauli has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“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 St. Pauli, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 17 arrived, 10 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“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.
36 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mathias Pereira Lage 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.
“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 St. Pauli, and it is not being withdrawn.
7.55, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
St. Pauli had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at VfB Stuttgart, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Boardroom30 Aug 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at St. Pauli
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphael Obermair 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 no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Leon Keller has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Martin Meier 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.
In brief
BoardroomA promise the St. Pauli board did not keep
The fee is $6.9M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. SC Freiburg drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what St. Pauli can pretend not to have heard.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Florian Müller from SC Freiburg for $6.9M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
St. Pauli asked and Bayern Munich said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Marius Gersbeck 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 unglamorous genius of a well-written contract. Eric Smith is somebody else's player now, and $966.7K has arrived because the people who sold him thought further ahead than the transfer window.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at St. Pauli would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
St. Pauli have gone to FC Augsburg with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raphael Obermair was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at St. Pauli 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. Bayern Munich have kept their man, and St. Pauli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Raphael Obermair trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Branimir Hrgota arrives at 34 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mathias Pereira Lage signs something — a contract at St. Pauli or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and St. Pauli have no good answer.
$6.9M on the table at SC Freiburg. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$96.0K was the most the club would pay and FC Augsburg 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at St. Pauli can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bayer Leverkusen have kept their man, and St. Pauli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
The oldest phenomenon in the sport: a new voice in the dressing room and suddenly everybody is available for everything. Raphael Onyedika is training as though the last team sheet never existed, because as far as he is concerned it does not.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Lukas Schröder recited it perfectly.
St. Pauli have gone to Hertha BSC 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.
St. Pauli offered $420.0K; Hertha BSC 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.
St. Pauli have gone to FC Augsburg 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphael Obermair 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. Borussia Dortmund have kept their man, and St. Pauli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The bill for the sacking has arrived. Lars Winter leaves with $24.4K for the time left on his deal, and that money buys the club nothing it can put on the pitch.
St. Pauli offered $3.5M; Mainz 05 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.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
The offer went to Kaiserslautern 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphael Obermair 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. VfB Stuttgart have kept their man, and St. Pauli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Karlsruher SC 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation St. Pauli are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The offer from Mainz 05 for Mathias Pereira Lage 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 accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Fin Stevens was one of the reasons people came, and $3.9M does not replace that by itself.
The offer went to Hertha BSC 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.
Kaiserslautern wanted more than $250.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
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. Werder Bremen have kept their man, and St. Pauli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Martijn Kaars signs something — a contract at St. Pauli or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A new face in his position, and Raphael Obermair suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. St. Pauli have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Köln waiting with a shirt. Nobody at St. Pauli is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
St. Pauli had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Racing Santander, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Joel Chima Fujita and St. Pauli agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
St. Pauli have gone to Kaiserslautern 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.
$55.0K was the most the club would pay and Nürnberg 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 Raphael Obermair 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. Bayern Munich have kept their man, and St. Pauli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at St. Pauli is running low.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Lars Winter has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
St. Pauli 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Jonathan Macaulay has, at St. Pauli, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“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 St. Pauli, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. St. Pauli have done the hard part with Racing Santander, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
St. Pauli have gone to Hertha BSC 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Muhammad Dahaba is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphael Obermair is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at St. Pauli, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The deal that would have taken Ben Voll to Mainz 05 has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to St. Pauli with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raphael Obermair 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 St. Pauli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A loan enquiry to Racing Santander: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
St. Pauli have made the call to VfL Bochum. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Martijn Kaars signs something — a contract at St. Pauli or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Mathias Rasmussen may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Holstein Kiel paid $9.5M and St. Pauli took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Abdoulie Ceesay has gone, the accounts have $9.5M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what St. Pauli can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Racing Santander keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raphael Obermair was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
St. Pauli 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at St. Pauli, another week without a signature from Raphael Obermair.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around St. Pauli people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at St. Pauli is running low.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at St. Pauli, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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 St. Pauli hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“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; St. Pauli are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raphael Obermair was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“109 caps was 109 more than the boy who started ever expected.” At 34 he has stepped away from the national side and has not stepped away from St. Pauli.
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.
38 games, 0 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at St. Pauli now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mathias Rasmussen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Martijn Kaars has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at St. Pauli and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether St. Pauli can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raphael Obermair was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at St. Pauli. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ben Voll trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Abdoulie Ceesay plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
0‑3 to VfB Stuttgart, 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.
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.
Boardroom17 May 2027
Nobody left the St. Pauli dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout17 May 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Jordy Makengo'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.
Marked 4.71. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
FC Augsburg will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. St. Pauli were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.81 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphael Obermair is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 23 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.
50 goals in these colours now, every one of them somebody’s memory. There is a supporter in the stand who can tell you where he was for most of them.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Benjamin Goller was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.07. 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.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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.
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.
Benjamin Goller 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at St. Pauli, another week without a signature from Benjamin Goller.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Tomoya Ando
The dugoutGerard Moreno is not enjoying his job description
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at St. Pauli has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphael Obermair 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.
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 dugout26 Apr 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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Lars Winter to a room that had heard them before.
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.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raphael Obermair was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager has not finished forgetting Anthony Racioppi'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.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A point taken on 87 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at St. Pauli, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. St. Pauli lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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; St. Pauli are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphael Obermair 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 6.95 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. St. Pauli lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphael Obermair is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Clubs 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Connor Metcalfe trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Mainz 05 in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at St. Pauli has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and St. Pauli will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. St. Pauli lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether St. Pauli can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jannik Westphal is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphael Obermair is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The words a physio says slowly. 20 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.27 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“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 St. Pauli know it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jackson Irvine. 2‑1 against Werder Bremen, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Benjamin Goller 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 words a physio says slowly. 28 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 mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; St. Pauli are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Martijn Kaars 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.
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout8 Mar 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Lars Winter to a room that had heard them before.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. St. Pauli lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.01 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at St. Pauli heard it as anything else.
“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 St. Pauli know 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 St. Pauli 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 Raphael Obermair 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.
44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. St. Pauli lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphael Obermair 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.
52 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. St. Pauli lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The words a physio says slowly. 60 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” WSG Tirol had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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 St. Pauli, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.96 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Raúl De Tomás trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
69 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. St. Pauli lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
St. Pauli close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at St. Pauli 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 Raphael Obermair 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. Twente have kept their man, and St. Pauli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Abdoulie Ceesay 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 76 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what St. Pauli can pretend not to have heard.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphael Obermair 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.
St. Pauli asked and Atlético Madrid said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Level with 86 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon St. Pauli had all but put away. SC Freiburg will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at St. Pauli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 St. Pauli, and 7 appearances in 21 say he has earned the hearing.
Holstein Kiel 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.
85 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. St. Pauli lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The offer from Schalke 04 for Arkadiusz Pyrka was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether St. Pauli can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
St. Pauli had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at SC Freiburg, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Martijn Kaars 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphael Obermair 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. SC Paderborn have kept their man, and St. Pauli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
93 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. St. Pauli 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 from Borussia Mönchengladbach for Abdoulie Ceesay 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 interest is real enough to have reached print. St. Pauli have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphael Obermair 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.
St. Pauli asked and Holstein Kiel said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
101 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. St. Pauli lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at St. Pauli, and it is not being withdrawn.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jannik Westphal is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raphael Obermair was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Connor Metcalfe has his answer from St. Pauli; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at St. Pauli, another week without a signature from Raphael Obermair.
108 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. St. Pauli lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raphael Obermair was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.02. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at St. Pauli.
The dugout28 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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Lars Winter to a room that had heard them before.
143 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. St. Pauli lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphael Obermair is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
0‑1 to RB Leipzig, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Lars Winter left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at St. Pauli has been clear about where David Nemeth stands, which is more than many ever get.
Marked 5.03. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
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.
150 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. St. Pauli lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mathias Pereira Lage provided it, and the 8.43 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
6 matches without a win, and then this, against Borussia Mönchengladbach. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphael Obermair 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.
He is 20 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Lars Winter could afford to be generous.
The words a physio says slowly. 158 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.
0‑4 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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at St. Pauli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Christian Cepeda and St. Pauli agree another 1 years.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
Nobody left the St. Pauli 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.
“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; St. Pauli are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raphael Obermair was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Bayern Munich.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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.
Christian Cepeda and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphael Obermair 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 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.
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.
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphael Obermair 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 particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Abdoulie Ceesay 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Anthony Racioppi signs something — a contract at St. Pauli or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at St. Pauli, another week without a signature from Benjamin Goller.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.83 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphael Obermair 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at St. Pauli, and 4 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
“49 caps is more than I ever expected, and it is time somebody else had them.” At 38 he is finished with his country and nowhere near finished with St. Pauli.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.20 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphael Obermair 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.
Louis Breunig 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.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Lars Winter on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at St. Pauli, and both men came out saying it was fine.
10 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.
Martijn Kaars 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 Raphael Obermair was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Lars Winter after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Heidenheim defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Shifted about, taken off before the hour, asked to do somebody else's running — Joel Chima Fujita has had enough of being useful and would like to be picked. St. Pauli know, and have known for weeks.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Arkadiusz Pyrka trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Abdoulie Ceesay is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Anthony Racioppi signs something — a contract at St. Pauli or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at St. Pauli has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
0‑3 to Borussia Dortmund, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at St. Pauli can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphael Obermair 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 St. Pauli game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Dynamo Dresden runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
At 38, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Nobody left the St. Pauli 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.
Marked 7.90. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between St. Pauli and Eintracht Frankfurt, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and St. Pauli 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.80 for the rest of it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
St. Pauli asked and IF Elfsborg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Martijn Kaars. 2‑1 against Köln, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.17 — 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 dugout21 Sep 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.” Lars Winter, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“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 St. Pauli, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Heidenheim have kept their man, and St. Pauli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raphael Obermair was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Thomas Wagner 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at St. Pauli, another week without a signature from Raphael Obermair.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Raphael Obermair trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout14 Sep 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.” Lars Winter chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
St. Pauli 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what St. Pauli can pretend not to have heard.
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 deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 14 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raphael Obermair was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at St. Pauli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Raphael Obermair trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The offer went to Venezia 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.
St. Pauli asked and Burnley said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.92 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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: Jackson Irvine. 1‑0 against Hamburger SV, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
9 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. VfB Stuttgart have kept their man, and St. Pauli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $4.2M has been paid because Anthony Racioppi is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raphael Obermair was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The name of Fin Stevens has come up in conversations St. Pauli were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. St. Pauli have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
The clubs have shaken hands with Sion; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
TSG Hoffenheim pay $8.6M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
He is going to TSG Hoffenheim, the club has $8.6M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $293.8K — a club that wants Jordy de Wijs enough to be asked twice.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphael Obermair 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 from Mainz 05 for Eric Smith 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 a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Raphael Obermair is living that version at St. Pauli, and it tends to show in the first month.
St. Pauli have gone to Sion 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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Joel Chima Fujita commits to St. Pauli for another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphael Obermair 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. Atalanta have kept their man, and St. Pauli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Oliver Krüger has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Andreas Herrmann 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Leon Sommer has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.