Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Heidenheim have kept their man, and VfB Stuttgart go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at VfB Stuttgart training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Deniz Undav 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.
Ermedin Demirović 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jonas Braun is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Minute 91, against Borussia Mönchengladbach, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Abdoulaye Dabo and VfB Stuttgart agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
VfB Stuttgart ran out of time with Köln. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Union Berlin; VfB Stuttgart go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 19 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Abdoulaye Dabo is living that version at VfB Stuttgart, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikolas Nartey was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
6 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
VfB Stuttgart have gone to Köln 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.
New York City did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $10.7M for Matt Freese, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Benfica have kept their man, and VfB Stuttgart go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Matt Freese is living that version at VfB Stuttgart, and it tends to show in the first month.
Everything agreed with Union Berlin, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maximilian Mittelstädt was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
$10.7M on the table at New York City. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what VfB Stuttgart can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Deniz Undav 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 VfB Stuttgart this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
$25.0M was the most the club would pay and Bayern Munich 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.
VfB Stuttgart asked and Mainz 05 said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$10.7M on the table at Mainz 05. 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 Deniz Undav again, and this time the name on the line is Krasnodar. VfB Stuttgart are listening politely and promising nothing.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Shuto Machino has, at VfB Stuttgart, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Jamie Leweling 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Luca Jaquez falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
$19.9M on the table at TSG Hoffenheim. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The offer went to Borussia Mönchengladbach this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The offer from Bayer Leverkusen for Maximilian Mittelstädt 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.
VfB Stuttgart asked and FC Augsburg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
VfB Stuttgart have gone to St. Pauli with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Tyrell Malacia is living that version at VfB Stuttgart, and it tends to show in the first month.
“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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Koffi Djidji has just signed for VfB Stuttgart, and for once the answer mattered.
“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 VfB Stuttgart hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Maximilian Mittelstädt and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at VfB Stuttgart training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Deniz Undav 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 VfB Stuttgart, and both men came out saying it was fine.