Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” VfB Stuttgart have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Marius Müller 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Viktor Gyökeres is on it.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
4‑0. Nights like this are why clubs spend decades trying to qualify for this competition, and they arrive perhaps twice in that time. Everybody who was in the ground will describe it badly for years.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
Marked 8.19 — 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason VfB Stuttgart will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Marcel Sabitzer and VfB Stuttgart agree another 3 years.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 16 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Marius Müller
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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.
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.
“Another season, another badge, another dressing room to win over. I would like one pre-season at VfB Stuttgart where somebody actually looks at me.” He belongs to Nürnberg until the spell ends; the argument is with the club that owns him.
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.
Nobody at VfB Stuttgart will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Viktor Gyökeres signs something — a contract at VfB Stuttgart or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason VfB Stuttgart will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
3‑0. Nights like this are why clubs spend decades trying to qualify for this competition, and they arrive perhaps twice in that time. Everybody who was in the ground will describe it badly for years.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” VfB Stuttgart have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 VfB Stuttgart, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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.
Marked 8.59 — 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.
With 7 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 64 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether VfB Stuttgart can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Dženan Pejčinović 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.
A 1‑0 win over TSG Hoffenheim, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“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 VfB Stuttgart, and 4 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at VfB Stuttgart will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason VfB Stuttgart will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
4‑0 against Heracles, and a performance that will change how the rest of the competition talks about this club. Reputations in continental football are built in single evenings and this was one.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.88, and 2 involvements.
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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Heracles tried to reorganise, VfB Stuttgart did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 80 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Dennis Seimen had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bayer Leverkusen have kept their man, and VfB Stuttgart go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at VfB Stuttgart heard it as anything else.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Angelo Stiller is on it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at VfB Stuttgart has been clear about where Yannik Keitel stands, which is more than many ever get.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason VfB Stuttgart will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. VfB Stuttgart will try again when the window opens; Borussia Dortmund may not be selling by then.
“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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 16 signed and 17 gone
That is the business done at VfB Stuttgart 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 VfB Stuttgart hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 94 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Arsenal did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $58.4M for Viktor Gyökeres, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
“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 VfB Stuttgart, and it is not being withdrawn.
Every dressing room knows how to read a signing like this one. Kees Smit is not here to sit and wait indefinitely, and the man whose place he has been bought to take knows it better than anyone.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Kees Smit has just signed for VfB Stuttgart, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
In brief
Boardroom5 academy players handed senior numbers at VfB Stuttgart
The terracesThe town asked, and VfB Stuttgart paid $58.4M
Squad8 VfB Stuttgart players away with their countries
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 102 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The offer went to Arsenal 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Preußen Münster waiting with a shirt. Nobody at VfB Stuttgart is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Borussia Dortmund wanted more than $28.6M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Leo Román 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.
15 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason VfB Stuttgart will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
VfB Stuttgart have gone to PSV 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.
The offer went to Blau-Weiß Linz 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.
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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. VfB Stuttgart know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Finn Jeltsch trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at VfB Stuttgart. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Stade Rennais have kept their man, and VfB Stuttgart go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The phone has started ringing about Pascal Stenzel again, and this time the name on the line is Karlsruher SC. VfB Stuttgart are listening politely and promising nothing.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Deniz Undav is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. VfB Stuttgart know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 VfB Stuttgart, 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 VfB Stuttgart hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Marius Müller and VfB Stuttgart agree another 2 years.
VfB Stuttgart asked and RB Leipzig 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 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 VfB Stuttgart know it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. VfB Stuttgart told Deniz Undav something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Nobody at VfB Stuttgart will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
15 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“I did not go to Arminia Bielefeld to sit and watch. I want to come back to VfB Stuttgart and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
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 VfB Stuttgart have no good answer.
“Ambitious players need ambitious projects. Draw your own conclusions.” Yannik Keitel’s representative said it with a smile, and made sure everyone wrote it down.
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Chris Führich
Nobody at VfB Stuttgart will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. VfB Stuttgart know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 VfB Stuttgart would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at VfB Stuttgart. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Pascal Stenzel has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
The chase for Luis Díaz ended with $46.6M changing hands and Bayern Munich out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The chase for Keke Topp ended with $8.2M changing hands and Werder Bremen out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
$5.8M on the table at Hertha BSC. 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 want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at VfB Stuttgart heard it as anything else.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Keke Topp has just signed for VfB Stuttgart, and for once the answer mattered.
VfB Stuttgart offered $107.1M; AS Roma 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.
VfB Stuttgart have gone to Bayern Munich 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.
Everything agreed with Werder Bremen, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The chase for Marten Winkler ended with $3.4M changing hands and Hertha BSC out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
“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.
Leo Román 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 offer went to AS Roma 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.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $19.5M has been paid because Leo Román is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
“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 VfB Stuttgart, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Leo Román is living that version at VfB Stuttgart, and it tends to show in the first month.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hertha BSC have kept their man, and VfB Stuttgart go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $134.0M — a club that wants Matías Soulé enough to be asked twice.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. VfB Stuttgart know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Loan watch21 Jun 2027
Dennis Seimen’s loan is measured in nothing happening
7 clean sheets from 32 appearances at SC Paderborn. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns 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 Nikolas Nartey has written the date down.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. VfB Stuttgart have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Magdeburg waiting with a shirt. Nobody at VfB Stuttgart is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Bayern Munich pay $33.8M, 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.
The offer went to Deportivo La Coruña 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.
Bayer Leverkusen paid $18.4M and VfB Stuttgart took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Marcel Sabitzer is living that version at VfB Stuttgart, and it tends to show in the first month.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Eintracht Frankfurt have kept their man, and VfB Stuttgart go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
With 7 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
Nobody at VfB Stuttgart will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
VfB Stuttgart asked and AS Roma said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. VfB Stuttgart have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The clubs have shaken hands with Borussia Dortmund; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The offer from Union Berlin for Chris Führich 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.
“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.
Nobody at VfB Stuttgart will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Squad7 Jun 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Finn Jeltsch
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Finn Jeltsch has come out of that comparison in the side, and VfB Stuttgart have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
34 appearances and 0 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.
Squad31 May 2027
7 new faces, and VfB Stuttgart 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It 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.
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 VfB Stuttgart would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at VfB Stuttgart this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Chris Führich is on it.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one VfB Stuttgart will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Maximilian Mittelstädt signs something — a contract at VfB Stuttgart or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
At 20 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
32 appearances at SC Paderborn and the goals have stopped going in. VfB Stuttgart lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
Position 5 on 56 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.88 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Saïd El Mala did not need any: 7.71, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Saïd El Mala has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
BoardroomVfB Stuttgart bank $280.0K from an old deal
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.
A 2‑1 win over Werder Bremen, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Bilal El Khannouss 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Deniz Undav is on 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.
The dugout10 May 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.” Hans Lange kept it short after the 2‑1 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 Deniz Undav signs something — a contract at VfB Stuttgart or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. VfB Stuttgart told Maximilian Mittelstädt something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout3 May 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Hans Lange to a room that had heard them before.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jamie Leweling signs something — a contract at VfB Stuttgart or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
100 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
A point taken on 90 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Chris Führich is on it.
It needed Ermedin Demirović to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Union Berlin, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Angelo Stiller signs something — a contract at VfB Stuttgart or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
At 20 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against VfL Wolfsburg in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
There were 86 minutes on the clock and Heidenheim had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and VfB Stuttgart did not stop to explain themselves.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at VfB Stuttgart pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Nobody at VfB Stuttgart will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
At 18 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Deniz Undav is on it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Hans Lange after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
“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.
The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Eintracht Frankfurt; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Hans Lange left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
SquadVfB Stuttgart are still strangers to each other
Marius Müller was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; VfB Stuttgart are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Nobody at VfB Stuttgart will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Eintracht Frankfurt next, and one man in the VfB Stuttgart dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. VfB Stuttgart would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
45 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
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 Nikolas Nartey has written the date down.
In brief
The dugoutFabian Bredlow asks for a word with the manager
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Marius Müller 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Angelo Stiller. 1‑0 against Köln, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.30 — 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.
With 6 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
The dugout22 Mar 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.” Hans Lange kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Angelo Stiller is on it.
The dugout15 Mar 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.” Hans Lange kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dženan Pejčinović trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Köln next, and one man in the VfB Stuttgart dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A brace, and Deniz Undav takes the afternoon — 8.96
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Deniz Undav provided it, and the 8.96 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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; VfB Stuttgart are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
A 3‑1 win over Hamburger SV, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad8 Mar 2027
7 new faces, and VfB Stuttgart 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Squad8 Mar 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Chris Führich
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Chris Führich has come out of that comparison in the side, and VfB Stuttgart have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout8 Mar 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.” Hans Lange kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Nikolas Nartey scored, was marked 7.85, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at VfB Stuttgart 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 VfB Stuttgart know it.
The goal that put Bayer Leverkusen ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when VfB Stuttgart equalised, 3 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
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 dugout1 Mar 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Marius Müller'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.
“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.
“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.
Nobody at VfB Stuttgart will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Nobody at VfB Stuttgart is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Maximilian Mittelstädt signs something — a contract at VfB Stuttgart or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
Player ratingsThe afternoon ran through Chris Führich
Loan watchDennis Seimen’s loan is measured in nothing happening
MatchContinental football is in reach for VfB Stuttgart
Two goals and a mark of 8.80 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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.
“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 VfB Stuttgart, and 5 appearances in 23 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The deal that would have taken Ermedin Demirović to Hertha BSC has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to VfB Stuttgart with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Chris Führich 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 Eintracht Frankfurt. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
1‑2 to RB Leipzig, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout8 Feb 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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Hans Lange to a room that had heard them before.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Fabian Bredlow has his answer from VfB Stuttgart; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. VfB Stuttgart lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 VfB Stuttgart, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Köln have kept their man, and VfB Stuttgart go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
VfB Stuttgart and Eintracht Frankfurt have settled on $620.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“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.
The phone has started ringing about Ermedin Demirović again, and this time the name on the line is Hertha BSC. VfB Stuttgart are listening politely and promising nothing.
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. VfB Stuttgart lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
VfB Stuttgart offered $28.3M; Bayern Munich 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.
“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 VfB Stuttgart, and it is not being withdrawn.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $9.3M has been paid because Nediljko Labrović is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Preußen Münster waiting with a shirt. Nobody at VfB Stuttgart is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Thun did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $5.5M for Niklas Steffen, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Niklas Steffen is living that version at VfB Stuttgart, and it tends to show in the first month.
The words a physio says slowly. 32 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.
VfB Stuttgart asked and Aston Villa 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 and Thun have settled on $5.5M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Bilal El Khannouss wants continental football; whether VfB Stuttgart can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. VfB Stuttgart lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There were 89 minutes on the clock and St. Pauli had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and VfB Stuttgart did not stop to explain themselves.
The offer from Dynamo Dresden for Ermedin Demirović 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 and VfL Wolfsburg have settled on $870.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Angelo Stiller wants continental football; whether VfB Stuttgart can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at VfB Stuttgart hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Arminia Bielefeld moved on, Leo Sauer reports back to VfB Stuttgart, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. VfB Stuttgart lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
VfB Stuttgart have gone to TSG Hoffenheim 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.
The offer went to Bayern Munich 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.
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.
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.
The offer from Vitória for Jeremy Arévalo 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.
54 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. VfB Stuttgart lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 116th minute. Hamburger SV will replay every second of the added time for a week.
A mark of 7.76 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.79, and 2 involvements.
The phone has started ringing about Jeremy Arévalo again, and this time the name on the line is Vitória. VfB Stuttgart are listening politely and promising nothing.
He is 21 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.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The words a physio says slowly. 61 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Saïd El Mala 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jeff Chabot, and the manager let it.
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 Hans Lange left the room before anybody could ask which.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It 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.
69 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. VfB Stuttgart lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bilal El Khannouss and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Hans Lange could afford to be generous.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bilal El Khannouss trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Deniz Undav signs something — a contract at VfB Stuttgart or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The words a physio says slowly. 78 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 want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at VfB Stuttgart heard it as anything else.
“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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Saïd El Mala is on it.
85 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. VfB Stuttgart lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
9.46. 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Marked 8.43 — 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at VfB Stuttgart has been clear about where Ramon Hendriks stands, which is more than many ever get.
93 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. VfB Stuttgart lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Saïd El Mala did not need any: 8.26, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Jeremy Arévalo 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 7.09, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
100 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. VfB Stuttgart lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” VfB Stuttgart have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether VfB Stuttgart can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Deniz Undav signs something — a contract at VfB Stuttgart or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Köln next, and one man in the VfB Stuttgart dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at VfB Stuttgart that is a harder question to answer.
107 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. VfB Stuttgart lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Bilal El Khannouss wants continental football; whether VfB Stuttgart can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Dženan Pejčinović and VfB Stuttgart agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Luca Jaquez has his answer from VfB Stuttgart; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Marked 7.36 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, VfB Stuttgart had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Hans Lange was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the VfB Stuttgart dressing room was either.
The words a physio says slowly. 115 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 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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. VfB Stuttgart told Deniz Undav something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The words a physio says slowly. 122 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.
Bilal El Khannouss 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Ermedin Demirović’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and VfB Stuttgart needing him to play as if none of it matters.
3‑0, and Ermedin Demirović took the headlines on an afternoon when everything VfB Stuttgart tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Saïd El Mala, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.27
A mark of 8.27 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Dženan Pejčinović is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Saïd El Mala has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Marked 7.57 on 9 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Deniz Undav signs something — a contract at VfB Stuttgart or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
In brief
Player ratingsOff the bench and decisive: Tiago Tomás
SquadFinn Jeltsch has seen what the next man earns
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lorenz Assignon and VfB Stuttgart agree another 4 years.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against FC Augsburg in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Two goals and a mark of 8.83 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ermedin Demirović. 3‑2 against TSG Hoffenheim, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.01 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“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; VfB Stuttgart are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
5 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑2, Hans Lange could afford to be generous.
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.
It needed Bilal El Khannouss to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against RB Leipzig, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at VfB Stuttgart has been clear about where Stefan Drljača stands, which is more than many ever get.
7 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against TSG Hoffenheim in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Deniz Undav. 2‑1 against Borussia Mönchengladbach, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Hans Lange on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Deniz Undav signs something — a contract at VfB Stuttgart or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against RB Leipzig in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
In brief
SquadFinn Jeltsch has seen what the next man earns
“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.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout14 Sep 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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Hans Lange to a room that had heard them before.
“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.
Everything agreed with TSG Hoffenheim, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
VfB Stuttgart close the window on a squad of their own making
13 in and 5 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Saïd El Mala is living that version at VfB Stuttgart, and it tends to show in the first month.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at VfB Stuttgart heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at VfB Stuttgart this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Borussia Dortmund have kept their man, and VfB Stuttgart go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer from Borussia Dortmund 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.
“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 VfB Stuttgart, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around VfB Stuttgart people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 5 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
Marked 7.82. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Hans Lange to a room that had heard them before.
$18.0M was the most the club would pay and Bayer Leverkusen 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.
RB Leipzig paid $17.9M and VfB Stuttgart took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Deniz Undav signs something — a contract at VfB Stuttgart or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Next up on the road: Mainz 05, position 7. The supporters who go will talk about it all week and the ones who do not will check their phones at ten to five.
VfB Stuttgart have gone to Mainz 05 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.
$18.0M on the table at Bayer Leverkusen. 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 Spartak Moscow 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 Bayern Munich for Jamie Leweling was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $19.8M — a club that wants Christian Kofane enough to be asked twice.
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 VfB Stuttgart have no good answer.
VfB Stuttgart offered $49.2M; Real Sociedad 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.
VfB Stuttgart 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at VfB Stuttgart heard it as anything else.
The name of Badredine Bouanani has come up in conversations VfB Stuttgart were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Benjamin Schubert 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.
The offer went to Real Sociedad 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.
$31.2M on the table at Monaco. 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 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.
The name of Pascal Stenzel has come up in conversations VfB Stuttgart were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“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.
Maximilian Mittelstädt has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.