1‑2 away to the standard of CSKA Moscow. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Romain Amalfitano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Young Boys know it.
Dario Marzino 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 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Gregory Wüthrich.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Young Boys has been clear about where Lewin Blum stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
Christian Fassnacht and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Young Boys, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Cédric Zesiger is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Herba Guirassy trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Young Boys know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Young Boys has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Young Boys. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
MarketThe window shut and Darian Maleš is still in the building
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Young Boys 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Young Boys this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Young Boys 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Young Boys are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
$4.4M was the most the club would pay and Lugano 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.
The chase for Damienus Reverson ended with $2.5M changing hands and Zurich out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Young Boys have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Young Boys close the window on a squad of their own making
5 in and 2 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Young Boys 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 Romain Amalfitano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 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 Young Boys can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have shaken hands with Zurich; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The offer went to Lugano 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $4.6M — a club that wants Anto Grgic enough to be asked twice.
The terraces25 Jan 2027
Young Boys spend $13.5M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $13.5M for Anthony Patterson, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Young Boys this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$13.5M on the table at Wrexham. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Position 3, 33 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Christian Fassnacht 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 Gerard Deulofeu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Young Boys have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The fee is $10.3M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Orlando Pirates drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The chase for Varol Tasar ended with $710.0K changing hands and Yverdon out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $810.0K — a club that wants Varol Tasar enough to be asked twice.
$640.0K was the most the club would pay and Étoile Carouge 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.
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: Relebohile Mofokeng from Orlando Pirates for $10.3M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gerard Deulofeu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Young Boys has been clear about where Christian Fassnacht stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
BoardroomNobody left the Young Boys dressing room in a hurry
The offer went to Orlando Pirates 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.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Young Boys will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sion have kept their man, and Young Boys go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Young Boys have gone to Yverdon 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 name of Saidy Janko has come up in conversations Young Boys were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
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.
Basel next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
“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.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Nobody left the Young Boys 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 dugout28 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 Loris Mvogo left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
The dugoutArmin Gigović has become a man the manager trusts
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Samuel Essende. 2‑1 against Luzern, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gerard Deulofeu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
1‑0 against Ferencvaros, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Young Boys pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout14 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Loris Mvogo 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.
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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Christian Fassnacht is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
Nobody left the Young Boys 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 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Christian Fassnacht is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
27 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
0‑2 against Lechia. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Two goals and a mark of 8.60 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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 7.92 for the rest of it.
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.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Christian Fassnacht in the middle of it, and Zurich unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gerard Deulofeu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Position 2, 24 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
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 7.74 for the rest of it.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 9 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Zurich next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
“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 at Young Boys 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.
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 Young Boys 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Young Boys man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Kaly Sène was the best thing in any of them.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Cédric Zesiger’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Young Boys needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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 Alan Virginius has written the date down.
3 goals in 8 games at St. Louis CITY SC — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Young Boys updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.01 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.79, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Herba Guirassy, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.16
A mark of 8.16 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Cédric Zesiger scored, was marked 7.78, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Young Boys this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 3‑1 win over Lausanne-Sport, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gerard Deulofeu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Sandro Lauper obliged against Wil. 3‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Young Boys.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Up for the corner, and Sandro Lauper delivers — 7.61
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Sandro Lauper scored, was marked 7.61, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The first defeat in 6 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Servette; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
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.
Lausanne-Sport next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Julian Sabitzer was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.27. 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Samuel Essende has come out of that comparison in the side, and Young Boys have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
4‑1. 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.
20 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
A brace, and Darian Maleš takes the afternoon — 8.88
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Darian Maleš provided it, and the 8.88 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Christian Fassnacht provided it, and the 8.48 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Herba Guirassy did not need any: 7.82, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Thun tried to reorganise, Young Boys did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
7.81, 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.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ardian Bajrami is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.89, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Armin Gigović. 2‑1 against Winterthur, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gerard Deulofeu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ablie Jallow and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Young Boys 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 Edimilson Fernandes is on it.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Samuel Essende signs something — a contract at Young Boys or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Winterthur in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
3 goals in 7 games at St. Louis CITY SC — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Young Boys updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Young Boys the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Next up on the road: Winterthur, position 6. The supporters who go will talk about it all week and the ones who do not will check their phones at ten to five.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Armin Gigović
2‑0 against Ferencvaros, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
There are goals, and then there are goals against that particular opponent. The Young Boys support have their bragging rights for a year and they know exactly whose name is on them.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Herba Guirassy is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Young Boys and Basel in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Young Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gerard Deulofeu 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 found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Young Boys pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
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 7.69 for the rest of it.
2‑3 to Lugano, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Young Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gerard Deulofeu 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.
Basel next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Something was said to Gregory Wüthrich and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
4‑2 against Lechia, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Armin Gigović was at the centre of the description.
Two goals and a mark of 8.36 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Christian Fassnacht 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ardian Bajrami is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Young Boys and Lechia in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Young Boys have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Young Boys asked and Zurich said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gerard Deulofeu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“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.
“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 Young Boys, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 18 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Facinet Conté reports back to Young Boys with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Young Boys asked and Servette said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Young Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gerard Deulofeu 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 21 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Young Boys will try not to make too much of it.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Kaly Sène 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.
“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 Young Boys, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. St. Gallen have kept their man, and Young Boys go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ablie Jallow 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 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.
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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Loris Mvogo chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Darian Maleš
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” NK Maribor had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
7.85, 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.
Young Boys asked and Grasshopper said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Nobody at the club will say out loud who this signing is for, which is how you know exactly who it is for. Julian Sabitzer has been brought in to take a shirt somebody is still wearing.
Christian Fassnacht 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 Gerard Deulofeu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Samuel Essende'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.
In brief
Squad10 new faces, and Young Boys are still learning each other
Grasshopper will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Young Boys were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Nassr have kept their man, and Young Boys go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Stripfing have accepted the money. What Young Boys do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A brace, and Facinet Conté takes the afternoon — 8.71
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Facinet Conté provided it, and the 8.71 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
PSV paid $10.3M and Young Boys took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Marvin Keller has gone, the accounts have $10.3M 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.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Herba Guirassy did not need any: 7.60, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The chase for Ablie Jallow ended with $2.2M changing hands and Servette out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The 87th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Gerard Deulofeu decided nobody was going anywhere. Lausanne-Sport had no time left to answer.
Young Boys asked and Zurich 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 accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Alvyn Sanches was one of the reasons people came, and $14.2M does not replace that by itself.
The offer went to Servette 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.
Young Boys offered $2.4M; Luzern 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Up for the corner, and Armin Gigović delivers — 7.39
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Armin Gigović scored, was marked 7.39, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.3M — a club that wants Ablie Jallow enough to be asked twice.
Servette will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Young Boys were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 9.01 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Rayan Raveloson scored, was marked 7.78, 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.
Marvin Keller 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.
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.