16 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.41, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Rhodri Smith, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.92
A mark of 7.92 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.
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.
At 21 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.
0‑1 away to the standard of Paris Saint-Germain. 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.
Caspar Jander 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Samuel Essende. 2‑0 against Winterthur, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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; Young Boys are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Lewin Blum will call it something else in private.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Noah Comert on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
1 for Gregory Wüthrich, marked 7.92, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Alexander Nübel 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.
Half the programme played, position 1, 28 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
“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 1 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
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.
Basel next, and one man in the Young Boys dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.84 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 be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Young Boys heard it as anything else.
3 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 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.35 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
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.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Young Boys can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Gerard Deulofeu has his answer from Young Boys; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Noah Comert, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
0‑1 to Sion, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Alvyn Sanches was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.40. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Two goals and a mark of 8.33 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 Young Boys hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Marked 8.25 — 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Armin Gigović at his very best
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Young Boys 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 Young Boys, 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. Caspar Jander is living that version at Young Boys, and it tends to show in the first month.
The deal that would have taken Christian Fassnacht to Lugano has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Young Boys with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Young Boys close the window on a squad of their own making
12 in and 10 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Neuchâtel Xamax have kept their man, and Young Boys go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Young Boys this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Young Boys lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Grasshopper will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Young Boys were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“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 hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Herba Guirassy did not need any: 8.14, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The offer from First Vienna for Kaly Sène 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.
7.70, 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.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Up for the corner, and Armin Gigović delivers — 7.64
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Armin Gigović scored, was marked 7.64, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Young Boys lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Young Boys asked and Bournemouth said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Cartagena waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Young Boys is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.30 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
5 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.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Herba Guirassy, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.81
A mark of 7.81 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.
“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 chase for Brandon Soppy ended with $4.0M changing hands and Lausanne-Sport 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.
4 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Brandon Soppy has, at Young Boys, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“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 offer from Ilves for Olivier Mambwa 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.
4‑0, and Darian Maleš took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Young Boys tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
$4.0M settles it between the clubs for Brandon Soppy
Lausanne-Sport 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.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Young Boys can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
There were 85 minutes on the clock and Bellinzona had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Young Boys did not stop to explain themselves.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Facinet Conté had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“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.
Marked 7.12 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Young Boys can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The phone has started ringing about Facinet Conté again, and this time the name on the line is Zwolle. Young Boys are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
10 combined actions and 7.11. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Sergio Córdova wants continental football; whether Young Boys can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
In brief
Player ratingsDarian Maleš beats them one at a time
$23.0M on the table at Monterrey. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Young Boys can pretend not to have heard.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Breel Steffen is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ruben Embolo has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Admir Gavranovic is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Kaly Sène and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom19 Jul 2027
The ground is getting bigger
The plans are signed off at a capacity of 39242. Decisions like this are judged twenty years later, by people who were not in the room when they were taken.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Herba Guirassy'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.
45 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.
“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 offer from Blau-Weiß Linz for Christian Fassnacht 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 want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Young Boys 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 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Armin Gigović signs something — a contract at Young Boys or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“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 chase for Juan-José Perea ended with $6.3M changing hands and Zurich out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Juan-José Perea has just signed for Young Boys, and for once the answer mattered.
“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.
Alexander Nübel 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 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
12 new faces, and Young Boys are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zurich have kept their man, and Young Boys go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Young Boys heard it as anything else.
Alexander Nübel 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.
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.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Young Boys have paid $7.7M for Alexander Nübel, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Alexander Nübel has just signed for Young Boys, and for once the answer mattered.
$3.3M on the table at St. Gallen. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Young Boys asked and Lugano said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Young Boys offered $2.3M; Zurich said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The name of Ryan Andrews has come up in conversations Young Boys were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
He is 19, and nobody at Young Boys signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Young Boys know which stage they are at.
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 manager has not finished forgetting Herba Guirassy's mistake
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Loris Benito
$7.7M on the table at Besiktas. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Galatasaray have kept their man, and Young Boys go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.9M — a club that wants Liam Chipperfield enough to be asked twice.
Facinet Conté 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Young Boys has been clear about where Ryan Andrews stands, which is more than many ever get.
With 5 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.
In brief
The dugoutSamuel Essende has become a man the manager trusts
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zurich have kept their man, and Young Boys go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Young Boys have gone to Sion with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
$1.8M on the table at Servette. 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 Young Boys heard it as anything else.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Samuel Essende 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.
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.
5 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.
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 Armin Gigović is on it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Tanguy Zoukrou
The dugoutHerba Guirassy asks for a word with the manager
BoardroomOpen for business: Young Boys enter the window
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Young Boys lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Young Boys have had the benefit of it.
Kaly Sène 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.
Squad31 May 2027
11 clean sheets and the golden glove for Dario Marzino
The one award on the pitch nobody else can win. 11 games in a season in which nobody scored past him, and a career that will be measured against this one.
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.
“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.
0 appearances and 0 goals is not a season away, it is a year lost. He is back at Young Boys no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their fault.
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Young Boys lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout24 May 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Herba Guirassy'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 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 19 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Young Boys lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Young Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alan Virginius 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.
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 Darian Maleš is on it.
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.
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 Gerard Deulofeu has written the date down.
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
The language is arriving, the jokes are landing, and there is somebody at the next peg to talk to. None of it appears in a scouting report and all of it shows up on the pitch.
The words a physio says slowly. 44 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have 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.
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 asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
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 Young Boys have no good answer.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Miguel Jacquet trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
53 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Young Boys lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alan Virginius 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Facinet Conté trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The words a physio says slowly. 62 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.
Facinet Conté 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 oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I watch every Young Boys game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sion runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
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.
5 goals in 26 games at Konyaspor — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Young Boys updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
70 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Young Boys lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
“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.
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 Gerard Deulofeu has written the date down.
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
Sharpest man there all week, by every account. It is the quietest line on this page and it usually runs the week before somebody’s run in the side begins.
77 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Young Boys lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I 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 13 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 Samuel Essende is on 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 Young Boys, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
85 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Young Boys lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Young Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alan Virginius 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.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alvyn Sanches signs something — a contract at Young Boys or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
92 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Young Boys lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Facinet Conté is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“I watch every Young Boys game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sion runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Armin Gigović signs something — a contract at Young Boys or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
100 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Young Boys lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Young Boys heard it as anything 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.
Miguel Jacquet 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.
4 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.
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 Darian Maleš is on it.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Dario Marzino: 3 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Jimmy Maurer damages knee ligaments — 108 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 108 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
0‑0 against PSV, 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alvyn Sanches and Young Boys agree another 5 years.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Young Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alan Virginius 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.
116 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Young Boys lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Christian Fassnacht and Young Boys agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“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.
15 appearances and 8 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Young Boys, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alvyn Sanches signs something — a contract at Young Boys or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
123 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Young Boys lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I watch every Young Boys game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sion runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
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.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Dario Marzino: 3 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
133 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Young Boys lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Samuel Essende provided it, and the 8.53 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 5 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped 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.
140 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Young Boys lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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 watch every Young Boys game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Stade Nyonnais runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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. 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Young Boys, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
148 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Young Boys lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Young Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alan Virginius is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It 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.
8 goals in 15 games at Hartberg — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Young Boys updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alvyn Sanches signs something — a contract at Young Boys or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Young Boys would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
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.
3 goals in 14 games at Neuchâtel Xamax — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Young Boys updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Young Boys had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Wil, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
“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 fee is $2.1M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Thun drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Marc Gutbub is living that version at Young Boys, and it tends to show in the first month.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Young Boys will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alan Virginius was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Miguel Jacquet 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 offer from FC Nantes for Alan Virginius 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 offer went to Thun 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.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Aarau; Young Boys go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
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 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.
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.
Jimmy Maurer is 38 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
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.
Young Boys asked and Austin FC said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Young Boys have gone to Aarau 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.
Add another name to the list: Bellinzona have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ardian Bajrami. The answer from Young Boys has not changed — yet.
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 asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
5 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 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.
Young Boys have gone to Lugano 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.
Beat anybody else and it is three points. Beat them, with his name on it, and it is a year of bragging rights for Young Boys and a story that will outlast his contract.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Add another name to the list: Stade Nyonnais have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Saidy Janko. The answer from Young Boys has not changed — yet.
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.
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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Rayan Raveloson provided it, and the 8.26 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Marked 8.08 — 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Noah Comert on a 4‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
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.
Position 2 with 36 on the board, and the queues outside the ticket office are the part of a promotion push that never shows up in a table. The town has decided this one is real.
1 for Rayan Raveloson, marked 7.71, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Alvyn Sanches 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 8.20 — 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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Young Boys will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
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.
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 is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
32 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.
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.
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 Gerard Deulofeu.
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.
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.
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout23 Nov 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.” Noah Comert chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Young Boys has been clear about where Tanguy Zoukrou stands, which is more than many ever get.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alvyn Sanches signs something — a contract at Young Boys or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Gerard Deulofeu has written the date down.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Samuel Essende provided it, and the 8.85 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
3 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 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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alvyn Sanches. 1‑0 against Lausanne-Sport, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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 Darian Maleš.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Samuel Essende
Out, 0‑1 to Rapperswil-Jona, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.50 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 Young Boys hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
3‑1 against Dinamo Minsk, 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Rayan Raveloson scored, was marked 7.64, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Armin Gigović. 2‑0 against Thun, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Christian Fassnacht’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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
3 goals in 8 games at Neuchâtel Xamax — 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.
They sit in position 9 and they will be waiting. Away form is where a season shows its true character, and this side has a point to make about its own.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Ferencvaros the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Young Boys will enjoy reviewing.
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.
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.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
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.” Noah Comert kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Young Boys will be judged on one thing only.
Dario Marzino and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Sep 2026
8 new faces, and Young Boys are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
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.” Noah Comert kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
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.
1‑1 against Raków Częstochowa, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Alvyn Sanches was at the centre of the description.
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.
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.
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 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Noah Comert to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Darian Maleš’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.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
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 Young Boys that is a harder question to answer.
“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. 16 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Miguel Jacquet has, at Young Boys, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Edimilson Fernandes’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.
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.
“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.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 4 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
“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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Dario Marzino
Crystal Palace pay $8.3M, 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.
Young Boys asked and Lausanne-Sport 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 went to Lausanne-Sport 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.
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.
Marked 8.25 — 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.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
Young Boys asked and Galatasaray said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$5.7M on the table at Panathinaikos. 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 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 Umeh Emmanuel enough to be asked twice.
3 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Alan Virginius 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.
8.16. 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Magdeburg had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Up for the corner, and Armin Gigović delivers — 7.63
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Armin Gigović scored, was marked 7.63, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Young Boys asked and St. Gallen 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 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 phone has started ringing about Sandro Lauper again, and this time the name on the line is Yverdon. Young Boys are listening politely and promising nothing.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ruben Zakaria has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Paris Saint-Germain have kept their man, and Young Boys go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Facinet Conté 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.
24 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.