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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Stefano Di Fiore is living that version at Young Boys, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Young Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Mbabu is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Young Boys, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
He is 20, 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
5 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.
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 Moritz Jenz signs something — a contract at Young Boys or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Cedric Freuler has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kevin Mbabu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Young Boys would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Young Boys close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 3 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.
$1.5M 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.
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.
Alvyn Sanches 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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutYann Karamoh knocks on the manager’s door
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Young Boys have paid $19.7M for Radek Vítek, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Alvyn Sanches 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.
Radek Vítek was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $19.7M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
The offer went to Middlesbrough 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.
$7.1M was the most the club would pay and Bari 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 deal with Zurich is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
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.
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.
Vaduz paid $220.0K 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Young Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gregory Wüthrich is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Young Boys people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Vaduz 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.
“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 have gone to Bari 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 fee is $2.3M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Grasshopper drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
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.
“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.
Young Boys asked and Parma said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$2.2M on the table at Grasshopper. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The offer went to Zurich 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.
Alvyn Sanches 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.
Alvyn Sanches 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Young Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gregory Wüthrich 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 Yann Karamoh 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.
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.
Yann Karamoh 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Young Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gregory Wüthrich 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.
The offer from Independiente Medellin for Facinet Conté 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.
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.
Alvyn Sanches 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 Gregory Wüthrich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 14 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
1‑7. Liverpool play this football every year and it showed in every part of the pitch. The lesson is expensive and, for a club at this stage, probably necessary.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Samuel Essende provided it, and the 8.51 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Marked 7.93. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Alvyn Sanches 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.
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Young Boys and Liverpool in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Christian Fassnacht has his answer from Young Boys; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
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 said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gregory Wüthrich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 dugout16 Nov 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 0‑3 Breel Seferovic left the room before anybody could ask which.
Something was said to Kevin Mbabu and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
Alvyn Sanches 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nico Mvogo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Samuel Essende was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.18. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Something was said to Cédric Zesiger and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout2 Nov 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 Breel Seferovic to a room that had heard them before.
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.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
1‑0 against Astra, 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 is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Samuel Essende provided it, and the 8.83 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
A brace, and Yann Karamoh takes the afternoon — 8.79
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yann Karamoh provided it, and the 8.79 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Facinet Conté, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.13
A mark of 8.13 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.
Alvyn Sanches and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Young Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gregory Wüthrich 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.
Level with 87 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Young Boys had all but put away. St. Gallen will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
“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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Alvyn Sanches and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Silvan Mvogo 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.
11 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
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 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.
In brief
Player ratingsA defender's afternoon for Moritz Jenz
0‑5 against Grasshopper, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Position 9 and 8 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
1‑2 against NK Maribor. 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.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Facinet Conté did not need any: 8.16, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Alvyn Sanches 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
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.
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.
In brief
Player ratingsDarian Maleš was on a different afternoon to everybody else
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at 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 Gregory Wüthrich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Position 7, 8 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
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.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
In brief
The dugoutNils de Mol dropped after a run of poor form
0‑5. There is a level at which football is played every single week by clubs that have been doing it for fifty years, and an evening like this is what it feels like to arrive there without having done it.
Add another name to the list: Zorya have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Facinet Conté. The answer from Young Boys has not changed — yet.
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.
In brief
Player ratingsDarian Maleš was on a different afternoon to everybody else
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Young Boys this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Granit 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.
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.
11 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 20 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Young Boys until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Tanguy Zoukrou reports back to Young Boys with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Alvyn Sanches 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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Young Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gregory Wüthrich is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The offer from Heracles for Facinet Conté 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.
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.
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: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Breel Seferovic to a room that had heard them before.
Spartak Trnava have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Two goals and a mark of 8.51 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gregory Wüthrich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lugano have kept their man, and Young Boys go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
$1.9M 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.
Grasshopper paid $1.3M 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.
Alvyn Sanches and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The phone has started ringing about Tanguy Zoukrou again, and this time the name on the line is Zurich. Young Boys are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Young Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gregory Wüthrich 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.
Young Boys asked and Atalanta 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 know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Alverca had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Young Boys have gone to Luzern 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.
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.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hamburger SV have kept their man, and Young Boys go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Yann Karamoh is living that version at Young Boys, and it tends to show in the first month.
Alvyn Sanches 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 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.