Marked for Ramon
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings8 Jul 2030
Defensive actions: 40, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Boardroom8 Jul 2030
Brandon Musah has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Charlotte Football Club can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Squad8 Jul 2030
Ramon: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Charlotte Football Club have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market8 Jul 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Charlotte Football Club is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad8 Jul 2030
The medical room confirms 74 days on the sidelines for Elías Báez, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad8 Jul 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Charlotte Football Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings8 Jul 2030
A defender's afternoon for Djibril Diani
Defensive actions: 20. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Match6 Jul 2030
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Archie Goodwin. 1‑0 against Philadelphia Union, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match11 May 2030
The run now stands at 15, and the questions being asked around Charlotte Football Club are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings13 May 2030
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market13 May 2030
Only the photograph left for Amaro Maya
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Amaro Maya will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Charlotte Football Club the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad13 May 2030
Pep Biel in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Charlotte Football Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings13 May 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.77, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings13 May 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.35, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match11 May 2030
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad13 May 2030
Célio Pompeu gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad13 May 2030
Elías Báez has seen what the next man earns
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 Charlotte Football Club that is a harder question to answer.
In brief
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Squad
Ramon knocks on the manager's door
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The terraces
The press cannot get enough of Archie Goodwin
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match4 May 2030
14 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Charlotte Football Club has to find a result from somewhere.
Match6 May 2030
Position 15, 7 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market6 May 2030
Elías Báez hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Charlotte Football Club can pretend not to have heard.
Squad6 May 2030
Ashley Westwood: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Charlotte Football Club have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad6 May 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Charlotte Football Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings6 May 2030
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad6 May 2030
“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; Charlotte Football Club are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Player ratings6 May 2030
A performance of 8.24 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad6 May 2030
Ramon signs a new deal
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ramon commits to Charlotte Football Club for another 2 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Apr 2030
53 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Market29 Apr 2030
The offer from St. Louis CITY SC for Brandon Adams 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.
Squad29 Apr 2030
Pep Biel in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Charlotte Football Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Apr 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Idan Toklomati, and the manager let it.
Squad29 Apr 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ramon and Charlotte Football Club agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market29 Apr 2030
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Tiago Souza’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Dec 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Charlotte Football Club is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Daniel Zapata: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Charlotte Football Club have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Luca De La Torre 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.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Ashley Westwood asks for a word with the manager
“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.
Market31 Dec 2029
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Charlotte Football Club, another week without a signature from Ramon.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Aug 2029
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match25 Aug 2029
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 10 matches without defeat is a foundation Charlotte Football Club did not have in the autumn.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Ramon: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Charlotte Football Club have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings27 Aug 2029
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad27 Aug 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Charlotte Football Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings27 Aug 2029
A performance of 10.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match25 Aug 2029
A 3‑2 win over New York City, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad27 Aug 2029
The manager makes an example of Archie Goodwin
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings27 Aug 2029
Marked 8.76 — 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.