“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 The request is on a desk at Exeter City, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jakke Van Britsom provided it, and the 8.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
A brace, and Luca Schirone takes the afternoon — 8.27
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luca Schirone provided it, and the 8.27 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Luca Schirone. 5‑3 against Tranmere Rovers, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Exeter City and Tranmere Rovers, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
The mood at Exeter City has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 17 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Ollie O'Neill 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 oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Exeter City told David Abimbola something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Will Evans trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Exeter City 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Sullay Kaikai’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Exeter City needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Ollie O'Neill 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 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Lucas Larroza falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Joshua Williams after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
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.
Charlton Athletic are out and Exeter City go through, 3‑2 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match15 Sep 2027
Lucas Larroza wins it after the whistle should have gone
123 minutes played. Lucas Larroza found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Charlton Athletic went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Exeter City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Vitão has his answer from Exeter City; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Exeter City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Larroza 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Joshua Williams after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Exeter City can pretend not to have heard.
$150.0K on the table at Stevenage. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Exeter City asked and Crystal Palace said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Exeter City have made the call to Liverpool. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Sol-Loza was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Exeter City, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 Exeter City, and it is not being withdrawn.
$4.6M was the most the club would pay and Norwich City 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.
Exeter City asked and Bristol City 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 chase for Tom Smith ended with $320.0K changing hands and Colchester United out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Exeter City have gone to Everton 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.
“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 Exeter City know 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 Exeter City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Exeter City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francesco Belli 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 enquiry everybody at Exeter City was hoping would not arrive has arrived. He has never pretended he did not want to go back, and now there is somewhere to go back to.
“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 Exeter City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Luca Schirone 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 Lucas Larroza was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Exeter City has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“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 Exeter City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Francesco Belli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Exeter City can tell you which week it ends in.
“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; Exeter City are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Ollie O'Neill 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. Ethan Sutherland is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Everybody at Exeter City saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
“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 Exeter City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Carlos Mendes Gomes 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Exeter City can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Francesco Belli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Squad22 Feb 2027
6 new faces, and Exeter City 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Exeter City can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Exeter City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Exeter City asked and Monza said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Position 23 and 23 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Exeter City can pretend not to have heard.
11 matches without a win, and then this, against Doncaster Rovers. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Ollie O'Neill 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Port Vale have kept their man, and Exeter City go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Josh Magennis has come up in conversations Exeter City were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Nobody at Exeter City 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Edward Matthews after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Carlos Mendes Gomes’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Exeter City needing him to play as if none of it matters.
In brief
The dugoutCallum Maycock asks for a word with the manager
SquadJohnly Yfeko has seen what the next man earns
Vitão 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 at Exeter City 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Exeter City man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Vitão was the best thing in any of them.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Exeter City, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Exeter City would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 8 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Ollie O'Neill 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Exeter City, another week without a signature from Ollie O'Neill.
In brief
SquadLucas Larroza falls out with a teammate over standards
SquadExeter City are still strangers to each other
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Josh Magennis obliged against Burton Albion. 1‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Exeter City.
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Exeter City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Burton Albion scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
Nobody left the Exeter City dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Exeter City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Malcolm Ebiowei has, at Exeter City, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $8.4M — a club that wants Róbert Boženík enough to be asked twice.
Ollie O'Neill 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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
4 academy players handed senior numbers at Exeter City
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Jack Thompson 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Samuel Taylor 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.